Sacred Texts Age of Reason Index
XX. Humorous Writings Index
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There will be many which will increase in their destruction.
(The Ball of Snow rolling over Snow.)
There will be many who, forgetting their existence and their name, will lie as dead on the spoils of other dead creatures.
(Sleeping on the Feathers of Birds.)
The East will be seen to rush to the West and the South to the North in confusion round and about the universe, with great noise and trembling or fury.
(In the East wind which rushes to the West.)
The solar rays will kindle fire on the earth, by which a thing that is under the sky will be set on fire, and, being reflected by some obstacle, it will bend downwards.
(The Concave Mirror kindles a Fire, with which we heat the oven, and this has its foundation beneath its roof.)
A great part of the sea will fly towards heaven and for a long time will not return. (That is, in Clouds.)
There remains the motion which divides the mover from the thing moved.
Those who give light for divine service will be destroyed.(The Bees which make the Wax for Candles)
Dead things will come from underground and by their fierce movements will send numberless human beings out of the world. (Iron, which comes from under ground is dead but the Weapons are made of it which kill so many Men.)
The greatest mountains, even those which are remote from the sea shore, will drive the sea from its place.
(This is by Rivers which carry the Earth they wash away from the Mountains and bear it to the Sea-shore; and where the Earth comes the sea must retire.)
The water dropped from the clouds still in motion on the flanks of mountains will lie still for a long period of time without any motion whatever; and this will happen in many and divers lands.
(Snow, which falls in flakes and is Water.)
The great rocks of the mountains will throw out fire; so that they will burn the timber of many vast forests, and many beasts both wild and tame.
(The Flint in the Tinder-box which makes a Fire that consumes all the loads of Wood of which the Forests are despoiled and with this the flesh of Beasts is cooked.)
Oh! how many great buildings will be ruined by reason of Fire.
(The Fire of great Guns.)
Oxen will be to a great extent the cause of the destruction of cities, and in the same way horses and buffaloes.
(By drawing Guns.)