END-OF-WORLD SCARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 19

END-OF-WORLD SCARE.

A FRENCHMAN'S PROPHECY. jgZ COMET PONS WINNECKE. NEEDLESS ALARM. foolish scare has been aroused by prophecy of a Frenchman that Pons fl-innecke, one of the 20 periodic comets that * Rto our v^s ' on an( * disappear again into space on their eternal journey about the central sun, ■- to crash into the earth and demolish jt The prophecy is believed >n by a la'rcrfe number of people, who are becomjjj/needlessly as the time diLws near for this'fiery monster to flash across the dome of our night sky. This is not the first time the coming 0 { a comet has been awaited with apprehension. Portents in the sky, most of all comets, have always inspired dread and terror. Not so long ago astronomers believed that if one of these bodies crashed into the earth our planet would he annihilated. It is now known that these bodies are gaseous, and the earth could pass through them without their injuring it. Do They Affect Us? But superstition dies hard. There are still many people who believe comets play a large part in human affairs. For instance, when Halley's famous comet first appeared it so happened that the lurks had just captured Constantinople The comet was blamed. People prayed to be saved from "the devil, the Turk, and the comet."

Comets were regarded as signs in ancient times. In Scandanavia it was firmly believed that comets appeared when the King had committed some grave sin. Kings used to be dethroned on the word of soothsayers, who interpreted the meaning of the flashing comet.

The coming of scientific astronomy has not dealt a death blow to the strange superstitions which follow the comet in its dazzling flight. Ih Franee, for example, wine-grower 3 vill tell you the vintages of 1811 and 1858 are unique because, in those vears, our globe passed through the tails of eomats. The ozones of these comets made the grapes better than those of any other year, they say.

One of the most alarming prophecies of the earth's destruction caused tremendous exeitement and alarm in the United States in 1922. Professor Porta, of Michigan University, predicted the end of the world for December, 1924. H e based this belief on the malign effect upon the earth of the giant sun *pots. Another end-of-the-world scare occurred in 1923, when Dr. George Harding, brother of the late President Harding, predicted that the world would »»nd "before the conclusion of his brother's term as President of the United States. One of the greatest of ail world scares was that which convulsed all Christendom on the eve of the year 1000 A.D. The first day of that year was to nsher in the Day of Judgment People flocked to the churches, men immured themselves in monasteries, women in nunneries, there was prayer and repentance. The day came and went. The old earth rolled on and fear passed. Eather less than two> centuries Mcolas de Cusa similarly announced the end of all things. De Cusa was a cardinal, and his prophecy accordingly carried weight. His argument, too, was plausible. f" he said the Flood occurred on the 34th jubilee of the Creation; therefore the world would end on the 34th jubilee of Christianity. It did not. * he , re i f ve man 7 similar scares, •ome based on a fallacious interpretation ot the Scriptures; others upon the appearance of strange celestial oodies The voice of accredited science is more wmforhng. According to Professor earthT 111 ' J? Freach scientist, the earth is good for another ten thousand years; Professor r^d.ra S es it almost as long a lease of life.