[6] See Davis on "The Chinese," published by the Soc. for the
Diffus. of Use. Know. vol. i. pp. 137, 147.

[7] Humboldt et Bonpland, Voy. Relat. Hist. vol. i. p. 30.

[8] Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 177.

[9] Plut. de Defectu Oraculorum, cap. 12. Censorinus de Die
Natali. See also Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 182.

[10] Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 182.

[11] Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 193.

[12] Plato's Timaeus.

[13] Ovid's Metamor. lib. 15.

[14] Eluvie mons est deductus in aequor, v. 267. The meaning of
this last verse is somewhat obscure; but, taken with the context,
may be supposed to allude to the abrading power of floods,
torrents, and rivers.

[15] The impregnation from new mineral springs, caused by
earthquakes in volcanic countries, is perhaps here alluded to.

[16] That is probably an allusion to the escape of inflammable
gas, like that in the district of Baku, west of the Caspian; at
Pietramala, in the Tuscan Apennines; and several other places.

[17] Many of those described seem fanciful fictions, like the
virtue still so commonly attributed to mineral waters.

[18] Raspe, in a learned and judicious essay (De Novis Insulis,
cap. 19), has made it appear extremely probable that all the
traditions of certain islands in the Mediterranean having at some
former time frequently shifted their positions, and at length
become stationary, originated in the great change produced in
their form by earthquakes and submarine eruptions, of which there
have been modern examples in the new islands raised in the time
of history. When the series of convulsions ended, the island was
said to become fixed.

[19] It is not inconsistent with the Hindoo mythology to suppose
that Pythagoras might have found in the East not only the system
of universal and violent catastrophes and periods of repose in
endless succession, but also that of periodical revolutions,
effected by the continued agency of ordinary causes. For Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva, the first, second, and third persons of the
Hindoo triad, severally represented the Creative, the Preserving,
and the Destroying powers of the Deity. The coexistence of these
three attributes, all in simultaneous operation, might well
a