usiness, you and your wife. Here, you woman, what is this that you
have done? Alas! for me, says Adam, thy serpent gave me the apple, and I
did eat of it.

"This apple shall cost you dear, replied God, and not only you, but your
posterity, and the whole race of mankind. Moreover, for this crime, I
will curse and spoil the heavens, the earth, and the whole fabric
of nature. But thou, in the first place, vile beast, shall bear the
punishment of thy craftiness and malice. Hereafter shall thou go
creeping on thy belly, and instead of eating apples, shall lick the dust
of the earth. As for you, Mrs. Curious, who so much love delicacies, in
sorrow-shall you bring forth your children. You shall be subject to
your husband, and shall never depart from his side unless having first
obtained leave. Lastly, as for you, Adam, because you have hearkened
more to your wife than to me, with the sweat of your brow shall you
obtain both food for her and her children. You shall not gather fruits
which, as heretofore, grew of themselves, but shall reap the fruits
of the earth with labor and trouble. May the earth be, for thy sake,
accursed--hereafter grow barren. May she produce thistles, thorns,
tares, with other hurtful and unprofitable herbs, and when thou hast
here led a troublesome, laborious life, dust thou art, to dust shalt
thou return......

"Great is the force of custom and a preconceived opinion over human
minds. Wherefore, these short observations of the first originals of men
or things, which we receive from Moses, are embraced without the least
examination of them. But had we read the same doctrine in a Greek
philosopher, or in a Rabbinical or Mahometan doctor, we should have
stopped at every sentence with our mind full of objections and scruples.
Now, this difference does not arise from the nature of the thing itself,
but from the great opinion we have of the authority of the writer 'as
being divinely inspired.' The author here defines his ideas in reference
to fabulous writings, after which he proceeds in his inquiry. 'But
out of what matter the first of mankind, whether, male or female, was
composed, is not so easily known. If God had a mind to make a woman
start from one of Adam's ribs, it is true it seems to be a matter not
very proper; but, however, out of wood, stone, or any other being God
can make a woman; and here, by the bye, the curious ask whether this rib
was useless to Adam, and beyond the number requisite in a