The Sun.
London, England, 1816-08-24 00:00:00

THE EN!) OF i UM WORLD.

[FROM A BEMENT 3nottnAL.]
We need tint he so elevated. 1 it because the
Vi7orld was not it an end to on the 180 i of July,
Hilti,'that It is to exist to eternity ? We resemble
tho,:v sailors who chaunt the Litanies while the
tempest rages ; hut indulge in ban'dry and blas-
phemy' whet' the storm subsides. But this tVorld
wilt have an end, and I will prove it—not from
the Holy Scriptures, which would nesee do for
• • those who have leen temples consecrated to reason,
but from the dicta of scientifie-and illumined phi-
losophers.
A thorough-paced' Cosmogonist who favoured
' -the Parisian public with tour • bulky volumes last
year, devotes oae.of bit nuoteroos chapters to the
`1 End of the World ;"—hat to explain this lam-
Vitable constimmllutioll he has thought proper to
give us the following idea of its cornmencement.----
Y Before this World was created, the whole
universe consisted of .catoria (a mitigatiou of the
pure fiery element). It was the sole material ;
and-God having'created a system tberefroy, could
- never abandon it to the influence of second causes..
in an ethereal ream of caloric, the elmentary
shoos attracted by contiguity of position formed
• piimary particles ; these in their turn geoerated
elementary particles; these finally cohering, form-
•ed.an, immense. globe, in which were storaNitsp
the materials of all die silos, all the planets, all
the satellites, all the comets, and all the-nameless
train of phenomena.
Titis capacious butt, which we merited the
1. it lc of Astral-Generator,' soon become turd haat ly
pregnant, and its frequent deliveries, its itinumera-
tie volcanoes, shot forth from time to time, thou-
sands of suns one .way, millions of suns another,
which may eachtle thousands or millions of leagues
iu circumference, but which were no more than
:atoms compared to the Astral Generator. !
iEJn-
lnakily'tor us this Astral Paren thought proper
to throw.ont our globe some milliards of ages be-
iore•mar present sitn„a circumstance which strongly
evinces the approaching end of the world. Our
globe •was originallya sat); but its heat,' as well as
they extant of its volume, has progressively dimi-
nished. Its rotatory movement will one day smi-
th:lily stop., IVe shall then fall into the sun,
‘vhicia„ in its turn, will become old, infirm, fee-
\ ble, no longer capable of motion, and will at
length fall into the Astral Generator Irons which
It issued:: MI the other Celestial, globes will, in
their turns,. become incapable, and, in the lapse
of numerous ages„: will,• true after another, fall
the same way into'the parent repository. ,hlVel)
the Astral Generator itself, in dine, will became
eld, inert, and frigid, as its progeny (1 am asto-
nished that the Old liitiker s;toultl. 'become so
flee last) it will tt,eu bc•come immoveable, help-
less, imeaPable of gentratii,g anew ; and all the
extinglished suns; all the_planets, all the said.-
lit-es, all the comets, and the various phomonttia,
' will re-''unite into one mass ; they will form or
appeatr nothinl in the dread lalinensky of space,
bait an enormous scoria, a mass of iron dross, a
'very Caplet ntortuani ; mad in -which "finestottra
it will rem tin caotigh eternity ! Certainly a
nobler object for creation caonot be assighed!
Wt., behold, whet hat:ll;3ls us the otost let this,
:ciitaqtropbe the anther .alhoes hot mre•
tail/in/As of ages for the still to grow cold; and at
few of net' rnlllierds Of ages, alte,l, beCaillillt; 11010-
babilable, to involve us in its ruin. These milliards
of ages 'would halve a little ussurednic against the
fear of seeing thaettndoftl.eworld, but nntortunauly
oni• globe is .than the sun, tend these toil-
lierds of ages cannot ,be for us, bast millions of
years,' which naturally iminces a gloomy granistl
of ap;,rehension. Added to this, he says that the
snoop will one day precipitate herself upon 'us,
and, for aught we know, may as well J'at npoo
the roof of Notre Mow as upon the 'lower of
'o:vett, an uncertainty which ought to rainier
riurbnoyant spirits a little, more cikuntspeci..—
Here then, is. One very rational and philcsaithical
finkh Of the work! ! But it othr modes should
be looked for, i have a variety in any collectinu."
It
•clearly dennatttrated (for our system-
snoogers arc always demonstratino that the atPr-
oos &lid is evoyday diminishing in all parts of
the globe. The earth, the stones, the marbles,
the calcareous mountains, are-evidently revolt-

