The End Of Earth

The earth has been ínhablted for aboul 22,000,000 years. The primordial xge had taken nat lesa tlian 10,000,000 years to go through lts boteral phases. The primary age had occupled mote than 6,000,000; tïie eecondary age, 2,800,000 years; the tertiary age, 500,000 years; the prlmatlve liuman age, bbe ktane oí aational división, tl barbarlsm and of miUtarlam, had Ulied aboul 800,000 years, and the slxtn age, that of Intelectual humanii.v, had relgned for nearly 2,000,000 years. During that long succession of ages the earth had grown colder, and. In consequence, the aspect of the globe had metamorphosed itseií ; the water oï the ocean had slouiy penetrated through the earth's crust; the sea was contracted to a fourth of its urea in tlie earthly human perlod; warm valleys and equatorial regions only were Inhabitable. All the rent was fpozen. From oenlur.v to century humanlty liad attalncil Forma ol exqulsltee beauty and no lojif;''iÉ i'ki'il ma tt'ii.-illy. A network of electricity covered the globe, productng at will all that was needed. lt was tlien a uniu-d race, rntiiviy different trom the rude and heterogeneoue races that had characterlzed t hte ïirst pertod. Amiüt th; yéar l'.l'OO, alter Jimis ( hrisi the last great focus of human civlllïatlon shone in the center oi equatorlal Alrlca, In the brilliani city oï Suntown, wliich had alKid,v several tlmea been ralsed from the aehee. The sited where Paris, London, and New Vork had stood were then burled beneath the ice. The capital of this aristocratie republic had attained its last limit of a luxurious and voluptuous civiliz.ition. Wivcs no lontfer become mothers etscept by accident; they no longcr deeired the lneonvenlence of maternity, and relgned in all tlie splendor of tlK'ir uniblemished beauty. Life Had been, if not dried up at ite source, at least rendered immediatcly unfruitful. No young woman remalned: the soil, too, was sterilized, and tlie gcncration saw the end approachIng. In thI- dilemma an aerial flot lla was oonsirurtccl. and all the strong men started m a voyage ol Investlgatlon o( the equatorial zone, to 8ee whether any i.solatcd human groups still exlsted. entlre eartb had almoei dJsappeared beneath the snow and lee, iiid already hall the membera ol the exliilihion had üied oi hunger and cold, wi.cu the survlvora discovered a human scttlement on the banks of an unfiozen river. They were received as saviors by men who believed themselves the only survivors of terrèstrlal hnmanity, lookinj; only despair at the last days of the world. The rtver on whoso banks they were camped was the once tamous Aniazon. ■lic lasi woman of the eommunity was already dead, the winc and the graln were ertlnef, and the men uiiKistid solely on fish. On hearing of tbls the gueeta were iii despair; their country was stlll wealthy, sclenoe rendered tnem inden ■inlciii oí suil and natural temperature, and the leader of the party exclulmed: "We came in scan-h of female asso ciatos, and liad we i'ound but one single wifc all the rlchea of uur land would havo, been hors." Sonic time before these events happvned ii África and Á.merica the teland iylon, now attadhed to Asia, was the lasi reluge o! the human in Asia; and bhere i:i thls earthly peredlse, mu far trom the equator, ai the ion ,,i idam'a Peak. dSveli 1 2 wpmeA, aole hèiressea 61 the last unextinguished families. The male sex had completely disappeared. The youngesi ol the iemales, Uttle Eva, was three years old. The decline ol natural (orces had broughi about a decline ol human . and tu thls decline ol inventipna and usages which had formermed so lndespensable. Crossing the Paclllc Ocean our adventurers observed that Ceylon was freer trom Ice than otheap reglóos, and approachlng il they saw a groupe ol love women in mourning, tUen the last survivuis ol the race In Asia. They allghted, told the object ol tivrir exploratlons and li.'in no dlfflculty In convlncing the fair A.8iatlcs. 'ilii-; despnlr disappëared Uke ;i mist. and a few houra after the arrlval of the aeronauta bhe flve nuns liad besome the innst elegant of women. lint Ceylon wna more desolate than 3tintO'wn provWons were scarce, and the whole party taking the women witli iiH'iii. returned to their Afrlcan mine. Arrived there, lln'.v fouiod t li.it the rienda and relatlves they had left behind were til dead or dying from m 'pidcinl ; the cold, too, v;ts lncreasing; and, althougb they kept up Urea ind simi ciíf :ili communlcatlon wlth the outi.T air, death was easy among them, uatll, at thf end of a few wci'ks, all had poesed away save the youngsest woman, Eva, her lover, Omegar, lm saw withont delusloii the Inevitable fate uhicii awalted them, well knowlng that no other spring could ever bloom on earth. Howevep, the sky cleared, and the young couple, takhig all the provlslons available, rose in thetr aerial boat to ludge oí the laat invasión of the snow and saw the whole eily was buried. They then started tor the NUe Valley, and on reaching it k.-iw wtth de'.ight that the great pyramid waa still standing, the lmt evldenee on avtii ui bhe work on mah'a bands. There they found aheltr among the ruina, and, tolded In each other'a arms, took thelr last long look at earth, and murouring eternal love to each other liu-y sa nk into the sleep ol death. And the tmow contlnued to fall, as a fine powder, on the auriace of tinearth. And the earth continued to revolve on its axis and to float throogh tiie Immenalty ol spaee. And the sun eontlflned to ahine, imt with a reddlah and barren light, and stara contlnued to scintillate in the immeneity ol space. And the Infinite universe eontinued to exlet, i í 1 1 its billiona of living or extincí planeta. And in all the worlda peopled with the Joya of llfe, love continued to bloom beneath the amillng glanee of the Eternal.