of Christ from
observation, but from a primitive document written in the Aramaic
language. The gospels were not intentional deceptions; but that they are
as well the work of error as of wisdom, no candid interpreter can deny.
The life of Christ which they contain is but an innocent supplement to
the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid.[47] Tittmann went so far as to affirm that
the Scripture writers were so ignorant that they could not represent
things as they really happened. Of course he excludes their capacity for
inspiration.

DOCTRINE OF THE FALL OF MAN. While some Rationalistic writers conceded
that Moses was the author of the whole or parts of the Pentateuch, his
version of the origin of sin was universally rejected. The temptation by
the serpent was, with them, one of the most improbable myths ever drawn
up from the earliest traditions of nations. Whether Moses wrote much or
little of the books attributed to him, his sources of knowledge were
monuments and tales which he saw and heard about him. It is likely that
he derived his idea of the fall of man from some hieroglyphic
representation which he happened somewhere to see. As for the entrance
of the serpent into Paradise, it is just as improbable as the rabbinical
notion that the serpent of Eden had many feet. In the opinion of some,
the whole narrative is only an allegory, or "a poetical description of
the transition of man from a more brutish creature into humanity, from
the baby-wagon of instinct into the government of reason, from the
guardianship of nature into the condition of freedom."[48] Kindred to
this theory is Ammon's; that at first man obeyed instinct only, and that
his desire to eat the forbidden fruit was the longing of his mind to
understand truth. But the great injury which these men thought they had
visited on this doctrine was their assumption that man had not fallen,
and that instead of being worse than he once was, he is every year
growing purer and holier than at any previous stage of his history.
This was flattering to their inflated pride, and their wish became
father to their creed. With Eichhorn, the narrative of the fall was only
a description of Adam's thoughts.

MIRACLES. It was no surprise to the wise disciples of Reason that there
should be found numerous records of miracles in the Bible. It was just
what might be expected from such writers in that gray morning of
antiquity. The first chroniclers seized upon tradition; and their
successors