oever he was, was then
attempting the impossible task of explaining the enigma of evil, the
origin of which is associated always with the dust-man."

"You deny the truth of the account of the creation as given in the
second chapter of Genesis, do you?" asked Reverend Moore. "You deny
that man was tempted and fell?"

"Well," said Hitt, smiling, "of course there is no special reason for
denying that serpents may have talked, millions and millions of years
ago. In fact, they still have rudimentary organs of speech--as do most
animals. Perhaps they all talked at one time. Snakes developed in the
Silurian Era, some twenty million years ago. In the vast intervening
stretch of time they may have lost their power to talk. But, as for
the second chapter of Genesis, Moses may or may not have written it.
Indeed, he may not have written the first. We do not know. The book of
Genesis shows plainly that it is a composite of several books by
various authors. I incline to the belief that some more materialistic
hand and mind than Moses's composed that second chapter. However that
may be, it is a splendid example of the human mind's crude attempt to
interpret the spiritual creation in its own material terms. It in a
way represents the dawning upon the human mind of the idea of the
spiritual creation. For when finite sense approaches the infinite it
must inevitably run into difficulties with which it can not cope; it
must meet problems which it can not solve, owing to its lack of a
knowledge of the infinite principle involved. That's why the world
rejected the first account of the creation and accepted the second,
snake-story, dust-man, apple tree, and all."

"Hitt!" exclaimed Haynerd, his eyes wide agape. "You're like a
story-book! Go on!"

"Wait!" interrupted Miss Wall. "We know that man appeared on this
earth in comparatively recent times. For millions and millions of
years before he was evolved animals and vegetables had been dying. Now
was their death due to sin? If so, whose?"

"Assuredly," returned Hitt. "Your difficulty arises from the fact that
we are accustomed to associate sin with human personality. But
remember, the physical universe has been evolved from the communal
mortal mind. It represents 'negative truth.' It has been dying from
the very beginning of its seeming existence, for its seeming existence
alone is sin. The vegetables, the animals, and now the men, that have
been evolved from it, and that express it and