The first part of Adam's vision is of Cain and Abel. Adam sees Cain's murder of Abel and then is told by Michael that the killer and victim are Adam's own sons. Adam laments the brutality of what he has seen and is then given a further vision of all the terrible ways in which death will take humans. Adam is in deep sorrow over what he has caused and asks if there is no other way for a man to die. Michael responds that those who live good and temperate lives may drop "like ripe fruit" (535). Adam answers that he will neither seek death nor fear life but live in the best manner he can, an idea to which the angel assents.
Next, Adam is shown a vision based on Genesis IV, 20–22, an account of the children of Cain who discovered metalwork. The vision shows men on a plain working with metals and playing musical instruments. Then from the hills that border the plain come a group of Godly men. Beautiful women emerge from tents on the plain, and soon the men pair off and go with the women into the tents. Adam finds this scene much more pleasant than the first. Michael admonishes Adam not to be taken in by a life of pleasure. The people in the vision learned a useful skill but then allowed their craft to become an art, which was more important to them than God. They were the children of Cain.
The men who came down from the hills were the children of Adam and Eve's third child, Seth. They were God-fearing men. Michael calls the women, also descendants of Cain, "Atheists" (625) who have been trained in the arts of sexual love. They lure the men from their godly lives. Adam understands Michael's point, saying that man's downfall starts with women. Michael develops this idea by referring to the fallen men's "effeminate slackness" (634), through which men give over their superiority to women and thus yield to sin. The deeper point, concerning sexual desire, that applies to the story of Adam and Eve is not lost on Adam.
