The poets tell us, that the inhabitants of the old world being totally destroyed by the universal deluge, excepting Deucalion and Pyrrha, these two, desiring with zealous and fervent devotion to restore mankind, received this oracle for answer, that 'they should succeed by throwing their mother's bones behind them'. This at first cast them into great sorrow and despair, because, as all things were levelled by the deluge, it was in vain to seek their mothers tomb; but at length they understood the expression of the oracle to signify the stones of the earth, which is esteemed the mother of all things.
This fable seems to reveal a secret of nature, and correct an error familiar to the mind; for men's ignorance leads them to expect the renovation or restoration of things from their corruption and remains, as the phoenix is said to be restored out of its ashes; which is a very improper procedure, because such kind of materials have finished their course, and are become absolutely unfit to supply the first rudiments of the same things again; whence, in cases of renovation, recourse should be had to more common principles.