[Fwall-users] Is days were devastated by groans; and his soul harrowed by hisses. Nevertheless, both

[Kennealy <ci...@il...>]

Y great event in the progress of the entire scheme, seeing that
astronomy has taught us to regard such systems as no more than particles
in the dust-cloud or grains of sand on the sea-shore. It must, then, in
sober reasoning be admitted, that our mere abhorrence of so much
destruction is no guidance to our judgment on this point; and that for
anything we can see of the plans of Providence, an entanglement of our
globe with a comet may take place any day, with consequences
incalculably damaging for the meantime, though not conclusively
destructive, and perhaps necessary as a step towards an improved system
of things--the bringing in of what Ben Jonson calls 'an age of better
metal.' In the frame of mind which these speculations induce--not very
greatly alarmed about such extraordinary contingencies, yet not
insensible to the solemnity of the thought of what may come to pass even
before our living eyes--it is curious, and not necessarily unpleasant,
to consider what might be the actual phenomena attending a cometary
collision. We know not what comets are composed of, but are certain that
they consist of some