Chapter 17: The Slowing Rotation

It Might Have Been A Million Years Later, That I Perceived, Beyond Possibility Of Doubt, That The Fiery Sheet That Lit The World, Was Indeed Darkening.

Another Vast Space Went By, And The Whole Enormous Flame Had Sunk To A Deep, Copper Color. Gradually, It Darkened, From Copper To Copper-Red, And From This, At Times, To A Deep, Heavy, Purplish Tint, With, In It, A Strange Loom Of Blood.

Although The Light Was Decreasing, I Could Perceive No Diminishment In The Apparent Speed Of The Sun. It Still Spread Itself In That Dazzling Veil Of Speed.

The World, So Much Of It As I Could See, Had Assumed A Dreadful Shade Of Gloom, As Though, In Very Deed, The Last Day Of The Worlds Approached.

The Sun Was Dying; Of That There Could Be Little Doubt; And Still The Earth Whirled Onward, Through Space And All The Aeons. At This Time, I Remember, An Extraordinary Sense Of Bewilderment Took Me. I Found Myself, Later, Wandering, Mentally, Amid An Odd Chaos Of Fragmentary Modern Theories And The Old Biblical Story Of The World’s Ending.

Then, For The First Time, There Flashed Across Me, The Memory That The Sun, With Its System Of Planets, Was, And Had Been, Traveling Through Space At An Incredible Speed. Abruptly, The Question Rose--Where? For A Very Great Time, I Pondered This Matter; But, Finally, With A Certain Sense Of The Futility Of My Puzzlings, I Let My Thoughts Wander To Other Things. I Grew To Wondering, How Much Longer The House Would Stand. Also, I Queried, To Myself, Whether I Should Be Doomed To Stay, Bodiless, Upon The Earth, Through The Dark-Time That I Knew Was Coming. From These Thoughts, I Fell Again To Speculations Upon The Possible Direction Of The Sun’s Journey Through Space ... And So Another Great While Passed.

Gradually, As Time Fled, I Began To Feel The Chill Of A Great Winter. Then, I Remembered That, With The Sun Dying, The Cold Must Be, Necessarily, Extraordinarily Intense. Slowly, Slowly, As The Aeons Slipped Into Eternity, The Earth Sank Into A Heavier And Redder Gloom. The Dull Flame In The Firmament Took On A Deeper Tint, Very Somber And Turbid.

Then, At Last, It Was Borne Upon Me That There Was A Change. The Fiery, Gloomy Curtain Of Flame That Hung Quaking Overhead, And Down Away Into The Southern Sky, Began To Thin And Contract; And, In It, As One Sees The Fast Vibrations Of A Jarred Harp-String, I Saw Once More The Sun-Stream Quivering, Giddily, North And South.

Slowly, The Likeness To A Sheet Of Fire, Disappeared, And I Saw, Plainly, The Slowing Beat Of The Sun-Stream. Yet, Even Then, The Speed Of Its Swing Was Inconceivably Swift. And All The Time, The Brightness Of The Fiery Arc Grew Ever Duller. Underneath, The World Loomed Dimly--An Indistinct, Ghostly Region.

Overhead, The River Of Flame Swayed Slower, And Even Slower; Until, At Last, It Swung To The North And South In Great, Ponderous Beats, That Lasted Through Seconds. A Long Space Went By, And Now Each Sway Of The Great Belt Lasted Nigh A Minute; So That, After A Great While, I Ceased To Distinguish It As A Visible Movement; And The Streaming Fire Ran In A Steady River Of Dull Flame, Across The Deadly-Looking Sky.

An Indefinite Period Passed, And It Seemed That The Arc Of Fire Became Less Sharply Defined. It Appeared To Me To Grow More Attenuated, And I Thought Blackish Streaks Showed, Occasionally. Presently, As I Watched, The Smooth Onward-Flow Ceased; And I Was Able To Perceive That There Came A Momentary, But Regular, Darkening Of The World. This Grew Until, Once More, Night Descended, In Short, But Periodic, Intervals Upon The Wearying Earth.

Longer And Longer Became The Nights, And The Days Equaled Them; So That, At Last, The Day And The Night Grew To The Duration Of Seconds In Length, And The Sun Showed, Once More, Like An Almost Invisible, Coppery-Red Colored Ball, Within The Glowing Mistiness Of Its Flight. Corresponding To The Dark Lines, Showing At Times In Its Trail, There Were Now Distinctly To Be Seen On The Half-Visible Sun Itself, Great, Dark Belts.

Year After Year Flashed Into The Past, And The Days And Nights Spread Into Minutes. The Sun Had Ceased To Have The Appearance Of A Tail; And Now Rose And Set--A Tremendous Globe Of A Glowing Copper-Bronze Hue; In Parts Ringed With Blood-Red Bands; In Others, With The Dusky Ones, That I Have Already Mentioned. These Circles--Both Red And Black--Were Of Varying Thicknesses. For A Time, I Was At A Loss To Account For Their Presence. Then It Occurred To Me, That It Was Scarcely Likely That The Sun Would Cool Evenly All Over; And That These Markings Were Due, Probably, To Differences In Temperature Of The Various Areas; The Red Representing Those Parts Where The Heat Was Still Fervent, And The Black Those Portions Which Were Already Comparatively Cool.

It Struck Me, As A Peculiar Thing, That The Sun Should Cool In Evenly Defined Rings; Until I Remembered That, Possibly, They Were But Isolated Patches, To Which The Enormous Rotatory Speed Of The Sun Had Imparted A Belt-Like Appearance. The Sun, Itself, Was Very Much Greater Than The Sun I Had Known In The Old-World Days; And, From This, I Argued That It Was Considerably Nearer.

At Nights, The Moon[6] Still Showed; But Small And Remote; And The Light She Reflected Was So Dull And Weak That She Seemed Little More Than The Small, Dim Ghost Of The Olden Moon, That I Had Known.