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Untitled Article
All clashes of believers appear to have agreed in the opinion that the history of the fall of man is of ambiguous character , but few
serious thoughtful readers have supposed it would bear a literal meaning ; for it is repugnant to ihe general feeling of mankind to believe that the universal law of
destruction , to which the human race must submit , was passed upon them in consequence of the mother of our race having eaten of the fruit of a tree which stood in the midst of what is called the
garden of Eden * But mankind are fearful of thinking freely on subjects whose very brow is marked with mystery ; and they usually express an utter surprise . and alarm when a thought is started
respecting them different from what theix * grand-parents have held , and their catechisms have taught them . If , in consequence of intellectual industry , their eye has half opened
to perceive the absurdities attached to a received system , it has rarely d&fed to look boldly out ; and the timid yet doubting believer has been satisfied with endeavouring to lessen those difficulties which
he finds in the road of reason and of truth . This appears to have been the case with Dr . Adam Clarke . * He is aware that credit cannot be given to the story of the
fall as it is related in Genesis , and therefore he attempts to straighten the crooked serpent by ingeniously turning him into an ourang ~ outang . The numerous meanings , which he shows us that the Hebrew and
Arabic roots will bear , sufficiently evince how unsafe it is to build an hypothesis upon so precarious a foundation . Yet this in fact he does ; but has overlooked a most
• See M , Rcpw . Vol . VII . pp . 16—20 .
Untitled Article
i mportan t consideration in the story which , as he explains it ^ impeaches the character of the Deity . For how can we believe , upon any hypothesis whatever , that the animal who was the mere instrument of
Satan in the wicked work of destroying the happiness of the world , has been severely punished for it by his Creator ? How peculiarly unfortunate was that animal in
having been made so nearly in the image of man , and therefore not very far from the image of God , as to be deemed the fittest instrument of this mischief ? For what
has been the consequence of an evil which he could not have prevented ? From having been endowed with reason , he now appears to possess no other intellectual powers than the other brutes
possess ; from having been able to converse with Adam and his wife , be retains only the faculty of chattering ; and from having walked upright , and having equally with man an os sublime , he is made to
crawl upon all fours , and " cannot be induced to walk erect without the utmost discipline and irritation . " In short , from having been , according to Dr . Clarke , nearly upon an equality with man , he has retained only the privilege of a chattering tongue .
How amusing are the speculations of the learned ! And how do they move our risible muscles ! Lord Monboddo , I think , supposed men to be improved monkeys , while Dr . Clarke considers the
ourang-outangas a degenerated man !! Suppose , Sir , 1 were to ^ o into the woods and catch a viper-, and put it into the room where my little children were playing , and this viper were to bite them and occasion their death : should I be thought a just man , much Ies *
Untitled Article
On the Fall of Man . $ 81
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1814, page 391, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2442/page/7/
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