d of courtship, for it is my
desire and will that true love should forever precede marriage." And
with the nightingale singing, and the stars twinkling, and the little
brooklets murmuring, and the flowers blooming, and the gentle breezes
fanning their brows, they courted, and loved! What a sweet courtship.
Then Brahma married the happy pair, and remarked: "Remain here; you
can be happy on this island, and it is my will that you never leave
it." Well, after a little while the man became uneasy, and said to the
wife of his youth, "I believe I'll look about a little." He determined
to seek greener pastures. He proceeded to the western extremity of the
island, and discovered a little narrow neck of land connecting the
island with the mainland, and the devil--they had a genuine devil in
those days, too, it seems, who is always "playing the devil" with
us--produced a mirage, and over on the mainland were such hills and
vales, such dells and dales, such lofty mountains crowned with
perpetual snow, such cataracts clad in bows of glory, that he rushed
breathlessly back to his wife, exclaiming:--"O, Heva! the country over
there is a thousand times better and lovelier than this; let us
migrate." She, woman-like, said "Adami, we must let well enough alone;
we have all we want; let us stay here." But he said: "No, we will
go." She followed him, and when they came to this narrow neck of land,
he took her upon his back and carried her across. But at the instant
he put her down there was a crash, and looking back they discovered
that this narrow neck of land had fallen into the sea. The mirage had
disappeared, and there was nothing but rocks and sand, and the Supreme
Brahma cursed them to the lowest hell. Then Adami spoke--and it showed
him to be every inch a man--"Curse me, but curse not her; it was not
her fault, it was mine." (Our Adam says, with a pusillanimous
whine,--Curse her, for it is her fault: she tempted me and I did eat!"
The world, today, is teeming with just such cowards!) Then said
Brahma, "I will save her, but not thee." And then spoke his wife, out
of the fullness of the love of a heart in which there was enough to
make all her daughters rich in holy affection, "If thou wilt not spare
him, spare neither me; I do not wish to live without him. I love him."
Then magnanimously said the Supreme Brahma, "I will spare you both, and
watch over you and your children forever!"

Now, tell me truly, which is the gran