September 25, 2025 • 15 mins
Dive into Omega The Last Days of the World, a captivating science fiction novel written by Camille Flammarion in 1894. Set in the 25th century, this thought-provoking tale explores the impending threat of a carbonic-oxide comet on a collision course with Earth. Through its narrative, the novel delves into the philosophical and political ramifications of humanity facing its potential end. (Summary by Wikipedia)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section eight of Omega The Last Days of the World.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Omega The Last Days of the
World by Camille Flammarion, Part one, Chapter six, Part two.
(00:25):
As in the case of comets, so with other unusual phenomena,
such as total solar eclipses, mysterious suns appearing suddenly in
the skies, showers of shooting stars, great volcanic eruptions accompanied
with the darkness of night, and seeming to threaten the
burial of the world in ashes, earthquakes, overthrowing and engulfing
(00:46):
houses and cities. All these grand and terrible events have
been connected with the fear of an immediate and universal
end of men and things. The history of eclipses alone
would suffice to fill a volume no less interesting than
the history of comets. Confining our attention to a modern example,
(01:06):
one of the last total eclipses of the sun visible
in France, that of August twelveth, sixteen fifty four, had
been foretold by astronomers, and its announcement had produced great
alarm for some it meant the overthrow of states in
the fall of Rome. For others it signified a new deluge.
There were those who believed that nothing less than the
(01:28):
destruction of the world by fire was inevitable, while the
more collected anticipated the poisoning of the atmosphere. Belief in
these dreaded results were so widespread that, in order to
escape them, and by the express order of physicians, many
terrified people shut themselves up in closed cellars, warmed and perfumed.
(01:50):
We refer the reader especially to the second evening of
le Mon's of Fontanelles. Another writer of the same century, Petit,
to whom we referred a moment Ago, in his dissertation
on the Nature of Comets, says that the consternation steadily
increased up to the fatal day, and that a country
curate unable to confess all who believed their last hour
(02:11):
was at hand. At Sermentimee told his parishioners not to
be in such haste, for the eclipse had been put
off for a fortnight, and these good people were as
ready to believe in the postponement of the eclipse as
they had been in its malign influence at the time
of the last total solar eclipses visible in France, namely
those of May twelfth, seventeen o six, May twenty second,
(02:35):
seventeen twenty four and July eighth, eighteen forty two, as
also of the partial ones of October ninth, eighteen forty seven,
July twenty eighth, eighteen fifty one, March fifteenth, eighteen fifty eight,
July eighteenth, eighteen sixty and December twenty second, eighteen seventy
(02:55):
there was more or less apprehension on the part of
the timid, at least when from trustworthy sources, that in
each of these cases these natural phenomena were interpreted by
a certain class in Europe as possible signs of divine wrath,
and in several religious educational establishments the pupils were requested
to offer up prayers as the time of the eclipse
(03:17):
drew near. This mystical interpretation of the order of nature
is slowly disappearing among enlightened nations, and the next total
eclipse of the sun visible in southern France on May
twenty eighth, nineteen hundred, will probably inspire no fear on
the French side of the Pyrenees, but it might be
premature to make the same statement regarding those who will
(03:38):
observe it From the Spanish side of the mountains. Among
uncivilized people, these phenomena excite today this same terror which
they once did among us. This fact is frequently attested
by travelers, especially in Africa. During the eclipse of July eighteenth,
eighteen sixty in Algeria, men and women resorted to prayer
(03:59):
or or fled affrighted to their homes. During the eclipse
of July twenty ninth, eighteen seventy eight, which was total
in the United States, a negro, suddenly crazed with terror
and persuaded that the end of the world was coming,
cut the throats of his wife and children. It must
be admitted that such phenomena are well calculated to overwhelm
(04:21):
the imagination. The sun, the god of day, the star
upon whose light we are dependent, grows dim, and just
before it becomes extinguished, takes on a sickly and mournful hue.
