Year: 1868

\ writer in Belgraria is facetious


;. Besides predicting speedy exhaus-
ton of our coal fields. and picturlng
state of matters which must infallibly oc-
casion the flight ofhalf our population and
leave the other half dependent upon our
woods for fuel when the yule-log will not
only be seen at Christmas, or once week
Ieast-science, as represented by its
present hierarchs, startles us with the pros
pect of far wider calamity. The sun
itself. they say. will soon be used up. The
great orb of day, the source of heat, light
and life to our planetary system, Is an ex-
haustible and vanishing quantity. True
since he has lasted so long, they cannot
help saving that he must be made OF a
much finer combustible material than coal !;
but still. whatever he be made of, we owe
heat and light to his combustion and des-
truction. If the sun were a solid mass
of coal says the leader of the school, who
seems to have calculated the suns expec-
tation of life as carefully as if he held a
nolicv ON it. 1T would be burned out in
four thousand years Now, this Is but,
as it were. dav in the life of the worlds.


The epoohs of geology indicate an existence
of our planet, aud contemporaneously OF


the sun, for myriads of years. And even


the brief historic period-a period repre-


senting but fragment OF mans existence


on the earth, dating merely from the time
when civilized man began to leave written


records which have been preserved and


come down to us-would have sufficed to


see the sun burn itself up, according t6


the savants, if it had been : Il solid mass


of coal Hence, we repeat, since tour


thousand years would suffice to use up the


sun entirely, to his last cinder, even If he
7 were made of the best coal, and gave ou


heat and light in the manner imputed tt


him, the savants are forced to suppos


that the solar orb must be composed o


some combustible material so immeasurea


blv superior to coal that Of their theor,


be true) even imagination is at a loss t.
conceive what the combustible materla
can be all the more so that the same say
ants declare that coal is by far the bes


generator of heat which we poor denizen


of earth need ever hope to possess or dis


cover


Still. whatever be his substance, say tn
: savants, the sun is burning himself up. Ill
4 gives up heat and light only by consumlnt
himself And the picture rises IN one
: mind of time when this act OF dlsln
4 terested suicide will be accomplished, an
5 when earth and all the planets will be lei
5 like shivering outcasts vainly trying t
: warm themselves at crate where the mr.
: has gone out. But, fortunately, perhap
t although it is hard to have to make
l choice among such dire evlls-the tate {


the planets is to be different from this
Instead of being left to die of cold, the
: are to be sucked into the sun, and to pei
n ish in adding to his failing heat. The su
IS is to devour them one by one. They al
d to be thrown on the funeral pyre, like
n Hindoo raiah's widows, and be consume
Y along with their lord. Or worse tha
o this, for their lord is to devour them
1t order to keep himself alive as long as po
: sible. The old fable of Saturn devourir
: his children is to be realized; and there
d not CLEAN of hope for us. Ulysses, whe
it in the cave of the Cyclopean ogre, col
n trived to escape by putting out the mol
e ster's eve; but the sun could find us eve
y in the dark, drawing us towards him as
le lost needle in dark room is drawn to
D. magnet We poor planets are like
1T swarm of minnows shut up in a pond wit
Of = nike. or like rabbits in the cage Of Il
r boa constructor in the Geological Gardel
|; permitted to live and circle about unit
L. the monster has need of us to satisfy b
ct annette and maintain his existence"