[24] "For," says Moses, "the Lord God, seeing that the wickedness of men were multiplied upon the earth, and that every one did think continually in his heart nothing but evil all his days, determined to punish man" (and here by man I understand the mind, together with all the reptiles and winged creatures, and all the rest of the multitude of wild animals which surround him), by reason of his incurable wickedness; and the punishment which God decided upon was the deluge.