THE

EVE OF THE DELUGE.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

As it is a commonly-received opinion, that previously to the Deluge the world had not arrived at any very great degree of civilization, it may not be amiss to give the reasons why I have in the following pages represented the Antediluvians as being as far advanced in the arts and sciences as the Romans were in the Augustan age.

We learn from the Bible that Cain, after God had driven him out as an exile for the murder of his brother, went eastwards, and founded a city. This city-which I have chosen as the scene of

B

my tale-would have been sixteen centuries in existence at the time of the Deluge; that is to say, its age would have been more than double that of Rome in the time of Augustus.

Now, even if it had been inhabited by the present short-lived race of men, we should have expected that in so long a period it would have arrived at a very advanced degree of civilization, more especially since, as the residence of Cain and the direct line of his posterity, it was the capital of a growing empire. How much more, then ought we to expect this, when we know that this city was inhabited by a race of men whose lives extended over several centuries, and who would not, therefore, be dependent for their progress in the arts and sciences on the traditionary experience of by-gone generations, but would in their own persons realize the advantage of the experience of entire ages: unlike the artisans of these days, who have to learn the rules of their art from the traditions of a previous generation, and scarcely perhaps arrive at excellence in their calling, ere they are summoned from the scene of their mortal labours.