PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



which comes by a law of nature just as winter and 



4 summer do. So, that catastrophe will not be pro- 

 duced simply by rain, but rain will contribute : nor 

 by inroads of the sea, but these inroads will con- 

 tribute : nor by earthquake, but earthquake will 

 contribute. All elements will aid nature, that 

 nature's decrees may be executed. The chief cause 

 of its inundation will be furnished by the earth 

 herself, which, as has been already said, is subject 

 to transmutation, and may dissolve in moisture. 



5 Therefore, there will one day come an end to all 

 human life and interests. The elements of the 

 earth must all be dissolved or utterly destroyed in 

 order that they all may be created anew in inno- 

 cence, and that no remnant may be left to tutor men 

 in vice. There will be more moisture then than 

 there ever was before. At present the elements 

 are all carefully adjusted to the parts they have 

 to fulfil. To destroy the equipoise in which the 

 balance stands, there must be some addition to one 

 or other of them. The addition will be to moisture. 

 It has, at present, power to surround, but not to 

 overwhelm the earth. Any addition to it must of 

 necessity overflow into ground that does not now 

 belong to it. 1 So the earth as the weaker is bound 

 to yield to sea which has gathered unnatural strength. 

 So it will begin to rot, then to be loosened and con- 



6 verted into moisture, and to waste away by the 

 continuous drain. Rivers will then issue forth 

 beneath mountains, shaking them to the foundations 

 by their fury ; then they will flow on in silence 

 without a breath of air. The soil will everywhere 

 give forth water ; the tops of mountains will pour it 

 out, just as disease corrupts what is sound, and an 



1 The text is uncertain, but the meaning fairly obvious. 



