The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-10-14
OUR INVALID EARTH.

What becomes of the increase of the
human species is question that has
troubled social philosophers and pOliti-
cal economists for centuries. Curious
and startling calculations have frequent.
ly been made to show that, unless some
extraordinary circumstance should in
tervene, the earth would be unable to
yield sustenance for the myriads of hu-
man beings that would congregate upon
it. So great has been the anxiety upon
this subject at different periods that in
more than one country a Nautilus has
risen up to teach the abominable doc
trines of the Malthusian school. But
the centuries have rolled away and man
has not ceased to be fruitful, and the
earth has continued to yield her in
crease; while the average to-day is not
much greater than it was a hundred
years ago.
1t is question whether the Malthu-
sian philosophy be correct or as Nature
seems to have discovered similar scourg-
es in wars and slaughters, in pestilenees
or famines. And now a German phi
losopher, having exhausted the posi-
bilities of metaphysics, and taking it
upon himself to become Gods spy, has
appeared to explain TO us these natural
desolations, and to tell us that the terri
BILE malidies which, at recurrent periods,
carry off from the surface of the earth
millions of its human inhabitants, are
simply manifestations of chronic sick
ness of our mother earth. This sickness,
we are told, manifested itself in former
times in plaques and famines, in the
murrains of the herds, in the hocks of
locusts, in the abundant plaques which
fell upon Egypt in the days of Moses
and in our time this chronic malady ap-
hn ho
of the vine, in blight and mildew, in
earthquakes, tempests and droughts. In
brief the theory is that if disease stimuli
taneously affects all forms of life which
are developed upon our planet the only
proper deduction is that the earth itself
grows sick. The remarkable parallels
that are drawn between the great pesti-
| lences which have most afflicted man.
kind, and abnormal terrestrial phenome-
ma are peculiar combinations of this Gu
| rious theory.
That terrible plague, the Black Death
which for seventeen years devasted both
Asia and Europe, was accompanied in
| its deadly march by terrestrial and at
mospheric phenomena no less remarka-
BILE. This scourge first made its appear.
ance in China, and at the same period
there were numerous earthquakes SC
powerful as to rend mountains, to Gre
ate vast inland seas, and to swallow ul
the wrecks of humanity that the plague
had left. Locusts, and droughts and
| famine followed. to be succeeded by I'm.
heard of inundations and floods. Hav-
! ing devastated China this chronic death
| strewed Asia with corpses, and rayag-
| ing the intermediate countries arrived
in Europe after the lapse of a few years
And throughout this entire period, and
along its very course, the Black Deatt
was attended by earthquakes and hur
ricanes, by terrible convulsions of ma.
ture, the sea giving up its dead and GOV
ering The land, the fertile spots becom.
| ing transformed into deserts. These phe
nomena were described by a cotempo
rary writer in these strong terms: "a
universal conclusion of the earth, boil
in France and the countries TO the North
overturned whole towns, rooted up treei
and mountains, and filed the plainI
with chasnas SO profound that it appear
ed as if hell was about to swallow NJ
the human race" The seasons and thsil
Effects were iAyerts&-