At the commencement of the verse, whence the last extract has been taken, you will find the name of _giant_ mentioned; and instantly after, as if in _juxtaposition_, nay, as if _synonymous_ with it in meaning, is repeated “the sons of God”: thereby identifying both in nature and in character, and proving their sameness by their convertibility. The Hebrew word from which _giant_ has been translated, signifies _to fall_: and what, do you suppose, constituted this _apostasy_? In sooth, nothing else than that _carnal intercourse_, which they could not resist indulging with the “daughters of men,” _when their senses told them they were lovely_.[264] Thus do both names corroborate my truth; while both reciprocally illustrate each other. “It may seem strange,” says Wilford, “that the posterity of Cain should be so much noticed in the Puranas, whilst that of the pious and benevolent Ruchi is in a great measure neglected. But little is said of the posterity of Seth, whilst the inspired penman takes particular notice of the ingenuity of the descendants of Cain, and to what a high degree of perfection they carried the arts of civil life. _The charms and accomplishments of the women are particularly mentioned._ ‘The same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown.’” And again,--“We have been taught to consider the descendants of Cain as a most profligate and abominable race. This opinion, however, is not countenanced, either by sacred or profane history. That they were not entrusted with the sacred deposit of religious truths, to transmit to future ages, is sufficiently certain. They might, in consequence of this, have deviated gradually from the original belief, and at last fallen into a superstitious system of religion, which seems, also, a natural consequence of the fearful disposition of Cain, and the horrors he must have felt, when he recollected the atrocious murder of his brother Abel.” This, so far as it goes, is satisfactory enough; but it is _groping in the dark_, and _without a pilot_. A few pages, in the distance, will, however, bring us to the right understanding of these points also; meanwhile, I return to the Mosaical record, for the insight therein afforded into the history of Cain. We are told then that he “knew his wife, and she conceived and bare _Enoch_”: and as this name signifies _initiation in sacred rites_, as well as it does an _assembly of congregated multitudes_,--in which latter sense it was accurately applied to the “city” which he had “builded,”--it shows that the new religion bade fair for perpetuity. _Irad_, the name of Enoch’s son, proves the crowning finish of the matured ceremonial, for intimating, as it does, _consecrated to God_, we are naturally led to connect its bearer with the profession of that worship which his name represented.