It
must be admitted that there is some temptation to this course, because
of the inveterate tendency of the human mind to reduce things to its own
level--to suppose everything to have happened _in ways which are within
its present powers to comprehend._ We figure to ourselves the fear and
dislike _we_ should ourselves experience, of a large snake; we imagine
the amazement with which an intelligible voice would be heard to proceed
from such a creature; so far from being _tempted, we_ should at once be
moved to hostility or to flight; and thus we are inclined to throw doubt
on the narrative as it stands.
But this is to do what we justly complain of modern materialists and
positivists for doing--reducing everything to terms of present
experience and knowledge.
It has to be borne in mind, that _under the conditions of the case_, the
serpent was neither ugly, dangerous, nor loathsome, but beautiful and
attractive; that the residents of the Garden were familiar with the
"voice of God"--i.e., they had habitual intelligible communication with
heaven: probably, also, free intercourse with angelic messengers
(inconceivable as it may now seem to us) was matter of daily experience
to them. The woman would then recognize in the voice an Angel
communication; and unaware at first that it was an evil angel, it would
excite no surprise in her at all.
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