The Tutor and the Naughty Princeling
THE TUTOR AND THE NAUGHTY PRINCELING.
The world, with all its wonderful growths, was made to teach man and to nurture him. Therefore when man falls into sin, and breaks the laws of nature and of God, nature and the material world suffer with him, for his sin. It is like a young prince entrusted to the care of a tutor. Whenever the prince was naughty the tutor was punished.
Bereshith Rabbah in explaining the destruction of the world at the flood.