Note 12 — Chapter II · Man and his Place in the Universe
Reading edition
“The Creator determined to make man, and for that purpose He took some clay from the earth and fashioned it into the figure of a man. Then He took the Spirit of Life to endue this body with vitality, and placed the spirit on the head of the figure. But the spirit was strong, and the body, being only clay, could not hold it, and was reft in pieces and scattered into the air. Those fragments of the first great Failure are the spirits of earth and sea and air.
“The Creator then formed another clay figure, but into this one He wrought some iron, so that when it received the vital spark it withstood the strain and became Man. That man was Adam, and the iron that is in the constitution of his descendants has stood them in good stead. When they lose it they become of little more account than their prototype the first failure.”—Swettenham, Malay Sketches, p. 199. ↑