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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2009
In Paradise, then, man lived as he desired so long as he desired what God had commanded. He lived in the enjoyment of God, and was good by God's goodness; he lived without any want, and had it in his power so to live eternally. He had food that he might not hunger, drink that he might not thirst, the tree of life that old age might not waste him. There was in his body no corruption, nor seed of corruption, which could produce in him any unpleasant sensation. He feared no inward disease, no outward accident. Soundest health blessed his body, absolute tranquillity his soul. As in Paradise there was no excessive heat or cold, so its inhabitants were exempt from the vicissitudes of fear and desire. No sadness of any kind was there, nor any foolish joy … The honest love of husband and wife made a sure harmony between them. Body and spirit worked harmoniously together, and the commandment was kept without labor. No languor made their leisure wearisome; no sleepiness interrupted their desire to labor.
Augustine, City of God, 14.26This book is about the central myth of Western culture – the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, of the Garden of Eden, of mysterious trees of life and the knowledge of good and evil, of a talking snake, of temptation, of nakedness shamed and shame clothed, of loss and expulsion. It occupies only some fifty-five verses in the Book of Genesis.
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