The light of the sky pales. The animal creation is
stricken with terror. The beast of burden falters at his task.
(04:43):
The dog flees to its master. The hen retreats with
her brood to the coop, the birds cease their songs
and have been seen even to drop dead with fright.
Arago relates that during the total eclipse of the Sun
of Perpenam on July eighth, eighteen forty two, twenty thousand
spectators were assembled, forming an impressive spectacle. When the solar
(05:06):
disk was nearly obscured and irresistible, anxiety took possession of everybody.
Each felt the need of sharing his impressions with his neighbor.
A deep murmur arose, like that of the far away
sea after a storm. This murmur deepened as the crescent
of light grew less, and when it had disappeared in
sudden darkness had supervened. The silence which ensued marked this
(05:29):
phase of the eclipse as accurately as the pendulum of
our astronomical clock. The magnificence of the spectacle triumphed over
the petulance of youth, over the frivolity, which some people
mistake for a sign of superiority, Over the indifference which
the soldier frequently assumes. A profound silence reigned also in
the sky. The birds had ceased their songs after a
(05:53):
solemn interval of about two minutes. Joyous transports and frantic
applause greeted with the same spontaneity. The first reappearance of
the solar rays, and the melancholy and indefinable sense of
depression gave way to a deep and unfeigned exultation which
no one sought to moderate or repress. Every One who
(06:13):
witnessed this phenomenon, one of the most sublime which nature offers,
was profoundly moved and took away with him an impression
never to be forgotten. The peasants especially, were terrified by
the darkness, as they believed that they were losing their sight.
A poor child tending his flog, completely ignorant of what
(06:34):
was coming, saw the sun slowly growing dim in a
cloudless sky. When its light had entirely disappeared, the poor child,
completely carried away by terror, began to cry and call
for help. His tears flowed again when the first ray
of light reappeared. Reassured, he clasped his hands, crying, Oh,
beautiful Sun, is not the cry of this child the
(06:58):
cry of humanity. So long as eclipses were not known
to be the natural consequences of the motion of the
Moon about the Earth, and before it was understood that
their occurrence could be predicted with the utmost precision. It
was natural that they should have produced a deep impression
and been associated with the idea of the end of
the world. The same is true of other celestial phenomena,
(07:21):
and notably of the sudden appearance of unknown suns, an
event much rarer than an eclipse. The most celebrated of
these appearances was that of fifteen seventy two. On the
eleventh of November of that year, about a month after
the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, a brilliant star of the
first magnitude suddenly appeared in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The
(07:43):
stupefaction was general, not only on the part of the public,
to which it was visible every night in the sky,
but also on the part of scientists, who could not
explain its appearance. Astrologers found the solution of the enigma
in the assertion that it was the star of the Magi,
whose reappearance announced the return of the Son of God,
(08:04):
the Last Judgment, and the resurrection. This statement made a
deep impression upon all classes of society. The star gradually
diminished in splendor, and at the end of about eighteen
months went out without having caused any other disaster than
that which human folly itself adds to the misery of
a none too prosperous planet. Science records several apparitions of
(08:27):
this nature, but the above was the most remarkable. A
like agitation has accompanied all the grand phenomena of nature,
especially those which have been unforeseen. In the chronicles of
the Middle Ages, and even in more recent memoirs, we
read of the terror which the Aurora borealis, showers of
shooting stars and the fall of meteorites have produced among
(08:49):
the alarmed spectators. Recently, during the meteor shower of November
twenty seventh, eighteen seventy two, when the sky was filled
with more than forty thousand meteorites belonging to the dispersed
comet of Biella, women of the lower classes at Nice,
especially as also at Rome, in their excitement, sought information
(09:10):
of those whom they thought able to explain the cause
of these celestial fireworks, which they had at once associated
with the end of the world and with the fall
of the stars, which it was foretold would usher in
that last great event. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have sometimes
attained such proportions as to lead to the fear that
the end of the world was at hand. Imagine the
(09:32):
state of mind of the inhabitants of Herculaneum and of Pompeii,
when the eruption of Vesuvius buried them in showers of ashes.
