the scene, and transferred it
to a transmundane state, involving the destruction of the heavens
and earth and their replacement with a new creation.

Is there any more real reason for believing this doctrine than
there is for believing the other kindred schemes? Not a whit. It
is a mistake of the same poetic nature, and resting on the same
grounds with them. Two thousand years have passed, and it has not
been fulfilled; and there is ever less and less sign of its
fulfillment. It never will be fulfilled, except in a spiritual
sense. The Jews will finally lose their pride of race and
covenant, abandon their special Messianic creed, and blend
themselves and their opinions in the mass of redeemed and
progressive humanity, and no more dream of a physical resurrection
of the dead amidst the dissolving elements of nature.

And now we must notice that besides all these poetic pictures of
the end of the world, there are prophecies of a similar result
which wear an apparently scientific garb. Many men of science
firmly believe that our world is destined to be destroyed, that a
close for the earthly fortunes of mankind can be plainly foreseen.
No little alarm was felt a century or more ago, when it was
discovered that there was a progressive diminution going on in the
orbit of the moon, which must cause it at length to impinge upon
the earth. But La Grange exhibited the fallaciousness of the
prophecy, by showing that the decrease was periodical and
succeeded by a corresponding increase. Intense and widely spread
terror has repeatedly been felt less a comet should come within
our planetary orbit, and shatter or melt our globe by its contact.
But the discovery of the nebulous nature of comets, of their great
numbers and regular movements, has quite dissipated that fear from
the popular mind in our day.

There are, however, other forms of scientific speculation which
put the prophesied destruction of the world on a more plausible
and formidable basis. It is supposed by many scientists that all
force is derived from the consumption of heat; and that the fuel
must at last be used up, and therefore no life or energy be left
for sustaining the present system of the creation. This theory is
met by the counter statement that the heat of the sun and other
similar centres may possibly not depend on any material
consumption; or, if it does, there may be a self replenishing
supply, loss and repair forming an endless circle.

It is fore