The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1882 The End of the World.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 525, 4 January 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1882 The End of the World.

TOWN EDITION. [lssued at 4.60 p. m.j '• —i - ." r T

We breathe again. The dread prophecy uttered by Mother Shipton'

that “ the world to ah end would come in 1881,” has not yet been fulfilled. The fact is singular, but comforting. That oracular prophecy, like most prophecies, is not remarkable for detail. It merely foretold that we might expect the lease df this sublunary sphere to expire sometime during the twelve months; and left us in horrible uncertainty as to when we might expect the catastrophe. Anxiously, therefore, we watched the hands of the clock on the night of the 31st —but nothing came .but 1882 and bedtime, and with a load of care—an agony of suspense —removed from our breast, we retired to rest wondering what the good old lady could have been thinking about to go and frighten people like that. Peirhaps she had been drinking when she penned or gave verbal utterance to the terrible words announcing the annihilation of the world in the year just passed away. But after all Mother Shipton is not a bit more to blame in the matter than was the late Dr Gumming, indeed the Dr was more culpable, for he prognosticated the end of the world not once but half a . dozen times. Probably his prophecies have been received by the world with about as much respect as it has accorded to those of Mother Shipton. However, we are not yet out of the wood. On a marble slab at Obermmel, in Germany, is a latin inscription which conveys the alarming intelligence that when Easter shall fall on St. Mark’s Day (April 25th) Pentecost on St Anthony’s Day (June 13th) and Corpus Domini on St. John’s Day (June 24th), on the days named all the world shall cry woe. In the year 1886, the above feasts will fall on the days named. But as if this was not bad enough, we are threatened with something more terrible in the same year. Michael Nostradamus, a notorious French astrologer and quack doctor, who flourished the in fifteenth century, prophesied that when Good Friday should fall on St. George’s Day (April 23rd), Easter on St. Mark’s Day (April 25th), and Corpus Domini on St. John’s Day (June 24th), the world would come to an end. In 1886 these three feasts will be celebrated on these three days. Well, it is something to think that 1881 is j over, and that we have a little breathing time before we need feel concerned about the prophecy of Nostradamus.