The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-09

the trumpet and pouring OF the Walls, and
had a great audience. and now he 10 dead
and forgotten. and the world goes on.
Lieut.. TorTEN has some able theories Of
dissection" and what not which are doubt.
less very interesting and surprising to all
other gentlemen who try to turn poetry
Into arithmetic. From time to time posi-.
tive chronologers like the Rev. JOHN AL.
LIcoTT persuade themselves and a certain
number Of followers that the great day is
about to come. It is impossible to say
whether the emotional excuses and neg.
lect Of daily secular duties, which an cxpec-
tation Of an instant destruction Of the
world is liable to cause, are unbalanced In
the moral scale by the serious preparations
for the other world which the Rev. JOHN
CALLIcoTT and his brethren may now be
supposed to be making. At any rate, the
refusal of the world to close on June 10,
1897, will not cause any serious disap-
pointment among those brethren. This Is
the only world they know with the eye of
sense, and 1t Is n very decent sort of place.
q very tidy little planet, when the worst
has been said. Even the Hoosicrs will not
regret too bitterly that they may linger In
II for a little while yet. And as for the
Prophet CALLIcoTT, his reputation for
mathematical powers need not be injured
seriously by his failure to wind up the
world next Sunday. The margin for error
In calculations Of apocalyptic probability
Is SO great, that q trihing mistake Of say a
few hundred thousand years ought not to
disturb the self-esteem of the calculator.
20. but the long. long Time the World will lastI'
II 1t be said that this prediction of OMAR
FITZGERALD Is exactly rs rash as that Of
the Rev. JOHN CALLIcorT, because there
can be no knowledge of the u~nknowable
n no time table of the future, the reply
must be made that modern science and all
history tend to strengthen a belief in the
development Of planets as of human beings
and human societies. They have their time
to be born, to grow, to reach perfection, to
decline, to peg out. Now this world Is a
mighty fine concern, even as it Is. but clear
ly it Is in its early stages. 1t Is not all dis
covered yet. Vast tracts Of it are imper-
fectly civilized or not civilized at all. Free
dom and knowledge, among the chief
gifts of life, are still denied to millions
of the worlds population. Even among
the most highly civilized and fortunate,
improvements OF the arts ana comforts OF
life, great inventions of many kinds, such
as will be the common possessions of later
times, are now regarded as dreams or i'm
possibilities, or have not suggested them
selves to the most daring inventor. The
world progresses, but the work which it
has accomplished so far must be regarded
as the mere beginnings and rough sketches
Of the work which it has yet to do. II the
Rev. JOHN CALLICoTr and the rest Of us
could have a bird's-eye view Of the world as
it will be on June 10, 1897 or 2 1897, what
an old hunks of a world the one on view
nowadays would seem to us.
And the moral and mental development
of the world is even inferior to it's present
physical development. Give it time! How
full 1t still is of shams and humbugs and
swindles, of CLEvELANDs and Citizens
Unions, bunco s~teerers, and Associated
Presses; and once in a while it has an
editor who, kicked out Of politics, tries to
creep into a little glory in the plush
breeches of a special Jubilee turnkey.
Really the Rev. JOHN CALLICorr must give
the world time and it will take a good
deal anyway.