iar. Since I was twenty I have never read
Milton; but I had read him so frequently before, that this may make
little difference. Gesner's "Death of Abel" I have never read since I
was eight years of age, at Aberdeen. The general impression of my
recollection is delight; but of the contents I remember only that Cain's
wife was called Mahala, and Abel's Thirza; in the following pages I have
called them "Adah" and "Zillah," the earliest female names which occur
in Genesis. They were those of Lamech's wives: those of Cain and Abel
are not called by their names. Whether, then, a coincidence of subject
may have caused the same in expression, I know nothing, and care as
little. [I[91] am prepared to be accused of Manicheism,[92] or some
other hard name ending in _ism_, which makes a formidable figure and
awful sound in the eyes and ears of those who would be as much puzzled
to explain the terms so bandied about, as the liberal and pious
indulgers in such epithets. Against such I can defend myself, or, if
necessary, I can attack in turn. "Claw for claw, as Conan said to Satan
and the deevil take the shortest nails" (Waverley).[93]]

The reader will please to bear in mind (what few choose to recollect),
that there is no allusion to a future state in any of the books of
Moses, nor indeed in the Old Testament. For a reason for this
extraordinary omission he may consult Warburton's "Divine
Legation;"[94] whether satisfactory or not, no better has yet been
assigned. I have therefore supposed it new to Cain, without, I hope, any
perversion of Holy Writ.

With regard to the language of Lucifer, it was difficult for me to make
him talk like a clergyman upon the same subjects; but I have done what I
could to restrain him within the bounds of spiritual politeness. If he
disclaims having tempted Eve in the shape of the Serpent, it is only
because the book of Genesis has not the most distant allusion to
anything of the kind, but merely to the Serpent in his serpentine
capacity.

_Note_.--The reader will perceive that the author has partly adopted in
this poem the notion of Cuvier,[95] that the world had been destroyed
several times before the creation of man. This speculation, derived from
the different strata and the bones of enormous and unknown animals found
in them, is not contrary to the Mosaic account, but rather confirms it;
as no human bones have yet been discovered in those strata, although
those of many known animals are found