nd man was made in the field of Damascus; he was made of the slime of
the earth. Paradise was made the third day of creation, and was beset
with herbs, plants and trees, and is a place of most mirth and joy. In
the midst whereof be set two trees, that is the tree of life, and that
other the tree of knowing good and evil. And there is a well, which
casteth out water for to water the trees and herbs of Paradise. This
well is the mother of all waters, which well is divided into four parts.
One part is called Phison. This goeth about Inde. The second is called
Gijon, otherwise Nilus, and that runneth about Ethiopia, the other two
be called Tigris and Euphrates. Tigris runneth toward Assyria, and
Euphrates is called fruitful, which runneth in Chaldea. These four
floods come and spring out of the same well, and depart, and yet in some
place some of them meet again.

Then God took man from the place of his creation and brought him into
Paradise, for to work there, not to labor needily, but in delighting and
recreating him, and that he should keep Paradise. For like as Paradise
should refresh him, so should he labor to serve God, and there God gave
him a commandment. Every commandment standeth in two things, in doing or
forbidding, in doing he commanded him to eat of all the trees of
Paradise, in forbidding he commanded that he should not eat of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. This commandment was given to the
man, and by the man it went to the woman. For when the woman was made it
was commanded to them both, and hereto he set a pain, saying: Whatsoever
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die by death.

God said: It is not good a man to be alone, make we to him an helper
like to himself for to bring forth children. Adam supposed that some
helper to him had been among the beasts which had been like to him.
Therefore God brought to Adam all living beasts of the earth and air, in
which he understood them of the water also, which with one commandment
all came tofore him. They were brought for two causes, one was because
man should give to each of them a name, by which they should know that
he should dominate over them, and the second cause was because Adam
should know that there was none of them like to him. And he named them
in the Hebrew tongue, which was only the language and none other at the
beginning. And so none being found like unto him, God sent in Adam a
lust to sleep, which was no dream, but as is supposed in