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THE FALI,
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requires no great familiarity with the canons of Logic to predict that if the latter be the only means of attaining to the perfection of Gods, the former cannot possibly lead to aught but suffering and pain. The ancients could undoubtedly have given us a civilization equal to our own, but they very well knew that the moment prominence was given to the enjoyment of the senses, the cart would necessarily come to occupy the place of the horse, and, therefore, wisely kept down all those sensual tendencies of men which constantly try to break loose in the name of development and culture. We might refine sensualism as much as we like, but it would never become anything else. As black takes no other hue, so does sensualism maintain its loathsomeness, notwithstanding all the veneer of cultured refinement under which we constantly try to conceal its hideous nature.
To conclude, the elucidation of the legend of the 'fall' has shown us that it is not an historical record of the actual doings of a primitive pair of human progenitors, but an illustration of the operation of certain important psychic laws, which no one, desirous of attaining immortality and bliss, can afford to ignore. The object of the ancient teacher, who took pains to leave a record of his views behind, was not to amuse us with a nursery tale, nor yet to furnish us with an opportunity to smile at his 'crude and childish simplicity,' but to bequeath to us some of the most valuable secrets of Religion, the Science of all sciences. The thirst for happiness is a natural craving with all living beings; and the man who does not long, consciously or otherwise, for the joy of Gods is yet
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