tions of testaecorts fishes, of oysters, polypassesc:
Ste. But the exuvia of Atte') 8111141 animidi could
siever,Trulace those it»mense Mastics of solid 'rock
which ,t) C7O i:llSlety foilntl : it; their creation
the agerisey of the aquatic principle must largely
conrihute, ails! which Is demonstrated to consti-
twe so great at poitiow of the talueral substances
;with which .the earth abounds. • The ocean then
is daily diminishing, and our poor earth will one
day become, al drylind arid 111,135, as We have abun-
dance 'of proof--Tarticularly Aid summer! Of
course this' globe must then become ituinhabits
able, and in process ol tinter crumble into atoms.
Bat it these two modes of amtilfilltion be not
to the taste of my readers, I MI present them
-with is -third, and one, too, which is more
two-enfant to the rotes of ex*ct'science. IiALANDF:'
MCitiOritii-,. in which he determined
:ouch of the known comets as were to approach
the nearest to out* earth. Paris, and all France,
-was sh"ocited fit the oipoiltionpand too frequently
imagined itself Mt rite eve of puiveri2at kin. hut
certalw great GeontstriciaN whey displayed the
vitmtialle system in the matt perfect 'aunties',. and
svhosv work held to. be' law. on the tublitet
• •
pears rtriraris of relieving our aiwreliensiims cif
those uneteit comets,• LA,rAzior. ; but .whether
lie has banished all, ground of feitr on, the subject
infly he crillected from, the following .extract
" The little prababilitr which.now appears of
such ;-1,1 ericoontertaktrig place', may; by its Ewen-
mutat ing in tVeCourse of uges, become verygreat.
it is easy to toilet:lva 'dee effects of such u shock
upon the earth'. The axis mid rotatory motion
changed, the OCOS will abandon their ancient pa-
:firkin, in order ti, flow towards the. new equa-
tor : a great part of the mew and animals will
be overwhelmed by a general deluge, or crushed
by the violence of the shock impressed on tire
globe the entire species .annihilated ; and all
the ,i,„„,,ineuts of litment industry overthrown.
l''3ach are the disptert's'which the shock of a
i(.4net mast inevitably produce. Such are the
cao,es why rGt ucettn has overilowed the highest
.810841411i110 upon which, they him lest incuntes-
,

'ale at Acs of their presence; Ana it explains ton,
the total ,hnitge in the word world, the recording'
moownents of wil;e11 reach beyond little Wore
than 3000 years, The hun►an species, reilnced to
a small number of individuals, awl in the most
denlorabie state, solely octnpied for a very long
time in merely preset lug their existence, bad ne-
cessarily lost tht: reuienthritnce
,of the Arts and
Sciences." .

Thus as, according to our great Geometrician,
the probability of the catastrophe will increase
with the progress rat time, it. appears to me but
prudent in us to keep oor_atldirs in better order, for
to 3 or 4000 years or more, we shall behold a
new representation -of a direful tragedy.
I have hut little more space to refer to other
;nodes of mundane esshiction.. Onel shall, how.
ever, glance • at, 6°oo the very thought Mint
BurvoNT teL ti that the
.world gels pro-
gressively colder. .The spots or dark appearances
Ott the sun are a most trrillell:louS Consideration.
Alas no fewer t,,;-kri 30 of them hare.been lately
enumerated. Dr. lief renal. Adeclares he lately
saw one, which he rails little, as it was only
10,000 leagnes iu breadth. These afford a most
gloonty prospect. 011 Greenland, which was
formerly habitable, is !sow entirely and.or ice, and
cannot be even approached. in Norway, glaciers
have been lately formed in places where before
they never existed ; and We generd opinion
ihat conatryii, that the summers Lure getting
colder every year. • In 180:',, in the moist ii of
• June, the Lady Hobart packet perished under a
floating ummitaia of ice, in a latitude rr hick
sbOuld relatively be minim than the climes to
Nnples or Constantinople. Arid as a stronger
proof than all the vest, 1 ant writing this 'article
by a fire at the clOse of Julie. In order to make
" assurance • nonbiy sore," and to ascertain the
point from personal emu:Harems, I catsserk brick
to he made reel-hot, of which I eloseiy observed
the cooling, And by a calculation better finortled
than any BorpoN.,S, S have found that.imtne-
diately au • the
Lexpiviaion of 1543 years we shali
he obliged tir qiiit 15at is, in to dertia settle at Se-
negal and to be sore to he in good Itow, J have
alreutly mule some-prepa:rar ions for the voyage !

POLICE INTEIJLIGILNCE.