H-B-L – ‘dilation, tenuity, rarification’

This root is בל which, composed of the sign of interior action ב, joined to that of expansive movement ל, expresses all ideas of expansion, dilation and tenuity. Therefore, if we have understood that the compressive force could be characterized by the root קן, we shall understand now that the expansive force can be characterized by the root בל; consequently, every time one has seen strength, power, density, possession, in the name of Kain, one has also seen weakness, rarity, surrender, in that of Habel.

But it must not be believed that this force and this power, which the name of Kain characterizes, have always been taken in the good sense. Very far from it: for the majority of the peoples have attached to it only a blind fatality, and Kain has been for them only the genius of Evil. In this case, the contrary attributes contained in the name of Habel, are adorned with more favourable shades: the weakness has become gentleness and grace; the rarity, spiritual essence; surrender, magnanimity: Habel, in short, has been the genius of Good. These singular contrasts exist in the tongues of the Hebrews and of the Chaldeans; for if the word בל signifies the mind, and the soul which is its source; this same word also offers the negative relation, no: and if one finds יבול , to express ideas of abundance, profusion and even of inundation, one finds also the word בלי, to express those of lack, want, absolute nothingness. The emphatic sign ה, added to this singular root, can be likewise, in the name of Habel, the emblem of that which is noblest in man: thought and meditation; or of that which is vainglorious, the illusions of pride, and vanity itself.

It is the same with the qualities expressed in the name of Kain, which become good or bad, according to the manner in which they are considered. (The Hebraic Tongue Restored, Fabré d’Olivet, p. 124-125)