The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1890-10-18
ON LIFE AND DEATH
THE DOOM OF HUMANITY AND
THE UNIVERSE.
The Eloquence OF senator ingalls, Turned to the
Subject OF nortalIly-Hs Talks OF the
Future Hopo OF Mankind as II
Exists Eseryuhsrs-

nation, the most sacred. the most in
violable. the most inalienablo. The
JOY OF living in such splendid and
luminous day as this Is inconceivable-
To exist is exultation. To live forever
Is our sublimest hope. Annihilation.
extinction. and eternal death are the
forebodings of despair. To know. to
love. TO achieve. to triumph. TO confer
happiness. TO alleviate misery, is rap
ture. The greatest crime and the
severest penalty known TO human law
Is the sacrifice and forfeiture OF life.
Aud yet we are all under sentence
of death. Other events may or may
not occur Other conditions may or
may not exist We may be rich or
poor; we may be learned or ignorant;
VIC may be happy or wretched; but we
all must die. The verdict has been
pronounced by the memorable decree
OF an omnipotent tribunal. Without
trial or opportunity for defencei with
no knowledge OF the accuser, or tho
nature and cause OF the accusation;
without being confronted with the wit
nesses against us. we have been sum-
moned TO tho bar Of life and condemn
cd to death. There Is no writ OF
error nor review. There is neither
exculpation nor appeal. All must be
relinquished. Beauty and deformity.
good and evil. virtue and vice, share
q lxo fotA In
mother cries passionately for mercy
for her first born. but there is no
clemency. The craven felon sullenly
prays for a moment in which to DO
aneled. but there is no reprievc. The
soul helplessly beats its wings against
the bars, shudders and disappears.
The prescription extends alike to
the individual and the type. Nations
die and races expire. Humanity itself
Is destined TO extinction. Sooner or
later it Is the instruction OF science
that the energy OF the earth will DO
expended. and it will become incapa-
BILE OF supporting life. A group OF
feeble and pallid survivors in some
sheltered valley in the tropics will boz
hold the sun sink below the horizon
and the pitiless stars glitter in the mid
night sky. The last man will perish.
and the sun will rise upon an earth
without an inhabitant. Its atmos-
phere, its seas, its life and heat. will
vanish. and the planet will be an idle
cinder uselessly spinning in its orbit
Every hour some world dies unno-
ticed In the armament; some sun
shoulders 10 embers and ashes on tho
hearthstone Of infinite space. aud tho
mighty maze OF systems sweeps cease
lessly onward In its voyage OF doom to
remorseless and unspairing destruc-
ton.
With the disappearance OF man from
the earth. all traces OF his existence
will be lost The palaces, towers.
and temples he has reared. the insti-
tutions no has established. tho cities
no has builded, the books he has writ
ten. the creeds he has constructed,
the philosophers he has formulated
all science, art literature, and knowl-
edge viii be obliterated and engulfcd
in empty and vacant oblivion.
The great globe itself,
Yea, all which 10 inherit shall dissolve,
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not n track behind.
There is an intelligence so vast and
enduring that tho flaming intervals be-
tween the birth and death OF unlverses il
no more than the flash OF firefies above
the meadows OF summer; a colossal
power by which these stupendous orbs
are launched in the abyss. like bub-
bles blown by child In the morning
sun. and whose sense OF justice and
reason cannot be less potential than
those immutiblc statutes that are the
law OF being 10 the creatures Ho has
made. and which compel them 10 de-
clare that II the only object OF crea-
ton Is destruction. II inhnlty Is the
theatcr of an uninterrupted series OF
irreparable calamities. II the final
cause OF life Is death. then time Is an
inexplicable tragedy. and eternity an
illogical and indefensible catastrophe.
xry-- a