II THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE
Reading edition
Q. 2. What, then, may be meant by the Fall of man?
A. At a certain stage of development man became conscious of a difference between right and wrong, so that thereafter, when his actions fell below a normal standard of conduct, he felt ashamed and sinful. He thus lost his animal innocency, and entered on a long period of human effort and failure; nevertheless, the consciousness of degradation marked a rise in the scale of existence.