Year: 1876

" "scnrcs."


The city has recovered from its appre


tensions Of dire results, the He'll CAT


explosion having destroyed nothing


which it was not intended to destroy, ant


rended nothing which it was not intend


ed to rend. The event still furnishes


food for talk, more or less wise, and fol


week to come men will continue tt


compare their experiences, and will bt


divided into those who went down to SCI


the sight and those who did not, between


those who felt the vibrations and heard


the detonations, and tho exceeding few


who Qf we may believe them) felt moth
ing and heard nothing, for nobody


wishes to be out OF the fashion, or to bf


thought deafer or less sensitive than hi


neighbor. And now, all being we'll over


it is hard to say definitely what people


were afraid of. Nothing is easier than
to propagate general alarm for which
there is no foundation, as those well
know who have cry of "Fire |" given
in q crowded theater, or seen carload
of travellers thrown into panic by some
snap or crack entirely insignificant. The
belief in the general end of all terres.
trial things, and the final purgstion OF
tho world, has sometimes got the better
of whole masses of population, and even
in our own day has been noisy and non
sensical enough to attract attention.
Horace Walpole in one of his letters men,
tions that all London had been expect.
ing the day of judgment, and many OF
the inhabitants had betaken themselves
to the fields for safety. The dark day
which once frightened all Massachusetts
will occur to the reader. "Go home and
tell your MOTHER" said witty DR.. Byles,
to boy who had been sent to him for
his opinion, "that I am as much in the
dark US she is" Nor need we record
how comets, with their portentous tails,
have perplexed the nations, nor how an
unusual display of meteors has often been
considered the harbinger of something
dreadful. The Nootka sound Indians
have most decided horror of eclipses,
thinking the sun about to be swallowed
by big fish, only to be driven away by
much pounding Of brass kettles. A sin
gle case of pestilential disease will
sometimes destroy the equanimity of a
parish or of whole town. For being
capable of sublime courage, man is
sometimes good deal of a coward.


OF course, most of these epidemics of
terror are to be attributed to sheer igno-
rance of the forces of nature, and OF her
methods Of controlling them. We do
not regard an eclipse as the Nootka III
dian does, but we know more than he
does of the sun and even of fishes.
Gen. Newton did not apprehend gen.
eral tremble from the explosion, because
he understood perfectly what his dyna-
mite would do and what it could not do.
Having taken all possible precautions
against disaster, and thus protected his
scientific reputation against even the
impossible, he proceeded calmly, as sci
entifc men usually do.


If VIC were to moralize upon this sub
ject, it should be by pointing out the
wisdom of trusting for safety to those
who comprehend, as we do not, causes
and effects. The answer to the ranting
Millerite was the physical impossibility
of the confagration which he predicted.
When the devil appeared to naturalist
and threatened to eat him, he pointed to
the hoofs of the apparition, which show
ed that it was graminivorous, and could
not eat naturalists at all. The physical
disturbances of the earth, the effects OF
which are really to be apprehended, are
few, and, like earthquakes and volcanic
are mostly confined to certain
localities. We live in zone free from
such perturbations. and may possess our
souls in peace. If all the comets which
have come and gone have done no mis-
chief at all, there is little need to fear
their return, no matter how long their
tails or how bright their heads. We
may be pretty sure that the world will
last our time at least. We may be sure,
too, that the danger of any singular and
peculiar catastrophe by land or sea is
small. The odds are against it; and
upon the safety of the odds let us all
quietly repose. Tribune.