The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-09

as if an emergency brake when its hour
has come.
SKY-DUST NAY STOP THE EARTH.
The metoric dust perhaps in stIll
I longer period even the ether of light 1t
self, viii gradually so check the course Of
the planet Long before that course has
! been stopped entirely the planet viii have
/, fallen into the sun ana have disappeared
as q aickering metallic fame. For as soon
as its race has slowed down. even 4 little,
T, gravity pounces on it with vultures tai
ons and tears it toward the sun. Its path
path becomes a spiral. until 1t last. lkar-
rs. it dives. Itself only a colossal failing
star. into this sun that has already drunk
w so many little meteoric swarms with
its flaming kiss.
Now = second possibility
Throw piece OF white hot iron into
I the snow Of winter. The snow kisses
melts. vanishes in steam in q big circle
around it, But the winter remains. Tho
frosty night rules undisturbed. Al first
/ the hot iron has conquered the cold in a
! few seconds. as in play. Now the frost
! settles on the iron. hour after hour. days
and weeks And it masters the iron com
, pletely, till it is cold to its heart like the
snow.
| The sun is such a piece of iron.
/ To-day It flows its flaming rays out with
such might that The deserts Of earth nine
Il millions OF miles away scorch the naked
foot. \ little shift of the earths axis.
that viii bring the ice OF the pole under
equatorial sun. and all the ice would dow
4 .,t.-
hot lump Of iron.
But over this gigantic metallic lump OF
our planetary system there rests the re-
morseless frost-nisht, everlasting. Let rs
assume that the space Of universe has a
temperature of ninety degrees below zero.
Its cold certainly is not less than that In
that unchanging ice-bath the sun must
inevitably burn out some day. and become
cold to its very heart. ike our lump Of
iron
The day viii come. which wiz - no
Day bu. the end OF the Sunday 5 Sal
dur's reign viii be done
These Astronomical reasonirgs about the
suns dying have something that differ
entiates them decis.vely from other con-
ceptions OF the end Of the world. They
tsith AllC ftcltiN-4t u 9t.ttut-it4t-S-
ednesS. TIE accidental We So an ED
that approaches slowly. in The course only
% taconceiyab bly, many millions q years
And in this slow. logical orderly pro-
cess We see a great insication-th this
coming end is not to be called N end. but
is. in truth only n great wonderful step
in the course of evolution,
CAN THERE BE AN END-
From the primal cell t. the prinordiaI
plant. from the plant 70 the first animal.
from animal to sninai. 1t al follows Ike
the rings in the tree that show its sue
Cessive ycars And ~ lass man & hts
himself upward from il all Cur ancestors
Of me glacisl period. Who hunted the
mammoth. stood barely - high an culture
as the Eskimo stands tcsay And set
we Developed from thea. We In the
electric CLOVIS ~ our Twentieth Century.
with our poetry ana ethies-the Eskimo
Who has become Shakespeare AMI Goethe
The natural philosopher 6siuces The
unknown from the known
Nothing can hinder hin from seeing
in this acI OF acknowledgements caly one
act Of \ DEVELOPMENT thas includes the
whole universe The eTolutioa Of man
has \ cosrssic significance
Throughout she waale irnFsens.ty OF
tine there must have been an uabrokea
course OF events. Only enc part OF which