CHAP. IV.

Adam laments the changed conditions.

Adam and Eve enter the Cave of Treasures .
BUT Adam and Eve wept for having come
out of the garden, their first abode.
2 And, indeed, when Adam looked at his
flesh, that was altered, he wept bitterly, he
and Eve, over what they had done. And
they walked and went gently down into the
Cave of Treasures.
3 And as they came to it Adam wept over
himself and said to Eve, "Look at this cave
that is to be our prison in this world, and a
place of punishment!
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4 "What is it compared with the garden?
What is its narrowness compared with the
space of the other?
5 "What is this rock, by the side of those
groves? What is the gloom of this cavern,
compared with the light of the garden?
6 "What is this overhanging ledge of rock
to shelter us, compared with the mercy of
the Lord that overshadowed us?
7 "What is the soil of this cave compared
with the garden-land? This earth, strewed
with stones; and that, planted with
delicious fruit-trees?"
8 And Adam said to Eve, "Look at thine
eyes, and at mine, which afore beheld
angels in heaven, praising; and they, too,
without ceasing.
9 "But now we do not see as we did: our
eyes have become of flesh; they cannot
see in like manner as they saw before."
10 Adam said again to Eve, "What is our
body to-day, compared to what it was in
former days, when we dwelt in the
garden?"
11 After this Adam did not like to enter the
cave, under the overhanging rock; nor
would he ever have entered it.
12 But he bowed to God's orders; and said
to himself, "Unless I enter the


To be continued