not to be considered as in itself punishment. The sorrow of the natural life is essentially connected with the greatness of the character and destiny of man. For him who is not yet acquainted with the loftier nature of Spirit, it is a sad thought that man must die, and this natural sorrow is, as it were, for him what is final. The lofty nature and destiny of Spirit, however, just consists in the fact that it is eternal and immortal; still, this greatness of man, this greatness of consciousness, is not yet contained in this narrative, for it is said: God said, “And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever” (iii. 22). Then further (v. 19), “Till thou return unto the ground whence thou wast taken.” The consciousness of the immortality of Spirit is not yet present in this religion.
In the entire narrative of the Fall these grand features are present in what has the appearance of being an illogical form, owing to the pictorial style in which the whole is presented to us. The advance out of the merely natural life, and the necessity for the entrance of the consciousness of good and evil, constitute the lofty thought to which God Himself here gives utterance. What is defective in the account is that death is described in such a way as to leave the impression that there is no place for consolation in regard to it. The fundamental note of the account is that man ought not to be natural, and in this is contained the thought expressed in true theology, that man is by nature evil. Evil consists in resting in this natural state; man must advance out of this state by exercising his freedom, his will. The further development of this thought accordingly involves that Spirit should once more attain to absolute unity within itself, to a state of reconciliation, and freedom is just what contains this turning back of Spirit into itself, this reconciliation with itself. Here, however, this conversion or turning back has not yet taken place; the difference has not yet been taken up into God, i.e., has not yet reached
