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CHAPTER XXVIir. 



A VERY FEW IIEMAIIKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE 

 DELUGE. 



To account for offering a few remarks on a subject so im- 

 portant and difficult as that of the Deluge, I beg to say that 

 reflections, arising out of facts witnessed during the Beagle'^s 

 voyage, have occasioned them ; and, as results of that expe- 

 dition, it has appeared to me that they are neither irrelevant to 

 the narrative, nor likely to be altogether uninteresting to young 

 men in the navy. 



I suffered much anxiety in former years from a disposi- 

 tion to doubt, if not disbelieve, the inspired History written 

 by Moses. I knew so little of that record, or of the intimate 

 manner in which the Old Testament is connected with the 

 New, that I fancied some events there related might be mytho- 

 logical or fabulous, while I sincerely believed the truth of 

 others; a wavering between opinions, which could only be 

 productive of an unsettled, and therefore unhappy, state of 

 mind. Some young men, I am well aware, are in a similar 

 condition, while many others are content to set aside all 

 reflection, and do as the world does ; or rather, as those do 

 among whom they generally live. Natural affection and re- 

 spect for good parents, relations, and elders, never can lead a 

 young man astray ; but there is, perhaps, no guide more fal- 

 lible or dangerous than the common custom of those inexpe- 

 rienced persons who associate together, chiefly for lack of fixed 

 occupation ; and whose principal object is to drive away self- 

 examination, or prolonged thought, by a continual succession of 

 idle amusement, or vivid excitement. 



Wholesome and necessary as amusement and recreation are, 

 both for mind and body, every one knows how insipid, even 

 painful their excess becomes ; and external evidence shows but 



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