With regard to architecture, it is a singular and important fact that Cain, when he was driven from his first abode, built a city in the land to which he went, and called it Enoch, after his son. This shews that the descendants of Adam lived in houses and towns from the first, and consequently affords another confirmation of the argument for the ori ginal cultivation of the human family. What this ' city' was is not mentioned, except in the term itself; and as that term is in the early Scriptures applied to almost every collection of human habi tations, we need not attach any very exalted ideas to it in this instance. But if we take into view the requisites necessary to enable Noah to erect so stupendous a fabric as the ark must have been [ARK, Nome s], it will not be difficult to conceive that the art of building had reached considerable advancement before the Deluge ; nor can one re flect on the building of Babel without a conviction that it must have been through the great patri archs who lived in the old world that so much knowledge was obtained as to lead to the attempt of erecting a fabric whose summit was intended to reach the clouds. It is not likely that the builders would, by their own intuitive genius, be equal to a task which they certainly were not inspired by Heaven to execute.
The metallurgy of the antediluvians has been noticed in ADAm ;' and to what is there said of apiculture we shall only add a reference to the case of Noah, who, immediately after the Flood, became a husbandman, and planted a vineyard. He also knew the method of fermenting the juice of the grape ; for it is said he drank of the wine, which produced inebriation (Gen ix. 2o, 21). This knowledge he probably obtained from his progeni tors anterior to the destruction of the old world, if he was not the inventor.
Pasturage appears to have been coeval with hus bandry. Abel was a keeper of sheep, while his brother was a-tiller of the ground (Gen. iv. 2) ; but there is no necessity fer supposing that Cain's husbandry excluded the care of cattle. The class of tent-dwelling pastors—that is, of those who live in tents that they may move with their flocks and herds from one pasture-ground to another—did not originate till comparatively late after the Fall ; for Jabal, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, is said to have been the `father' or founder of that mode of life (Gen. iv. 2o). It is doubtful whether the manufacture of cloth is involved in the mention of tents, seeing that excellent tent-cover ings are even at this day made of skins ; and we know that skins were the first articles of clothing used by fallen man (Gen. iii. 21). The same doubt applies to the garment with which the sons of Noah covered their inebriated father (Gen. ix. 23). But, upon the whole, there can be little doubt that, in the course of so long a period, the art of manu facturing cloths of hair and wool, if not of linen or cotton, had been acquired.
It is impossible to speak with any decision re specting the form or forms of government which prevailed before the Deluge. The slight intima tions to be found on the subject seem to favour the notion that the particular governments were patri archal, subject to a genera] theocratical control— God himself manifestly interfering to uphold the good and check the wicked. The right of pro
perty was recognized, for Abel and Jabal possessed flocks, and Cain built a city. As ordinances of religion, sacrifices certainly existed (Gen. iv. 4), and some think that the Sabbath was observed ; while some interpret the words, 'Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord' (Gen. iv. 26) to signify that public worship then began to be practised. From Noah's familiarity with the distinction of clean and unclean beasts (Gen. vii. 2), it would seem that the Levitical rules on this subject were by no means new when laid down in the code of Moses.
Marriage, and a]] the relations springing from it, existed from the beginning (Gen. ii. 23-25) ; and although polygamy was known among the antedi luvians (Gen. iv. 19), it was most probably unlaw ful ; for it must have been obvious that, if more than one wife had been necessary for a man, the Lord would not have confined the first man to one woman. The marriage of the sons of Seth with the daughters of Cain appears to have been pro.
hibited, since the consequence of it was that uni versal depravity in the family of Seth so forcibly expressed in this short passage, 'All flesh had cor rupted its way upon the earth' (Gen vi. 12). This sin, described Orientally as an intermarriage of the sons of God' with the daughters of men' (Gen. vi. 2), appears to have been in its results one of the grand causes of the Deluge; for if the family of Seth had remained pure and obedient to God, be would doubtless have spared the world for their sake; as he would have spared Sodom and Go morrah had ten righteous men been found there, and as he would have spared his own people the Jews, had they not corrupted themselves by inter marriages with the heathen.
A contributor [J. P. S.] suggests that even the longevity of the antediluvians may have contributed to this ruinous result :--` There was also, probably, a great waste of time. Vastly more time was upon their hands than was needful for clearing woodlands, draining swamps, and other laborious and tedious processes, in addition to their ordinary agriculture and care of cattle ; so that the temptations to idle ness were likely to be very strong ; and the next step would be to licentious habits and selfish vio lence. The ample leisure possessed by the children of Adam might have been employed for many excellent purposes of social life and religious obe dience, and undoubtedly it was so employed by many ; but to the larger part it became a snare and the occasion of temptations, so that `the wicked ness of man became great, the earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence." It will be seen that many of the topics only slightly touched upon in this article will fall to be considered more largely under other heads (Critica Biblica, iv. 14-20 ; P. Lindsley, D.D., On the Primitive State of Mankind, in Am. Bib. Repos., iv. 277-298; vi. 1-27: see also Ant. Univ. Hist. i. 142-201).—J. K.