be
in the earth."

Delitzsch notices this, and, as usual, seeks to explain it away. Cain,
he says, "in this way set himself against the divine curse, in order
to feel it inwardly so much the more, as outwardly he seems to have
overcome it." To which we reply--first, that there is no evidence
that Cain felt the curse "more inwardly" after he built the city; and,
secondly, the idea of a man successfully setting himself against an
omnipotent curse is a trifle too absurd for credence or criticism.

Now Adam and Eve, when Cain fled after the murder of Abel, were left
childless, or at least without a son. But it was necessary that they
should have another, in order that God's chosen people, the Jews, might
be derived from a purer stock than Cain's. Accordingly we read that
Adam, in his hundred and thirtieth year, "begat a son in his own
likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth." Why was not Cain
begotten in the same way? Had he been so, the cradle of the world might
not have been defiled with the blood of fratricide. Seth being "the
image" of Adam, and Adam "the image" of God, Seth and the Almighty were
of course very much alike. He was pious, and from him were descended the
pious patriarchs, including Noah, from whom was descended Abraham the
founder of the Jewish race. God's chosen people came of a good stock,
although they turned out such a bad lot.

From Seth to Noah there are ten Patriarchs before the Flood. This is
clearly mythological. The Hindus believed in _ten_ great saints, the
offspring of Manu, and in _ten_ different personifications of Vishnu.
The Egyptians had _ten_ mighty heroes, the Chaldeans _ten_ kings before
the Flood, the Assyrians _ten_ kings from Ham to Ninyas, and as many
from Japhet to Aram; and Plato enumerates _ten_ sons of Neptune, as the
rulers of his imaginary Island of Atlantis, submerged by the Deluge.

Cain's descendants were of course drowned by the Flood, but they did a
great deal more for the world than the descendants of pious Seth, who
seems to have done little else than trust in God. The Cainites laid the
basis of civilisation. One of them Jabal, founded _cattle-keeping_; his
brother, Jubal, invented _musical instruments_; and their half-brother
Tubal-cain first practised _smithery_. Seth's descendants had nothing
but piety. Even their morals were no better than those of the Cainites;
for at the Flood only eight of them were found worthy of preservations,
and they were a