Page 21. A Feaver.
ll. 13-14.
O wrangling schooles, that search what fire
Shall burne this world.
'I cannot but marvel from what Sibyl or Oracle they' (the Ancients) 'stole the prophecy of the world's destruction by fire, or whence Lucan learned to say,
Communis mundo superest rogus, ossibus astra
Misturus.
There yet remaines to th'World one common fire
Wherein our Bones with Stars shall make one pyre.
I believe the World grows near its end, yet is neither old nor decayed, nor will ever perish upon the ruines of its own Principles. As the work of Creation was above nature, so is its adversary annihilation; without which the World hath not its end, but its mutation. Now what force should be able to consume it thus far, without the breath of God, which is the truest consuming flame, my Philosophy cannot inform me.' Browne's Religio Medici, sect. 45.