Was not this for them the end of the world?
And more recently, were not those who witnessed the eruption
of Krakatoa of the same opinion. Impenetrable darkness lasting eighteen hours,
(09:52):
an atmosphere like a furnace, filling the eyes, nose and
ears with ashes, the deep and incessive cannonade of volcano,
the falling of pumice stones from the black sky, the
terrible scene illuminated only at intervals by the lurid lightning
or the fireballs on the spars and rigging of vessels.
The thunder echoing from cloud and sea with an infernal musketry.
(10:16):
The shower of ashes turning into a deluge of mud.
This was the experience of the passengers of a Java
vessel during the night of eighteen hours from the twenty
six to the twenty eighth of August eighteen eighty three,
when a portion of the island of Krakatoa was hurled
into the air and the sea, after having first retreated,
swept upon the shore to a height of thirty five
(10:38):
meters into a distance of from one to ten kilometers
over a coastline of five hundred kilometers, and in the reflux,
carried away with it the four cities Geringen, marrak Talloch,
Baton and Anjer, and the entire population of the region,
more than forty thousand souls. For a long time, the
(10:59):
progress of the vessels was hindered by floating bodies inextricably interlaced,
and human fingers with their nails and fragments of heads
with their hair were found in the stomach of fishes.
Those who escaped, or who saw the catastrophe from some
vessel and lived to welcome again the light of day,
which had seemed forever extinguished, relate in terror with what
(11:20):
resignation they expected the end of the world, Persuaded that
its very foundations were giving way, and that the knell
of a universal doom had sounded. One eye witness assures
us that he would not again pass through such an experience.
For all the wealth that could be imagined, the sun
was extinguished, and death seemed to rain sovereign over nature.
(11:40):
This eruption, moreover, was of such terrific violence that it
was heard through the earth at the antipodes. It reached
an altitude of twenty thousand meters, producing an atmospheric disturbance
which made the circuit of the entire globe in thirty
five hours. Their barometer fell four millimeters in Paris even
and left for more than than a year in the
upper layers of the atmosphere of fine dust, which illumined
(12:04):
by the sun, gave rise to those magnificent twilight displays
admired so much throughout the world. These are formidable disturbances
partial ends of the world. Certain earthquakes deserve citation with
these terrible volcanic eruptions, so disastrous have been their consequences.
In the earthquake of Lisbon November first, seventeen fifty five,
(12:28):
thirty thousand persons perished. The shock was felt over an
area four times as large as that of Europe. When
Lima was destroyed October twenty eighth, seventeen twenty four, the
sea rose twenty seven meters above its ordinary level, rushed
upon the city, and erased it. So completely that not
a single house was left. Vessels were found in the
(12:50):
fields several kilometers from the shore. On December tenth, eighteen
sixty nine, the inhabitants of the city of Onla in
Asia Minor, alarmed by subterranean noises and a first violent
trembling of the earth, took refuge on a neighboring hilltop,
whence to their stupefaction, they saw several crevasses open in
(13:10):
the city, which within a few moments entirely disappeared in
the bowels of the earth. We have direct evidence that,
under circumstances far less dramatic, as for example, on the
occasion of the earthquake at Nice February twenty third, eighteen
eighty seven, the idea of the end of the world
was the very first which presented itself to the mind.
(13:32):
The history of the Earth furnishes a remarkable number of
like dramas, catastrophes of a partial character, threatening the world's
final destruction. It is fitting that we should devote a
moment to the consideration of these great phenomena, as also
to the history of that belief in the end of
the world, which has appeared in every age, though modified
(13:53):
by the progress of human knowledge faith has in part
disappeared mystery and superstition which struck the imagination of our ancestors,
and which has been so curiously represented in the portals
of our great cathedrals and in the sculpture and painting
inspired by Christian traditions. This theological aspect of the Last
(14:13):
Great Day has given place to the scientific study of
the probable life of the solar system to which we belong.
