Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1854-06-01
The End Of the World.


ulafly in Maine, who really believed
tia I'D II last Friday, the dily Of the.
eclipse :, the world was to be burned
np. They were in great trepidation,
preparing for the last great nc in the
drains of life Yet, the day hd Is come
and g pne, and the earth still stands,
performing its accustomed fun ctions.
One would very naturally co include,
that the continued non-fullilIn ent of
tits and kindred prophecies would
have the effect to show the utter f.l-
lacy Of an attempt to dcterln ine the
day and dat" Of the final Winding
up Of all things. But exp rionce
with some d5es not seem to brih g wis
dom There are kind Of M IN, and
Of women also, whose faith IS pniniv.
eroas, yet dhiefly ddlighteth in the
toughest proyendcr Possess ns The
appetite Of an ogre and the 81 omach
Of an ostrich, nothing is. TOO mon
strous fer its capacious s4al Iow, or
too bard for its digestion. 1t ; ordi-
nary food is the utterly Improbable,
aad a physical or moral imp3ssibil-
i;y it devpurs with epicurean gusto.
It not unfrequently attributes to the
agency Of God, acts which wo aid be
considered proofs of imbecility if per-
formed by man. For example it as :
sumes that the All-Wise is n l<ind,
CT permitting to be made, new revel|
tons from the spiritual world I'd rough
the same media as an auetioneer EN-
ploys to attract the attention Of biz
audience. To persons capable of reuL
dering a feas3a for the faith that
in them, the idea Of that Being who
holds myIiads Of worlds in the hollow
of His hand causing our furniture to
execute findangoes, and commission
ing the spirits of.the just made per
feet to beat the tattoo on our floors,
savors Of blasphemy.-
We shall not be surprised it. with
l in a twelve month, this same burning
up STORY v ere to be reyarnished and
agai4' sent forth, to be believed by
thousands. The plea will DO made,
perhaps, that in the calculation for
Friday last, an error had been dis
eoyered-out This time -=look out
And then. The panic will spread. The
worst feature Of terror is its conta-
gious influence. The rapidity with
which it spreads, and the madness il
creates, are humiliating to human ma
lure. We call ourselves intelligent
beings-we boast that we are gull led
by the light Of reason, and not by
brutal instinct-and yet, in seasons
when self-possession is most needed,
we sometimes manifest as little dis
cretion as stampeding cattle. A
shout, d shadow, a rumor, the predic-
ton of a cunning impostor, phnn-
tom ofthe imagina ton, dethrones our
boasted reason, and brings US to a
level with the beasts that peris b.
Perhaps one of the most striking
instances on record Of the effects Of
panic is given by Sonthey in his
Commonplace 30 ok" 1t Occ urred
in 1872 and was bccasioned by the
prediction of man named Whistoa,
who seems to have been a fanatic, al
though the dupes of his false proph-
ccies, as soon as they got over their
trepidation. denounced him as a
knaye. This Winston announced
th 1T a comet would appear at q eer-
tai II hour on Wednesday, the 18th OF
October, and that on the Friday fol-
lowing the world would be destroyed
BY fire. Southey quotes from the ac-
counts published at the time as fol-
lows:
''Whlstons lep utation was high,
a nd the comet appeared. A number
Of persons got into boats and barges
n the Thames, think the Water the
safest place. South Sea and India
took feH-- A captain of a Dutch
ship threw all his powder into the
river, that the ship might hot be en-
dangered. AT noon, after the comet
had appeared, it is said that more