Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

657 CHAPTER XXVIII. A VERY FEW REMARKS WITH UKFERENCE TO THE DELUUE. 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 Beasle'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 VOL. II. 2u