The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1900-05-24

sion, an inconceivably mighty ex-
plosion, at n period so comparative.
1y recent, that much Of the mur dane
surface remains to this day as 1t then
was arranged. Be this as it may,
the hypothesis shows all Introduce
il for; that the ancient rustic, and
the modern scientist agree in assert
ing the non-eXistence of the moon in
an age of the world when superficial
arrangements were much the same
as now. No matter how many din,
deOns dgOne: time Uds when earth
had no moon, The primitive shep-
HeIW and the modern sdCdll, alike
assign the fact to an age so remote,
that all dates are at one. Keep this
Arcadian legend in mind, for it is
the central brilliant of most won
derous cluster of magic truths ami
magnificent tradit ons. Now
another:
The telescope long ago revealed
the existence of great number-no
matter how many-very small plan
cts, revolving around the sun in true
planetary fashion, in orbits inclined
at all manner of angles with the
plane Of the ecliptic. the earth's or
bit, the suns equator, and we sup
pose the equinoctial colure. and
everything else regular and normal.
Erratic as they seemed, the laws of
their movements were soon formu-
lated, but their origin long remained
the problem of philosophers. AT
last solution was reached. A vast
planet had been rent into ruins, by
an explosion so vast and awful, that
Imagination recoils, stunned and ap-
palled from it's contemplation; and
the fragments, though hurled from
the original path of the mass, sew
orally resumed orbitual revolutions
as asteroids. And the time of all
this? Whole aeons in the past: no
answer but that-one. PRE- Sc
LENE?- -Unanswerable now, but
patience! In this amazing age, when
the achievements of science tran
scend the miracles of the old worlds
wonder age, any day may bring the
answer. Wait, and watch.
Back to the same dim, dateless
age; dateless and wholly unmark-
able with dates, we follow the le-
gends of Deucalion and Noah; the
mighty floods that drowned the ma
tions; the escape of a single family
and the repeopllng of the world from
them. The legend was current
among all the nations south of the
Caspian, from the Indus to the Pill
lars of Hercules, from the very twi-
light dawn of traditional antiquity |;
and side by side with the Arcadian
legend, recedes as we pursue it, end
lessly on, and deeper into the past,
until lost in the mists of the cocange
age of humanity.
Something much of fact, underlies
all this legend. The Greeks did not
invent the myth of Deucalion: the
Hebrew priest did not invent the
legend of Noah: the Archimagus of
Babylon did not invent the legend
of Xisuthrus: all essentially the same
and all older in the world than Greek
or Hebrew, or Chaldean: older than
Phylarch, or Priest, or Archimagus,
by ages. Calm, impressive, and
most majestic is the Hebrew nara.
tive. a late recension, doubtless, of
the older and wilder legend as cur
rent in Babylonia, ages before NM
rod hunted or Semiramis reigned: {:
before Abraham went forth from
"Up of the Chaldees": long before
Jew and Chaldean were ditferentiat-
ed and antagonized. Common to all
the nations of southern and western
Asia, and eastern Europe, it is ra-
tionaliy probable that it comemo-
rates some grand catastrophe in
volving all those peoples, who have
preserved athwart the ages such
memory of it as they might, in their
way. Back into the very night of
antiquity we follow this legend, an
tedating as it does, almost the hu-
man race itself.
One more, the legend Of Atlantis. A
vast island-so the story ran--ip the
western ocean: a most Elysian abode
where eternal spring, with it's wealth
of beauty glorified the earth. and
immortal youth divinised humanity.
The legend is part of the tradition
al lore of all the oriental nations,
but even in their earliest myth, it
is the story of a lost land. Long
before poet dreamed, or minstrel
sung of it to races who embalmed
the story in their literature, the glor-
ious isle was but myth or a men,
DRY in the world. The fact of its ex-
istence none ever doubted, but whe n
it disappeared, no one of all the sages
of the ancient world, assumed to de-
termine, or presumed to declare. 1t
was even then, in the remote ages
when Homer, and Hesiod. wrote and
Orpheus sang of the wonders of the
hoary past, regarded as an event OF
then extremely remote antiquity.
And 80 the legend of Atlantis, like
the others reviewed, recedes as we
advance towards it, until lost like
them in primeval shadows.
Is there chapter of unwritten
history underlying all this? Why
not? Geology has revealed sub
Inner history than all these legel DIS
tell, though true to the letter. An
teceding as these prehistoric tradi-
tions do, not only all probable, but
even all nationally conjectural dates
yet they emerge from the starless
rayless darkness of the unknown
unknowable past at the same mo-
ment, and together; bear the same
Interpretation, and seem alike indi.
cative of the same cataclysmhl phe-
nomena. And in this they power
fully solicit reason, for acceptance
as facts of grandeur and verify
rather than fancy for approval as
fictions of beauty, So? Let us see
Sir John Herschell is good enough
authority ali over this world, for the
fact that the moon is, comparatively
but newcomer in our neighborhood
Our world was not always blessed
with her tendence. The satellite
arriAed after the tertiary deposits
were laid down on our planet. He
thinks it was shot out of the earth
two hundred and forty thousand
miles into the sky, by an explosion
too tremendously vast to adequate.