Year: 1874

hbhn Arrhvuh tine comet h'reOhrted---The
Present Race In Become Extinct.


Prof. +. @. Larue, of Lee Observatory,
New York, writes to the Daily Graphic
as follows:


The new comet is coming so nearly
directly to the earth that on or about the
Goth of July we shall enter its less dense
matter-the nucleus shall not touch us.
Such phenomenon is not known to
have occurred before, although it is sur
missed that once-a few years ago-we
touched upon the faintest outskirts of
the tail of one of these bodies. The sea-
son Immediately after this was unusually
"sickly," and for three years afterwards
continued to be so, as have found-no
one else, so far as know, have noted the
fact-by reference to mortuary tables of
most of the European cities, the we'll
marked increase of pulmonary and throat
diseases at that time might well be ac-
counted for by the undue prevalence,
say, of chlorine, left in the earth's atmos-
phere. Since the appearance of Donati's
comet diphtheria has been very preva-
lent-indeed, the disease was hardly
recognized before. l state merely the
facts, here being unwilling to offer a
theory, or even an hypothesis, in mcdi-
cal science.


Let us suppose now that when the
spectroscope shall be employed in the ex
animation of this new comet, as it soon
will be, it shall show the spectrum of
carbon into which, in highly COM
minuted state, we are about to enter.
The carbon diffused throughout the
earth's atmosphere, while it will infinite
ly conduce to the life of plants, will be
extremely deleterious to human life, and
the earth will in few years revert to
the carboniferous era of giant trees and
the most luxuriant vegetations, which in
turn must give rise, if seeds of rare ami
NAL life be brought from the comet, to
new animals of the gigantic size known
to geology, but not necessarily to me-
galOsauri and ichthyosauri. Gigantic
men, rather, will the earth bring forth,
in accordance with the well-understood
doctrine that in each era the advance of
intelligence has always been marked.
Hitherto the tendency of nature has
steadily been the successive production
of smaller, finer and more highly organ
lied nervous system, until in man, now
in evident process of decay, the ultima
tum of the present epoch has been
reached. To him, if the theory of de-
velopment be true and made universal,
instead of being confined to the earth
alone, must succeed at once larger man
and one with far greater intelligence. In
this doctrine is the true especial crea-
tion"-that is, the production of that
which terrestrial powers are inadequate
to bring into being. 1t seems to me,
looking calmly at the question, that by
comets or aerolites the missing links in
Mr.. Darwin's admirable theory are re-
placed-not by the unwelcome and unin-
telligible deus ec mdchina, but by the
veritable and known mdteria c spatiO.
The missing links" will never be found,
and the stumbling of so fine an OBJ
server and thinker as Mr. Wallace will
never be removed, save on this theory.
The missing links will never be found,
because they never existed In Sir w.
ThOmpson's doctrine, which is also mine,
is to be sought what theologians style
"divine interference" and what Agassiz
thought special creation, which was
merely occasional action through matter
from other worlds of that great Being
who, in my view, governs the universe
and acts-I had almost said can acton
matter only through matter, as he acts
and can act only on mind through mind.


have been led to this view by the
consideration of many facts. The Dar
winian theory is the only one which, to
my mind at least, offers anything like an
adequate explanation of life as it now is.
find it impossible to represent Especial
creation" in thought Granted the an
thropoid ape, and / can see the man.
But l can not represent in thought the
sudden appearance before me of man
with no antecedents. Who can think of
horse coming from nothing, his neck
clothed with thunder" in the admirable
language of the Hebrew Mythology?
Yet / know the defects of Darwinism as
well as Darwin himself, who has frankly
acknowledged them, and / know, too, as
Kant says, that "there are two things
that fill me with wonder and awe: the
starry heavens above me and the moral
law within me-" The starry heavens
have, as / believe, thus giving me my
moral law, giving me my frame of man
as it soon shall give wider law to men
greater and better than l.


But the extinction of the present race
of men-of the shopkeeper, the mechanic,
the artist, the capitalist---with all their
petty cares and troubles; their lying,
cheating and swindling; their living on
each other---each a parasite--may not,
inevitable as it is, be pleasant subject
of thought to most men. / frankly con-
fess that to me it is pleasant thought.
We have become too petty for nature to
tolerate us longer; let us depart in peace
and say "nunc demittis," as Won Hart
mann and joyful-resignation would have
us saw Place 1ur hO,n,1est


To speculate about what these coming
men will be is as if the great ancestor of
men and monkeys should speculate in
regard to the fortunes and mortal char
acteristcs of his descendants. Moreover,
it is hardly the province of q scientist
rather of Winwoode Reade--thus to
waste mental power. What is inevitable,
however, is the extinction of the present
race, whatever hypothesis of the nature
of comets may be accepted for man, as
he is the product of his present physical
conditions, can not live under new con-
ditions, retaining at the same time his
present characteristics. That we are.
about to enter new ones does not for a
moment admit of doubt. Toward the
latter end of July we enter the affluN>of
the comet. Whatever gas it may be COM
posed of-and all is yet in uncertainty
shall have direct effect upon the life of
the globe. Let us suppose hydrogen,
which is now so present in the earth's at
mosphere as to admit of human life.
With an access of it all relations are dis
turbed, and man changes or dies--most
probably the latter. In rushing through
such gas with the earth's tremendous
velocity sufficient heat would be gener-
ated to make the hydrogen unite with
oxygen of our atmosphere and burn with
untold heat, producing vast quantities of
water, which would fall upon the earth as,
in geologic times, the metals fell in
seething rain. All life would be extinct
save, by very comprehensive "per-
haps," that of the ocean. Suppose, as
Herschel supposed, that comets belong
| TO the same class as mcteorites, and half