The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-04-03
WHEN THE EARTH DIES
And When Our Other Planets and
Our Sun Are Also Dead.
STILL THE HEAVENS BLAZE

The Infinite Space Shall Always Be
Filled With Suns and Worlds and
Souls, For In Eternity There Can Be
Neither Beginning Nor End.
The earth was dead. The other
planets had died, one after the other.
The sun was extinct, but the stars
were still twinkling. There shall al
ways be stars and worlds.
In the unreasonable eternity time,
which is essentially relative, is deter
mined by the movement Of each of
these worlds, and in each world it is
felt according to the personal ensa-
tons of their Inhabitants. Each globe
measures its proper period of time.
The years of the earth are not those
of Neptune. Neptune's year equals 1854
of ours and is no longer in the abso-
lutte. There exists no proper common
measure of time and eternity.
In the empty space time does not eN-
list. There are no years. no centuries,
but there is Il way OF measuring time
upon a revolving globe. Without peri
odical movements II can have no
conception of time Whatsoever.
The earth existed no longer; neither
did its celestial n~eighbor, Mars, nor
beautiful Venus, nor the gigantic Jupi-
ter, nor the strange universe of Sat
urn. it's rings gone. nor the slow plan
cts Uranus and Neptune, nor ever
the sublime sun, whose rays had for
J centuries made fertile the celestial
countries suspended in its light.
The sun was a black globe, the plan
cts were other black globes, and this
invisible system continued to course i'll
the starred immensely at the bosom of
the cold darkness of space.
From the viewpoint of life all these
They survived their antique history as
do the ruins of the dead cities of AS
syria, which the archaeologist discov-
ers in the desert and revolved dark in
the invisible and unknown. Every
thing was covered with ice, 273 degrees
below zero.
No genius, SO sage. could have
brought back the days Of old when
earth sailed through space bathed in
light, its beautiful green meadows
awakening with the rays Of the morn
ing sun, its rivers flowing like ser
penis through the green fields, its
woods reverberating with the songs of
the birds, it's forests enveloped in ma
jestic mystery.
Then all this happiness seemed eter-
nal. What has become of the mornings
and evenings, the flowers and the low
ers, the harmonies and joys. the beau
ties and the dreams? All have disap-
peared.
The earth is dead. all the planets are
dead, the sun is extinct. The solar
system gone. Time itself even annhi-
lated.
Time flows into eternity. but eternity
remains, and time revives.
Before the earth existed, during a
whole eternity, there were suns and
worlds, humanities filed with life and
activity as are we today. For millions
and millions Of years our earth did not
exist, but the universe was no less
brilliant. After our time it will be as
before. Our epoch Is Of no impor-
lance.
The dead and cold earth carried In
itself. however. an energy not lost, its
movement around the sun, which en-
ergy transformed into heat would SUI
flee to melt the whole globe, to reduce
1t to vapor and to begin a new history
for 1t, which, 1t is true, would not last
long, for If this movement around the
sun should suddenly cease the earth
would fall into the sun and cease to
exist. 1t would rush toward il With
ever increasing speed and would reach
it in sixty-fve days.
When the earth is dead, other worlds
will come. There will be other human
tiles, other Babylonians. other Thebe-
ians, other .Athenians, other Romes,
other Parises, other palaces, other tenn
pies, other glories. other loves, other
lights.
And these new universes will disap-
pear in their turn, to be followed by
still others. At q certain time far
away In the future eternity all the
stars Of the Milky Way shall rush to-
ward M center of gravity and form
an immense formidable sur, center Of
a system, whose enormous worlds
shall become populated by beings liv-
ing In a temperature which would seem
red hot to US.
The infinite space shall always be
filed with worlds and stars, souls and
suns, and eternity shall last forever,
for there can be neither beginning nor
end.-Camille Flammarion.
Cut His Visit Short.