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"
The pole of the earth will coincide with the pole of the ecliptic,"
continued the astronomer, "an universal spring will be produced, and earth
become a paradise."
"And we shall of course enjoy the benefit of the change," said Ryland,
contemptuously.
"We have strange news here," I observed. I had the newspaper in my hand,
and, as usual, had turned to the intelligence from Greece. "It seems that
the total destruction of Constantinople, and the supposition that winter
had purified the air of the fallen city, gave the Greeks courage to visit
its site, and begin to rebuild it. But they tell us that the curse of God
is on the place, for every one who has ventured within the walls has been
tainted by the plague; that this disease has spread in Thrace and
Macedonia; and now, fearing the virulence of infection during the coming
heats, a cordon has been drawn on the frontiers of Thessaly, and a strict
quarantine exacted." This intelligence brought us back from the prospect of
paradise, held out after the lapse of an hundred thousand years, to the
pain and misery at present existent upon earth. We talked of the ravages
made last year by pestilence in every quarter of the world; and of the
dreadful consequences of a second visitation. We discussed the best means
of preventing infection, and of preserving health and activity in a large
city thus afflicted--London, for instance. Merrival did not join in this
conversation; drawing near Idris, he proceeded to assure her that the
joyful prospect of an earthly paradise after an hundred thousand years, was
clouded to him by the knowledge that in a certain period of time after, an
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