and good for food; the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of [the] Knowledge of good and evil.
Now the previous and more scientific record of creation declares, He made “every plant of the field before it was in the earth.” This opposite declaration, this statement that Life issues from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chapter, — namely that all Life is God.
The word earth stands for a spiritual idea, and ground for mortal and material belief. Belief, in the very beginning, constituted material hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the live senses. The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death, followed in this train of error.
The first mention of evil is in the second chapter of Genesis, in the legend of the Serpent. God pronounced good all that He created, and the Scripture also declares that He created all. The Tree of Life stands for an idea of Truth. The Tree of Knowledge stands for an erroneous belief, that evil is as real as good. Was evil instituted through God, who created this fruit-bearer of sin, in contradiction of the first creation? This second account is a picture of error throughout.
Genesis ii. 15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.
The name Eden means harmony. In this text Eden is man's body. Now God never put Mind into matter, or Infinite Spirit into finite form, to dress it and keep it, — to make it beautiful, or to cause it to live and grow.
Genesis ii. 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
