Another critical thrust is equally impossible to parry.

It is true that the Evil One is the hero of the epic.

Attempts have been made to invest Adam with this character.

He is, indeed, a great figure to contemplate, and such as might represent the ideal of humanity till summoned to act and suffer.

When, indeed, he partakes of the forbidden fruit in disobedience to his Maker, but in compassion to his mate, he does seem for a moment to fulfil the canon which decrees that the hero shall not always be faultless, but always shall be noble.