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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
sun, and the latter, in the fulness of womanhood's charms, surpassing the shining orb of the Queen of night, at the zenith of her majestic grace. He looked at them with awe and admiration, and his delight knew no bounds when be beheld their radiant faces lit up with the beatific glory of at-one-ment with the Lord God, whom he had learnt to look upon as Father.' The scene held him spell-bound for a moment. Then his eye wandered over to where the Tree of Life itself stood in the midst of the garden, and he presently beheld the two human figures walking leisurely towards it, and saw them stretch out their hands and eat its golden fruit, which, even as it stood on the tree, seemed to be overflowing with the nectar of immortality. There was not a single withered leaf on that tree, nor anywhere else in its vicinity, while the heavenly fragrance of its blossoms carried life and joy to all, as it was wafted on the breeze.
Entranced and enraptured, he allowed his gaze to wander from it to a still more beautiful tree in the garden.
“ With root above, branches below; its leaves are hymns, virtue and vice its flowers, and joy and grief its fruit. Downwards and upwards spread the branches of it, nourished by the qualities; the objects of sense its buds ; and its roots grow downwards, the bonds of action in the world of men." --(Bhagavad Gita, XV. 1, 2 and 3).
Jesus was fascinated ; something within him seemed to point it out as the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He was still looking at it, when he suddenly noticed that a dark slimy object had glided up to its trunk and threw its venom into it. He instinctively
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