Plate XVI.—The End of the World.
Of course this is all imaginary, and cannot affect ourselves, but the very idea of it is melancholy, and enough to justify the words of Campbell:—
"For this hath science searched on weary wing
By shore and sea—each mute and living thing,
Or round the cope her living chariot driven
And wheeled in triumph through the signs of heaven.
Oh, star-eyed science, hast thou wandered there
To waft us home the message of despair?"
In reality, as we know nothing of the origin, so we know nothing of the end of the world; and where so much has been accomplished, there are obviously infinite possibilities enough to satisfy the hopes of every one.
While some stars may be fading, others may be rising into their place, and man need not be identified with one earth alone, but may rest content in the idea that the life universal is eternal.
