390 SKElVkLKS OF CREATION. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



SOME THOUGHTS ON PERPETUAL MOTION. 



TT^ROM the citations made in the last chapter we dis- 

 -^- cover the existence of a unanimity of belief in the doc- 

 trine of periodical catastrophes which is well calculated to 

 excite a spirit of scientific curiosity. It can scarcely be 

 attributed to a mere tradition descending through the 

 ages, and through all the nations between us and the an- 

 cient sages upon the banks of the Ganges. Mere tradi- 

 tion is generally circumscribed by the nationality or race 

 among whom it originates. A tradition of a philosophic 

 character must have been subjected to the scrutiny of the 

 philosophers of the nations to which it traveled. If ad- 

 mitted, and maintained, and perpetuated from age to age 

 among different nations, it must have been because recog- 

 nized as something more than a tradition. The philosophy 

 of Greece and Rome never harbored a tenet which could 

 only be defended as an Oriental tradition. It must have 

 discovered some rational grounds for the acceptance of this 

 belief, and thus have made it a philosophic principle. 



What were the grounds of the naturalization of this Ori- 

 ental faith we might be unable to determine. Pythagoras, 

 however, explicitly taught that his faith was founded on 

 an observation of geological phenomena ; and Lyell thinks 

 that the doctrine in general was based upon records and 

 traditions of deluges and earthquakes, any of which came 

 far short of revolutionizing the face of the earth. 



A doctrine so ineradicable, and so spontaneous in every 

 soil, must have rested upon a rational belief. That belief 



