He admired them, he could
love them; they had not harmed him, but he must bring unhappiness upon
them because of their likeness to their Creator. Through them only could
he obtain his longed-for revenge.
Anxious to learn where to attack them, he prowled about them, now as a
lion, now as a tiger, listening to their conversation. They spoke of their
garden, of the Tree of Life, and of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. "In
the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die," had been their warning. Eve
recalled the day of her creation, when she had first fled from Adam, and
then yielded to his embraces, and Satan, watching their caresses, envied
and hardened his heart. "Live while ye may!" he muttered. "Soon will I
return and offer you new woes for your present pleasures."
In the mean time, Gabriel, warned by Uriel, who suspected that an evil
spirit had crept into Paradise, had set watches around the garden.
Ithuriel and Zephon, sent to search for him, spied Satan in the form of a
toad, sitting near the ear of Eve, tainting her dreams with foul whispers.
Touched by Ithuriel's spear, he was forced to resume his own shape and was
taken to Gabriel. The angry Satan attempted to use force, but warned by a
sign from Heaven that his strength was insufficient, fled, murmuring,
through the night.
When morning dawned on Eden, a morn of unimaginable beauty, Adam waked Eve
from her restless slumbers, and heard her troubled dreams, in which she
had been tempted to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
Pages:
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518