END OF THE WORLD

Franklin Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 126, 30 October 1936, Page 7

END OF THE WORLD

FORETOLD MANY TIMES. BELIEF OF HUMANITY. Panics relating to the end of the world have always been, shall we say, popular, notwithstanding the fact that great misery has resulted from them. Epidemics of terror from this cause were by no means uncommon, for tradition refers to many, and history gives porticulars of not a few, says a writer in the Melbourne “Age.” Perhaps the most disastrous was that in the tenth century. It spread throughout the Christian nations merely because fanatics, appearing in several European countries, preached that the thousand years prophesied in the apocalypse as the term of the duration of the world were about to expire. The scene of the last judgment was to he at Jerusalem. In the year 999 people sold all their possessions and repaired to the Holy City. Everything was allowed to deteriorate. It was thought useless to do anything, because the end of the year was so near. During the 1000th year the pilgrims increased —most of them terror-stricken. Every phenomenon was matter for alarm. A thunderstorm sent all to their homes, and every meteor brought the whole Christian population into the streets to weep, and pray: yet through this time of mental anguish the people, with fearful eyes, looked to see the heavens open to allow the Son of God to descend in glory. Then came the aftermath, starvation and pestilence.

Implicit Belief. A most amazing faith in predictions was witnessed in 1524 when it was said that the Thames would burst its banks and wash away 10,000 houses. This prophesy met with implicit belief, and thousands left their homes to the mercy of the rabble. Perhaps the most absurd instance of panic was that which seized upon the people of Leeds and its environs in the year 1806. It arose in the following circumstance: A hen, in a village close by the city, laid eggs on which were inscribed in legible letters the words “Christ is coming.” Numbers visited the place, inspected the eggs, and came to the conclusion that the day of, judgment was near at hand. People became religious, prayed violently, and convinced themselves that they repented their evil courses and would be saved. It was unfortuhate in a sense, that some, more curoius than the rest, caught the hen in the act of laying one of the miraculous eggs, and they found beyond doubt, that the egg had been inscribed with some corrosive ink, and cruelly had been forced up again into the bird’s body. When this became known, those who had prayed laughed loud at the “joke”—and the world wagged as merrily as before.

Futile Perturbations. Seasons of great pestilence have brought forth many crazed fanatics, and all seemed imbued with the one idea —to prophesy the end of the world. It was so during tbe great plague which ravaged all Europe in the years 1345-50. No little consternation was caused in London in 1730 by the prophecy of the famous Whiston that the end of the world would take place in that year on October 13. In 1767 two shocks of earthquake in London and the prophecy of a third on April 5, which would destroy London, caused many thousands to leave that city. It was a panic similar to that, which arose in the time of Henry VIII. t From the same cause as then, people packed their goods and chattels and fled, and on April 4 and 5 everyone thought to see St. Paul’s totter and the towers of Westminster to rock in the wind and fall in a cloud of dust. After a week the people returned, and the lunatic who caused the panic was confined in an asylum.

The plague of Milan in 1630 was predicted a year before it arrived. In 1628 a large comet appeared. Some astrologers insisted that it portended a bloody war; others that famine wan' indicated; still others, rioting the pale colour, said that plague would be the outcome. This brought these latter great repute while the plague was raging.

An Ancient Couplet. A curious thing about this visitation, apart from the comet and the disputation of the astrologers, was the prediction contained in an ancient couplet, preserved for ages by tradition, which foretold that in 1630 the devil would poison Milan. When the plague appeared this tradition was the cause of much evil, and many strangers were sacrificed Lo tbe popular fury. Mother Shipton may be classed among those singular people who took upon themselves to end the world by a given date; but in selecting the year 188:1 for its accomplishment she took a long shot, which, although it precluded a panic, was woefully astray. Her predictions are quoted today, and after the great lapse of time since they were uttered one can read into many of them an uncanny fulfllment. Some of her predictions, it may be mentioned, were so unintelligible that they have never been understood, and therefore no one knows to what they refer, or whether fulfllment can be, claimed for them.

Today the prop I tel of evil has had lo give place to scientific instruments, and, though these have recorded disasters, the event is past and over before there is any chance of working up a panic, as was the case in the years gone by. Yet human nature has not changed, and if a prophet rose up tomorrow and predicted the end of the world, he would have thousands of followers who would believe implicitly his prediction.