THE END OF THE WORLD.

Kumara Times, Issue 2907, 22 February 1886, Page 2

THE END OF THE WORLD.

The following are ten theories as to the end of world, which are taken from Dr. Wild’s “ How and when the World will end ” : 1. The ice surface of the earth is steadily diminishing, elevated regions are being lowered, and the seas are filling np. The land by-and-by will be all submerged, and the last man will starve to death. 2. The ice is gradually accumulating at the North Pole and melting away at tiie South Pole, the consequence of which in due time will be that the earth will change its centre of gravity suddenly. Then there will be an awful catastrophe—a flood like unto the Noachic. The last man will be drowned. 3. Tho earth cannot always escape a collision with some comet. When such a collision occurs there will be a mingling of air and cometary gas, causing an explosion. The last man will be blown up. 4. There is a retarding medium in space, which is causing a gradual loss nt velocity in the planet and the earth; the law of gravitation will draw them all nearer to (he sun as they decrease in speed, till finally they will fall into the sun. The last man will of course be aunstruck. 5. The amount of water on the earth is slowly diminishing, and in consequence of this the air is losing in quantity and quality. Finally, the earth will become an arid waste, like the moon. The last man will be suffocated. 6. Other suns have disappeared, and sooner or later ours must blaze up and vanish. The intense conflagration will of course kill every living thing (salamanders and all). The last man will be burnt up,' 7. The sun’s heat is gradually decreasing and the temperature cooling. The cold will increase by the glacial zones enlarging and spreading to the equator, nniil tho habitable space will I’c a mere nothing. The last man will be frozen to death. S. Th" gradual cooling of the earth will produce enormous fissures, like : ho-e in tho mom. The surface will become uustablcj forcing the inhabitant^

to betake themselves to caves. The last man will be crushed (o death, and buried at the same time.

9. The centrifugal force is increasing, and in time the centripetal force will fail to hold the earth together, hence it will break np into pieces. The last man will fall into space. 10. Evolutionary retrogression. This means that lhe unfolding law of evolution will, in due time, become an infolding one. Man being (he extreme of evolution, he will begin to infold back. The last man will go back to a monkey, the monkey to something else, and so on till everything reaches the vanishing point, and nothing remains. The first day of nothingness, the last of darkness and distress.