CHARMION. And that last hour- speak of it. Remember that, beyond the
naked fact of the catastrophe itself, I know nothing. When, coming out
from among mankind, I passed into Night through the Grave- at that
period, if I remember aright, the calamity which overwhelmed you was
utterly unanticipated. But, indeed, I knew little of the speculative
philosophy of the day.
EIROS. The individual calamity was, as you say, entirely
unanticipated; but analogous misfortunes had been long a subject of
discussion with astronomers. I need scarce tell you, my friend,
that, even when you left us, men had agreed to understand those
passages in the most holy writings which speak of the final
destruction of all things by fire, as having reference to the orb of
the earth alone. But in regard to the immediate agency of the ruin,
speculation had been at fault from that epoch in astronomical
knowledge in which the comets were divested of the terrors of flame.
The very moderate density of these bodies had been well established.
They had been observed to pass among the satellites of Jupiter,
without bringing about any sensible alteration either in the masses or
in the orbits of these secondary planets.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11