THE CREATION OF EVE.

"And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should bealone; I will make him a helpmeet for him. And the Lord Godcaused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he tookone of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and therib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, andbrought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of mybone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, becauseshe was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his fatherand mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be oneflesh." Genesis ii, 18, 21-24.

In these few words the Scriptures narrate the creation of thefirst mother of our race. In "Paradise Lost," the poetic geniusof Milton, going more into detail, describes how Eve awoke toconsciousness, and found herself reposing under a shade offlowers, much wondering what she was and whence she came.Wandering by the margin of a small lake, she sees her own formmirrored in the clear waters, at which she wonders more. But avoice is heard, leading her to him for whom she was made, wholies sleeping under a grateful shade. It is at this point theartist comes to interpret the poet's dream. Amid the varied andluxurious foliage of Eden, in the vague light of the early dawn,Eve is presented, coy and graceful, gazing on her sleeping Lord,while in the background is faintly outlined the mystic form ofHim in whose image they were created.