But leaving this point for ministers of the gospel to settle, it seems as if their progeny were a jolly set of fellows, and became "_men of renown._" Taking, then, a review of the world from its creation until it was destroyed by the deluge, we discover, that if the facts recorded are true, and did really take place, it was one continued chapter of blunders. First, Adam is made and set to work. It is next discovered that he requires a partner; but, behold! no materials are left with which to make one. Adam is then laid up in dock; taken to pieces like an old steamboat; one of his timbers removed, and a woman appears. Things go on well, but only for a short time. Eve soon longs for fruit; she takes it; then, lo, and wonder! she and her husband discover, and for the first time feel, a sense of decency. They set to work to make aprons; this is but lost labor. The Lord, it appears by the account, was not in the garden, but on returning, found his servants partly clothed. He informs them of their error; sets to work and protects them from wind and weather. To be sure, they were not turned out naked; the very ground was cursed for their bad conduct, and thorns and thistles would spring up to annoy them. Whether the Garden of Eden was given up altogether, or another gardener employed to keep it, we have no account.
This, at any rate, was paying dear for an apple, or peach. We find, however, that our first parents did not despair; for they soon raised a family. If this expulsion did actually take place, to talk of family troubles is nothing, compared to this unfortunate couple. For one single fault, to be driven as outcasts from their only known home, to wander they did not know where, without experience or capital to begin with! Of all the houseless wanderers, their lot seems to be the most piteous to behold.
Again, whether "the sons of God" Were permitted to descend and marry the daughters of men by way of improving the race, we know not. If improvement was Jehovah's object in this strange union, another failure, equal to former ones, was the result. The antediluvians, one and all, were so wicked, that "the Lord repented that he had made man on the earth; and it grieved him at his heart." One exception only, in the family of Noah; to whom Jehovah immediately communicated his determination to _destroy man and beast by a flood_--Noah's family only excepted.