XX11. INTRODUCTION. 



the progress of knowledge despite, too, their own doubts and 

 convictions of error. 



Of course it is the last result that the lower grades of 

 scientific men generally would try to bring about. It would 

 lower them from the proud position of heroic poets gifted with 

 an illimitable imagination, and furnished with an unbounded 

 license to terrify mankind to the level of common mortals like 

 ourselves. No more would their names be heralded by the 

 journals of the world accompanied by some brain-whirling 

 paragraph, and unless they were really possessed of more 

 intellectual power than their brethren generally, their names 

 would never be heard of. 



For instance, see what happened at a late meeting of the 

 American Scientific Association at Portland, U. S. ; and although 

 Americans, they only imitate the theories advanced by Euro- 

 pean savants. Five papers were read apparently to horrify the 

 audience ; each having as its grand conclusion, the extinction 

 of life on the earth. We beg to be excused for giving their 

 names such prominence. Prof. Young said, in substance, that 

 the sun was being gradually muffled by a peculiar rain falling 

 on it, which formed a crust that would eventually exclude all 

 light and heat, so that a return to original chaos would be the 

 inevitable consequence. He forbore giving the exact date of 

 the catastrophe. 



Gen. J. G. Barnard came more to the point. He said our 

 earth is only a fire-bubble with a very thin crust, so that we 

 are liable to explode at any moment. As soon, therefore, as 

 we hear of any telegraphic report of a volcano in eruption, or 

 see any heavy meteor or comet dashing towards the earth, then, 

 too, we may listen for the sound of the last trumpet. 



