Year: 1878

OF all the questions which interest
mankind there are none more worthy
of his research than that of the dcsti-
ny of the planet which he inhabits.
We know precisely within some mil
lions of centuries the age of our globe ;
we know in what order the develop
ments of life have been progressively
manifested and propagated upon its
surface; we know at what epoch man
came finally to seat himself at this ban.
quet of life prepared for him. and for
which several thousand years were
needed to lay the cloth. We know all
this, or at least we believe we know
it, which amounts TO exactly the same
thing, but if we are settled about the
past we are not about the future. Hu-
manity knows scarcely more of the
probable duration tits existence than
each one of us of the number Of years
which remain for us to live:


La table est mise,


La chere eAqui>e


One l'on grisc,


Trinquons mes amis!


Very well but are we at sonp or
desert? Who can say, alas that coffee
| is not to be served Immediately? We
60 on and on, careless of the future of
the world, without even asking our
| selves if, by chance, this frail bark
that bears us over the ocean of the
Infinite is not in danger of upsetting.
or if its old hull, worn by time and
racked by the agitations of the voyage
has not some leak through which
death, drop by drop, is being refiltra-
ted into its frame, which is also the
frame of humanity.


The world, which for us is the ter
restrial globe, has not always existed.
1t has commenced; then it will end.
When? That is the question. And
firstly, we ask il the world can end
through accident or perturbation of
actual laws. We should not know
how to admit it. Such an hypothesis
would be an absolute contradiction of
the opinion we intend to sustain in
this article. 1t is therefore very clear
that We cannot adopt it. All discus
sion would be in truth impossible if
we admit the opinion we intend TO
combat. Thus, behold the first point
perfectly established; the earth will
not be destroyed by accident; it will
not end in consequence of the action
of the very laws of its actual life; ii
will die, as they say, a natural death.
Will it die of old age? Will il die of
disease? do not hesitate to reply
no it will not die of old age. Yes, il
will die of disease, in consequence of
excess. / have said the earth will end
by means of the action of the very
laws of its actual life. 1t matters now
to inquire what is. OF all the agents
operating for the support OF the life
of the teiraqueons globe, that which
is to destroy il. l will tell il without
hesitation. This agent it is that even
10 which the earth primarily owes her
existence; it is heat. Heat will drink
the sea, heat will cat the earth, and
this is how it will happen.


One day, observing the working of
locomotives, the illustriOus Stephen
son asked great English chemist wha
was the force that caused these ma
chimes to move. The chemist replied.
it is the sum-


In truth, all the heat we set at liber-
ty when we burn vegetable combusti-
bic, wood or coal, has been stored
there by the sun. A piece of wood
or bit of coal. is literally, then. moth
ing else than conserve of solar rays.


How will it he if the animal popu-
lation, if the human species, i'm its turn
follows the same progress How will
it be if some considerable transforma.
ton, born of the developments of ami
NAL life upon the surface of the globe.
comes to modify the structure of the
lands, to displace the basin of the seas
and to assemble humanity upon con.
tinents at once more fertile and more
permeable to solar heat? Now that is
precisely what is going to happen.
When we compare the world with
what it once was, we are Immediately
startled by a fact which leaps before
our eyes; this fact is the development
of organic life upon our globe. From
the highest summit of the mountains
to the deepest CULTS OF the sea, millions
upon millions Of animalcules of ami
mails, of cryptogamous or of superior
pleutes, labor night and day. This
labor went on fast enough already be-
fore the epoch when man first appear
ed upon earth. But since the appear
ance of man, it has developed with q