A Convulsion Of Nature

: BOOK I.
: Off On A Comet

Whence came it that at that very moment the horizon underwent so strange

and sudden a modification, that the eye of the most practiced mariner

could not distinguish between sea and sky?



Whence came it that the billows raged and rose to a height hitherto

unregistered in the records of science?



Whence came it that the elements united in one deafening crash; that the

earth groaned as though the whole framework of the globe were ruptured;

that the waters roared from their innermost depths; that the air

shrieked with all the fury of a cyclone?



Whence came it that a radiance, intenser than the effulgence of the

Northern Lights, overspread the firmament, and momentarily dimmed the

splendor of the brightest stars?



Whence came it that the Mediterranean, one instant emptied of its

waters, was the next flooded with a foaming surge?



Whence came it that in the space of a few seconds the moon's disc

reached a magnitude as though it were but a tenth part of its ordinary

distance from the earth?



Whence came it that a new blazing spheroid, hitherto unknown to

astronomy, now appeared suddenly in the firmament, though it were but to

lose itself immediately behind masses of accumulated cloud?



What phenomenon was this that had produced a cataclysm so tremendous in

effect upon earth, sky, and sea?



Was it possible that a single human being could have survived the

convulsion? and if so, could he explain its mystery?