26 1 



KDouiledge & SeleDtifie Nems 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



Conducted by MAJOR B. BADEN-POWELL, F.R.A.S., and E. S. GREW, M.A. 



Vol. II. No. 12. 



iNEW SERIES.] 



NOVEMBER, 1905. 



r Entered at 

 L Stationers' Hall 



] SIXPENCE NET. 



CONTENTS.—See Page VI L 



A Possible Celestial 

 C©LtaLstrophe. 



Bv I. E. Gore, F.R.A.S. 



In the Second Epistle of .St. Peter there is a predic 

 tion of the destruction of the world by fire. It is a 

 matter of some uncertainty whether this epistle was 

 really written by the apostle Peter. There are no cer- 

 tain traces of it earlier than the 3rd century. Its 

 authenticity was questioned by Origen, and St. Jerome 

 says that many in his time rejected it. The difference 

 in style between the first and second epistle is so 

 marked that modern critics think it improbable that 

 the second epistle was written by St. Peter. But there 

 is "no consensus of opinion ag^ainst it," and as it is 

 now universally admitted into the canon of Scripture 

 we may, perhaps, accept it as genuine. However this 

 may be, it seems remarkable that in tlie great Sanscrit 

 epic poem, the " Mahabharata," there is a distinct pre- 

 diction of the destruction of the world by fire. In that 

 ancient work, the following passage occurs :* " O 

 King, towards the end of those thousands of years,, 

 constituting the four Ytigas, and when the lives of men 

 become very short, a drought occurs extending for 

 many years. .'^nd then, O Lord of the Earth, 

 men and creatures, endued with small strength and 

 vitality, becoming hungry, die by thousands. And 

 then, O Lord of men, seven blazing suns, appearing in 

 the firmament, drink up all the waters of the earth 

 that are in the rivers or seas. And, O bull of the 

 Bharata race, then also everything of the nature of 

 wood and grass that is wet or dry is consumed and 

 reduced to ashes. .'\nd then, O Bharata, the fire called 

 Samvartaka, impelled by the winds, appeareth on the 



• From an English translation of the Vana Parva, by Pratap 

 Chandra Ray, CLE Second Edition, iSSj, p. 561. 



carlh that hath already been dried to cinders by the 

 seven suns. i\m\ then that fire, penetrating through the 

 earth, and makin-.;' its appearance in I he nether regions 

 also, begetteth great terror in the hearts of the gods, 

 the Daiiavas and the Yaksluu. And, O Lord of the 

 Earth, consuming the nether regions, as aLso 

 evcrvthing upon this earth, that fire destroyeth 

 all things in a moment." etc. This agrees 

 with St. Peter's words, " The elements shall 

 melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the 

 works that are therein shall be burned up." Tlie idea of 

 "seven suns " in the above extract is also in curious 

 agreement with the words of the prophet Isaiah (chap. 

 30, v. 26), "Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as 

 the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be 

 sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day that 

 [he Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and 

 healeth the stroke of their wound." .Assuming the 

 truth of these remarkable predictions, let us see how 

 the catastrophe of a general conflagration might be 

 brought about by the operation of natural causes with- 

 out the intervention of a miracle. 



Some have supposed that suoli a catastrophe might 

 possibly be produced by an outburst of the internal 

 fires of the earth. But such an hypothesis— in itself 

 very improbable in a cooling- globe like the earth — is 

 directly opposed to St. Peter's words. He says : " The 

 heavens, '■= being on fire, .shall be dissolved," clearly indi- 

 cating, I think, that the fire is to come from the mit- 

 s/de ; " the heavens," not the earth, being on fire, is to 

 be the immediate cause of the catastrophe. Others 

 have thought that an outburst in the sun would, per- 

 haps, produce the conflagration, and this certainly 

 seems much more probable. Were the sun to suddenly 

 blaze up, like the "temporary stars," recorded in the 

 annals of astronomy, and of which we had such a bril- 

 liant example in February, 1901, in Perseus, then, of 

 course, the earth would certainly be burnt up, and at 

 least everything on its surface would at once be re- 

 duced to ashes. But, although this is, of course, within 

 the bounds of possibility, such a catastrophe is not, I 

 think, at all probable. There are, to be sure, small out- 

 bursts daily taking place in our central luminary, as m- 

 dicated by the "prominences," or red flames, visible 



■ Here the word " heavens " means the earth's atmosphere. 



