The Slaithwaite Guardian and Colne Valley News. — 1906-08-17 (Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, England)

REVIEWS.  CAIN'S WIFE—By Bernard Cecil Blake.  It is not often that the Bible and its first recorded characters are made the subject of an exciting and exotic romance, as in the ease of the book recently published by The Walter Scott Publishing Company. rhe generally accepted theory of the beginning of man is that God created Adam and Eve, and that they were the sole occupants of the earth ; but the author works on the assmnption that at the time Adam and Eve were created an inferior race of men ' inhabited the earth. These people he calls " The sons of men." Adam and his family he calls "'Ph,, sons of God." The theory is here given for what it is worth, and is as follows :—ln the earlier part of the sixth day "God created the beast of the earth," and also the " living creature," which latter were in reality living souls, or, in other words, race of human beings. 1:o.l saw this that it was good, and in the latter part of the sixth day sail, "Let us make man in our own image," who were given dominion over all the earth and all the creatures upon the earth. We are toll in the Bible that Cain slew his brother. Abel, because of the Lord's prefer(Mee for Abel's uttering. The writer of this story makes it his business to furnish a motive for this dirk deed, and he does this in the most approv-d inelo-drunatie fashion. Cain was a veritable giant, and 80 indeed was Abel, but not 80 strong or so fierce as his brother; hilt he ..was fairer to look upon, and he was intellectually and morally Cdn's superior. Cain went amongst the suns of men and chose the fairest of their daughters, and thus caused men to hate hint. His brother was a hunter, and as 'haste as Cain was licentious. In course of time Cain fell in love with Sllave, the proud, imperious daughter of the Governor ; but this girl had lost her heart to Abel. Abel coldly spurned her voluptious enticements, and in consequence all her passionate love is turned to fierce and hitter hatred. Sllave tells Cain that " Abel must die. I hate him. Perhaps if ALA were dead, thou thightest win me. I might come to thee and be thy wife." Cain is deeply wrought because he is torn between love of Ids brother and his abandoned affection for this woman, for whom he is almost ready to sacrifice both body and soul, The canker continues to do its deadly work, until itt the fulness of time, and given the opportunity, Cain in' vents a quarrel with his brother Abel, and, taking hint away to a secret pima, murders him. Cain then wanders into the forest a broken and miserable mall. Shave addresses her attendant thus ; " Poor Cain, how he loved me. Thou shalt guide me through the forest, he shall live and not die. l'ome let us not delay. I have a right to go: I ant Cain's wife" The book is not of the kind to gain an entrance into a young ladies seminary, or a Sunday school library, but as a modern setting of an ancient subject, with its wealth ot imagery, its force and vividness of conception and developmeut, its passionate loves and emsuming hatreds, it is a book that will furnish melt fascination to a wide variety of readers. The book is published at 6s.