THE BOUNDS OF SCIENCE.
(Fragment from a Fin de Monde Romance.)
The Student had read many things, but he had not yet considered the subject of Coal. He knew that it was expensive, but he had not imagined that there was so little in the world. But he at length obtained the requisite knowledge, and set to work to put things to-rights. He called upon the Secretary of a Transatlantic Ocean Steamer Company, and remonstrated with him upon the waste with which the transactions of his institution were conducted.
"You carry your passengers too rapidly," he observed.
"As how?" asked the Secretary.
"Why I am given to understand that the power generated by the coal gives each person on board your ships a rate of progression night and day of twenty-four horses."
"And, if it does—what then?"
"Why, it is too much," returned the Student. "All the coal in the world will be exhausted in something like four or five hundred years; and so, while there is yet time, I had better go somewhere where coal is a secondary consideration. What shall I do?"
And then the Secretary advised the Student to take a ticket to the Centre of Africa—and the Student followed his advice. But the day before the boat started, the Student once more appeared.
"I am afraid," said he, "I must ask you for the return of my money. I find that it will be useless for me to go to the Centre of Africa, as the Sun is about to cease giving warmth."
"Dear me!" cried the Secretary, "I was under the impression that the Sun was timed to last about one hundred millions of years?"
"It may have been in the far distant past," returned the Student, sadly, "but recent statistics fix the termination of the Sun's existence at a much nearer date. There is no doubt that the Sun will not last more than four millions of years, or five millions at longest. Now give me my money!"
And (of course) the bullion was promptly returned.
