CASUAL COMMENTS

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19144, 29 October 1927, Page 13

CASUAL COMMENTS

PROPHECIES AND SUPERSTITIONS. '. SPECIALLY WBITTBIC JOB TH* fBBSS.) [By Leo Faxnikg.] No doubt the world as a smiled or laughed at the recent prophecy of another great war —a prediction based by a fanciful gucsser on mystic signs of Egypt's pyramid)?, but some superstitious persons may hare given serious heed to the wild words. U would be just- as sensible to evolve a forecast from tea-leaves in a cup, a bird's nest, a string of sausages, or a page of Hansard. * * * However, that piece of cabled nonsense is a reminder that many prophets had busy times with the H'l4-iylb war—usually alter things had lia P" peued. That war has proved, too, that superstition lias not yet been banished by science. Since the war, how many men like to be the third to light a cigarette from the t,amc match? During the past few weeks, the writer'lias often seen a good match blown out after it has served two smokers, and another struck for a third person. Human nature is still very young, and' does not easily lose its belief in signs and portents. ' Some who may scoff at such things in company have their own private hidden superstitions, 'lhey may be ashamed to be seen walking around a harmless-looking ladder (on which no painter or plumber may be working), but they will cross a street to avoid one, and they will "touch wood" occasionally.

To-day's newspapers do not givo much space to predictions of a sudden end of the world, but there are books and periodicals in which .such a disaster is discussed very seriously—not as a possibility but. as a certainty, 'i wo or three months ago the writer perused a little paper of which the main purpose apparently was to warn people that the crack of doom was very near—indeed due at any moment. Even the Queensland drought was mentioned as one of the portents anions various others, which were linked up with Scriptural quotations. -Vnvhodv who took this stuff seriously would not have the slightest intm-st in the davlight saving of that Man of the Hour," Mr T. K. Sidey, M.i ~ nor in the promised announcement or Iho personnel of the I'niucd Political Party fto which a wag, weary of tho darkness of this entrant for the political stakes, has given the nickname "Unighted"). * * * Tn one of his merry moods W. S. Gilbert addressed the terrestrial globo thus: — Roll on, thou bail roll on! Through pathless realms ot space Koll on! What though I'm in a sorry case? What 1 hough I cannot meet my bills? What though I suffer toothache's ills? What though I swallow countless pills? Never you mind! . Koll on.

At the conclusion of the iast verse the author put the earth's attitude in three little words—"lt rolls on." The old globe has continued to roll on. Gilbert's grave is rolling on with Mother Karth, as millions of new graves will, for the earth's rolling will last the time of countless generations to come.

During its hundreds of millions of years of rolling the earth—perhaps when it was comparatively a toddler, only a few million years old—may have had some narrow escapes from collisions with eccentric heavenly bodies, but those other rollers settled into their itineraries long ago. Iliey have space enough to keep their own courses, and they run no risk of susnension for inconsistent running. 1 * * #

However, mankind—or some of itis sometimes not so much interested in the earth as it is, but as it might be, if . So to-day some folk, instead of taking the earth as they find it and enjoying it, let themselves be filled with dread of a sudden endingYet the earth has rolled on past the time-limits of manv prophecies; it »s safe to bask the earth for rolling much more reliably than the balls thrown in some of the forbidden games of chance for chocolates.

To-dav, in the iazzy reactions from the stress of the war, the nations are not in the mood to listen to end-of-tho-world prophecies, although individuals here and there may lielievo that the time appointed for the crash is nigh. But nearly a thousand years ago a similar prediction found millions of receptive ears, as an old chronicle states: —

"An epidemic terror of the end of the world has several times spread over the nations. The most remarkable was that which seized Christendom about the middle of the tenth century. Numbers of fanatics appeared in France, Germany, and Italy at that time, preaching that the thousand years prophesied in the Apocalypse as "the term of the world's duration were about to expire, and that the Son of Man would appear in the clouds to judge the godly and the ungodly. The delusion appears to have been discouraged by the Church, but it nevertheless spread rapidly among the people."

The scene of the Last Judgment was to be at Jerusalem, whither thousands of pilgrims travelled, after they had sold their property. Every thunderstorm gave them a fear that the end was beginning, and every casual meteor was regarded as part of the final breakup. The earth rolled on peacefully through the thousandth year and after, but that journey to Jerusalem, miserable for all the wayfarers, was fatal to many. They merely found a grave far from home.

That was a tragic panic, but there have been some comic scares, although these were not all funny at the time for the persons who were temporarily terrified. It is recorded that in 180G many people of Leeds were alarmed by a report that a hen in a village near the city was laying eggs, inscribed "Christ is coming." The words were certainly on the eggs which were seen by many sinners, who promptly turned to prayer and repentance. They led the better life vigorously until some sceptics proved that the writing was not due to Divine intervention and was not attributable to the devil. It was simply human trickery, easily detected.

Sometimes the gloomy prophets, hesitating to fixe a date for the destruction of tiie whole earth, content themselves with a prediction of the ruin of a part —merely a country or two. For example, about thirty-five years ago, many credulous inhabitants of the North" Island of New Zealand were alarmed by a crazy statement that it wculd sink wholly into the sea on or before a specified date. Similar silly forecasts for New Zealand have been made since then, but this countryone of the oldest in the world, as geologists count time —continues to hold its place firmly in the rolling globe. New Zealand* need not worry about the untruthful nickname, ,; >haky Isles." which appears occasionally in Australian papers, ivhen a report of an earthquake is cabled across the Tasman Sea. * * * The attempts to scare New Zealanders were preceded long ago by the same kind of nonsense in England. A big book conld be filled with details of

those falsified prophecies, which have always frightened some gullible folk. One of the most amusing scares affected only London four centuries ago At that time the city nourished many astrologers and fortune-tellers (still numerous and prosperous). The starsazers alleged that on February Ist, 1524. the river Thames would rise until it overflowed the whole city. Re fore that date there was a fairly big stampede from London, but the o'd river played false to the astrologers. When an infuriated populace ungrateful for the saving of the city — ha'' an eagerness to throw the prophets into the river, these persons hail wit enough to delude the wrathful citizens. The seers explained that they Iml made a slight mistake in their reading of the stars, and they had thus fixed the date of the inundation exactly a century too soon. London would not be "submerged until February Ist, 1624—and thus they "got away with it," as the Americanism ha.* it. Even minor political prophets can show similar ingenuity when facts and figures have gene against them.