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Pandora is a representative of Eve, and we are all of opinion that Eve was 
the most beautiful of women. Milton tells us, and we agree with his thought, 
that she was “the fairest of her daughters.” It is a strange expression to 
make Eve one of her own daughters. (Laughter.) You have the Greek idea 
of Eve in Pandora. But here is a point which is very remarkable. Any 
one who remembers Ovid’s description of the creation of man, will re- 
collect that he states that man was made in the image of God. That is 
precisely a reproduction of the very language that you find in the book 
of Genesis. Now in relation to the Flood, let me refer again to Ovid ; for 
this is very interesting — it is a grand moral fact which Mr. Titcomb 
has very forcibly brought out. The Flood generally is represented as coming 
on account of man’s wickedness. You have the moral idea contained in 
Genesis. God destroys man from the face of the earth by the waters of the 
flood because “ all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Now when 
Jupiter is represented as calling a council of the gods, this is what he insists 
on, that man had become so corrupt that he must be destroyed from the face 
of the earth. Jupiter’s first idea is to destroy him by lightning, and he 
seizes his thunderbolts and is ready to hurl them and consume mankind, 
but he remembers that it is written in the records of the fates that a day will 
come when, the heavens taking fire, and the earth catching the flame, 
both will be dissolved. Then he lays down his dread thunderbolts and 
destroys the earth by a flood of waters. Now can this be a mere matter 01 
chance coincidence ? I think you will say that the coincidence is quite of 
another character, and that the poet really borrows matter which, wnether 
it came to him traditionally or still more directly, is from the reve- 
lation of .God. Just let me point out one other fact which I wish to 
commend to Mr. Titcomb’s notice. It is with regard to the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah. Though the testimony quoted from Tacitus by Mr, 
Titcomb is forcible, yet Tacitus tries to account for the destruction of tho 
cities in a fruitful country, near the Dead Sea, on natural principles. But this 
fact is very remarkable : in the 8th book of Ovid’s “ Metamorphoses ” you 
find the account of the destruction of a rich and populous country in 
Phrygia, and you have almost all the circumstances as given in Genesis, re- 
peated by Ovid. You have Jupiter and Mercury disguising themselves, and 
coming down to earth in the form of men. They inquire as to the condition 
of mankind in that region, and they find that the people despise the gous, 
and that evil has increased among them to such an extent that it is not suit- 
able that they should be allowed to live any longer. Jupiter and Mercury 
go to the house of two devout persons, worshippers of the gods— -Philemon, 
and Baucis his wife. They spend there that length of time which just accords 
with the time spent by the angels in the house of Lot at Sodom ; and they 
say that that region is about to be destroyed on account of its wickedness, 
and recommend Philemon and Baucis to repair to an adjoining mount. 
They help them away from the place, and when they come within a bow 
shot of the summit of the mountain, Philemon and Baucis look back and see 
the whole region round sunk in a morass. This morass answers to the Deac 
