Just as we know at the present time, that
peculiarities introduced into human families, often survive from father
to son, till they gradually die out after many generations.
Again, as regards the "forbidden tree," it will not seem impossible,
that as a simple _test of obedience_ in a very primitive state, the rule
of abstinence from a particular fruit may have been literally enjoined,
and that the consequence of the moral act of _disobedience_ (rather
than the physical effect of the fruit eaten) should have been the
knowledge of evil, the first sensation of shame, terror, angry
dissension, and, worst of all, the alienation from God the source of all
good, which followed.
All such considerations of the reality of the history must gain greatly
in strength, if we can demonstrate that the Garden of Eden, the scene of
the temptation, the place where the trees that were the vehicles of such
consequences to the occupants of the garden, stood, had a real existence
and geographical site. Now I need hardly remark that the Mosaic
narrative unquestionably _professes_ a geographical exactness and a
literal existence of the garden, as no fabled locality--no Utopia or
garden of the Hesperides. I need only refer to the _data_ afforded to us
by Gen. ii. 8-14.
The Lord, it is said, planted a garden in Eden: it was "eastward;" but
that does not directly indicate its site.
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