Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-10-01
A New Departure.

/ last so many theological cranks.
I Now one would suppose that this race
Eof bootle>s seers would pass away by
Edlnt OF their repeated failures and, on
NDarwin's principle of the survival of
Ithe tittest, there would come time
Ewhcn we should hear no more of them
Eforever. On the contrary, however,
Eeach generation appears to thrive on
Ethc decay OF its predecessor and by a
Estrange sort of provocative process
sthey continue to live in spite of the
Hvlvid light of modern science and
Emoral research. During the last
Il lustrum, score of self constituted
Hevangelists have been preaching in
HEurope and America the near con-
examination of all sublunary things.
& Even while We write one of these
evangelical prophets is canvassing the
sPuget Sound country in the interest of
IA startling announcement; namely,
Il that our earth with all living creatures
Eupon it will be destroyed before the
Ecoming OF the year 1900. And this
! is stoutly asserted in the face of that
Esolemn declaration of our Saviour,
a" But of that day and hour knoweth
no man; no, not the angels of heaven,
ebut my Father only"
! Scientists, much to their credit and
hgood name, have generally been very
Ereticent in regard to these things, but
Bthere now comes man who is a we'll
known astronomer, who asserts the
possibility of the earth's total destruc-
Elton at any time. That man is Prof.
rs. J. Corrigan, director of the Good
sell Observatory, Carleton University.
He bases his argument mainly upon
the violent disturbances we'll known to
be now going on in the super-heated
photosphere of the sun. He reasons
that new planet is in process of Gre
alton, that our luminary is undergo
fling great changes and at any moment
Ia globular mass of molten matter may
Tissue from the solar orb. When this
takes place, there will be, as Prof.
ICorrigan maintains, a cataclysm of
the elements on all the planets in the
immediate vicinity of the sun. So
great will be this shock that Mercury,
Venus and the earth will suffer a
radical change in their physical cor
Iditions, even to the utter extinction
LOT every form of animal and vegetable
life that now exists upon any or all of
these planets. This is, to say the
least, a rather strained view for a |
scientist to take in regard to the
Operations of nature in the field of
astronomical phenomena.
Prof. Corrigan assumes that a SINH
lar detachment of solar matter &C.
Cured about 100000 years ago,
causing total destruction of the
earth's fauna and flora. This period
! of the earth's planet life constituted
what is now called by biologists the
the Paleozoic age.
1t is true that there are geological
evidences of a wholesale destruction of
life upon the earth about that time,
but whether such destruction was due
to astronomical or geological agencies
is still an open question among con-
servative scientists. Then there is
another rather significant feature
about the Professors hypothetical
prediction; namely, the bearing it has
upon certain passages in the Revela-
ton of st. John. The tenth verse of
the eighth chapter of Johns Revela-
ton, cited by Prof. Corrigan's adher-
ents, reads as follows, "And the third
angel sounded, and there fell great
star from heaven, burning as it were
lamp, and it fell upon the third part
OF the rivers, and upon the fountains
OF waters" The chapter then goes on,
as is alleged, describing other con-
vulsions of nature which may be re.
garded as prophetic of the creation of
a new planet.
The subject is a most portentous
one viewed in any light and involves
some of the most obstruse principles
in the mechanism of the solar system
as well as in the fundamental struc.
ture of the entire universe.