my dinner ended and my lesson learnt, we sate out again. let us (said the prefect) take the benefit of this long shady walk, and go to the grove at the end of it. by the way, i will explain some matters relating to what i am going to show thee.

adam had just been driven out of paradise, (continued the prefect:) the tree, from which the fatal apple was gathered, disappeared: innocence, everlasting peace, unmixt pleasure vanished; and death covered the earth with her mournful vail. witnesses of adam’s sin and punishment, the elementary 213spirits remained in a consternation mixt with astonishment and fear. all was silent, like the dreadful calm, which, in a gloomy night, succeeds the flashes of lightening.

one of our spirits perceiving on the ground the remains of the fatal apple, hastily took them up, and found three kernels: these were so many treasures.

the forbidden tree, which was the cause of man’s misery, was to have been the cause of his happiness. it contained the shoots of the sciences, arts, and pleasures. the little, men know of these things, is nothing in comparison of what this mysterious tree would have disclosed in their favour. it was to vegetate, blossom, and bear seed for ever; and the least of these seeds would have been the 214source of more delights than ever existed among the children of men.

we took great care of the three kernels, which had escaped the total ruin just then befallen mankind; this was not sufficient to repair their unhappy fate, but it helped to soften it. as soon as we were returned to giphantia, we consulted upon what we could do in favour of mankind so terribly fallen. most of the spirits took the office of governing the elements, and, as far as lay in their power, of directing their motions, according to the wants of men. those that remained at giphantia, were entrusted with the sowing of the three kernels, and carefully to mind what they produced.