The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-01-03
The End of the World.

Predictions of the end of the world have al
forded n fruitful topic for impostors ana Ia
natics for the last thousand years. About the
middle of the tenth century, numbers OF
families on the continent OF Europe believed
that the period prophesied in the Apoca-
lypse rs the term of the worlds duration
was about to expire, and the end of the woria
would take place Multitudes. of all classes
of society sold their dwellings and goods ana
proceeded to Jerusalem, (Which was expected
to be the scene of the flnale,) in numbers so
great that they were compared 10 n deso-
lating army. In seasons of great pestllence,
predictions of the approaching end OF all
things have been common, and we see the same
tendency In our own times upon the occur
renee of great wars. The appearance OF
comets has always been connected with the
dissolution of the world, and even in our day
the astronomers find it necessary TO endorse
the character OF every new comet before II
can be received entirely TO public confidence.
As lately as l76l, the people of London were
greatly alarmed by the prediction of n private
soldier, that the city would be destroyed by an
earthquake on the 9Th 81 April. Such was
the panic, that, az the appointed day APP
preached, the villages in the neigh borhood
were crowded with panic stricken fugitves,
waiting to see the city swallowed up. Some
of them did not deem 1t prudent to return till
week after the appointed day.
In the year 17l2 WHIrsoN predicted that n
comet would appear on Wednesday, l4th De-
cember, five minutes after o'clock, A. M,
and that the world would be destroyed by fire
on the Friday following. His reputation was
high, and the comet appeared. A number Of
persons got into boats and barges on the
Thames, thinking the water the safest place.
South Sea and India stocks fell. a captain of
Dutch ship threw all his powder into the
river, that the ship might not be endangered.
At noon, after the comet had appeared 1t is
said that more than one hundred clergymen
were ferried over to Lambeth 10 request that
proper prayers might be prepared, there being
none in the church service. People believed
that the Day of Judgment was at hand, ana
some acted on this belief; more, as if some tenn
porary evil was to be expected. There was Il
prodigious run upon the bank; Sir GILBERT
HEATHcoTE, at that time head director, issued
orders to all the fire officers in London, requl-
ring them TO keep good lookout, and nave 4
particular eye upon the Bank of England.
OF late wears there has been Il considerable
revival of the expectation that the end OF the
worlds at hand. There are those who even
go so far as to say that the year 1866 will wit
ness the consummation ofall things Kew.
DR.. CUMMINGS, an eccentric divine of London,
has been for some time engaged in finishing oil
this refractory planet. This is the same gem
tleman who leased Il cottage, the lease not
terminating with the end OF the world. The
Scriptures declare that the time OF the end no
man knoweth, but DR.. CUMMINGS Is wiser than
the Scriptures. The old, standard divines OF
English theology have never vcntured as far
rs this sensation prophet. They have modest
ly conjectured that somewhere about the end
of the six thousandth year the Sabbath of n
new world may begin; and they give better
reasons for their opinion than any we have
seen in support of DR. CCMMISGs's thcory--the
lease of that cottage included. 1t should sut-
flee all impatient persons that, so far rs the
men of this generation are concerned, the end
of the world, for them, may be this year ana
cannot, at the longest, be very far distant.