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with the breath of life, and caused to be worshiped by the angels, and placed in Paradise, from whence mankind have been expelled for thy fault. — Whereto Adam answered, Thou art Moses, whom God chose for his apostle and entrusted with his Word, by giving thee the tables of the Law, and whom he vouchsafed to admit to discourse with himself. How many years dost thou find the Law was written before I was created? Moses said forty. Adam replied, Dost thou not find these words therein, 'And Adam rebelled against the Lord and transgressed?' Which Moses confessing, Adam went on, Dost thou therefore blame me for doing that which God wrote of me that I should do, forty years before I was created; nay, for what was decreed concerning me fifty thousand years before the creation of heaven and earth?' Since Mohammed declared that Adam was right herein, I believe that he was so: and that the fate of every man is bound about his neck, like that of Adam. Therefore would I submit wholly to the will of God in all things. I would neither hope nor fear, nor exercise labor nor foresight. I would not flee from danger, nor seek after good. Neither would I mourn for the good which has departed from me, if
