made by Hesiod:
to him it was revealed, regarding the men of the most ancient times,
that they were at first "a golden race," that "as gods they were wont
to live, with a life void of care, without labour and trouble; nor was
wretched old age at all impending; but ever did they delight themselves
out of the reach of all ills, and they died as if overcome by sleep;
all blessings were theirs: of its own will the fruitful field would bear
them fruit, much and ample, and they gladly used to reap the labours
of their hands in quietness along with many good things, being rich in
flocks and true to the blessed gods." But there came a "fall," caused
by human curiosity. Pandora, the first woman created, received a vase
which, by divine command, was to remain closed; but she was tempted to
open it, and troubles, sorrow, and disease escaped into the world, hope
alone remaining.

So, too, in Roman mythological poetry the well-known picture by Ovid
is but one among the many exhibitions of this same belief in a primeval
golden age--a Saturnian cycle; one of the constantly recurring attempts,
so universal and so natural in the early history of man, to account for
the existence of evil, care, and toil on earth by explanatory myths and
legends.

This view, growing out of the myths, legends, and theologies of earlier
peoples, we also find embodied in the sacred tradition of the Jews,
and especially in one of the documents which form the impressive poem
beginning the books attributed to Moses. As to the Christian Church, no
word of its Blessed Founder indicates that it was committed by him to
this theory, or that he even thought it worthy of his attention. How,
like so many other dogmas never dreamed of by Jesus of Nazareth and
those who knew him best, it was developed, it does not lie within the
province of this chapter to point out; nor is it worth our while to
dwell upon its evolution in the early Church, in the Middle Ages, at the
Reformation, and in various branches of the Protestant Church: suffice
it that, though among English-speaking nations by far the most important
influence in its favour has come from Milton's inspiration rather than
from that of older sacred books, no doctrine has been more universally
accepted, "always, everywhere, and by all," from the earliest fathers of
the Church down to the present hour.

On the other hand appeared at an early period the opposite view--that
mankind, instead of having fallen from a hi