The geocentric and anthropocentric conception of the universe, which makes
man the center and end of creation, has become gradually
transformed and has at last disappeared. For we know that
our humble planet is but an island in the infinite,
(14:35):
that human history has thus far been founded on pure allusions,
and that the dignity of man consists in his intellectual
and moral worth, is not the destiny and sovereign end
of the human mind, the exact knowledge of things, the
search after truth. During the nineteenth century, evil prophets more
(14:55):
or less sincere have twenty five times announced the end
of the world, basing their prophecies upon kabalistic calculations destitute
of serious foundation. Like predictions will recur so long as
the race exists. But this historic interlude, although opportune, has
for a moment interrupted our narrative. Let us hasten to
(15:18):
return to the twenty fifth century, for we have reached
its most critical moment. End of Chapter six, Part two,
Section eight of Omega The Last Days of the World.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Omega The Last Days of the
World by Camille Flammarion, Part one, Chapter six, Part two.
(00:25):
As in the case of comets, so with other unusual phenomena,
such as total solar eclipses, mysterious suns appearing suddenly in
the skies, showers of shooting stars, great volcanic eruptions accompanied
with the darkness of night, and seeming to threaten the
burial of the world in ashes, earthquakes, overthrowing and engulfing
(00:46):
houses and cities. All these grand and terrible events have
been connected with the fear of an immediate and universal
end of men and things. The history of eclipses alone
would suffice to fill a volume no less interesting than
the history of comets. Confining our attention to a modern example,
(01:06):
one of the last total eclipses of the sun visible
in France, that of August twelveth, sixteen fifty four, had
been foretold by astronomers, and its announcement had produced great
alarm for some it meant the overthrow of states in
the fall of Rome. For others it signified a new deluge.
There were those who believed that nothing less than the
(01:28):
destruction of the world by fire was inevitable, while the
more collected anticipated the poisoning of the atmosphere. Belief in
these dreaded results were so widespread that, in order to
escape them, and by the express order of physicians, many
terrified people shut themselves up in closed cellars, warmed and perfumed.
(01:50):
We refer the reader especially to the second evening of
le Mon's of Fontanelles. Another writer of the same century, Petit,
to whom we referred a moment Ago, in his dissertation
on the Nature of Comets, says that the consternation steadily
increased up to the fatal day, and that a country
curate unable to confess all who believed their last hour
(02:11):
was at hand. At Sermentimee told his parishioners not to
be in such haste, for the eclipse had been put
off for a fortnight, and these good people were as
ready to believe in the postponement of the eclipse as
they had been in its malign influence at the time
of the last total solar eclipses visible in France, namely
those of May twelfth, seventeen o six, May twenty second,
(02:35):
seventeen twenty four and July eighth, eighteen forty two, as
also of the partial ones of October ninth, eighteen forty seven,
July twenty eighth, eighteen fifty one, March fifteenth, eighteen fifty eight,
July eighteenth, eighteen sixty and December twenty second, eighteen seventy
(02:55):
there was more or less apprehension on the part of
the timid, at least when from trustworthy sources, that in
each of these cases these natural phenomena were interpreted by
a certain class in Europe as possible signs of divine wrath,
and in several religious educational establishments the pupils were requested
to offer up prayers as the time of the eclipse
(03:17):
drew near. This mystical interpretation of the order of nature
is slowly disappearing among enlightened nations, and the next total
eclipse of the sun visible in southern France on May
twenty eighth, nineteen hundred, will probably inspire no fear on
the French side of the Pyrenees, but it might be
premature to make the same statement regarding those who will
(03:38):
observe it From the Spanish side of the mountains. Among
uncivilized people, these phenomena excite today this same terror which
they once did among us. This fact is frequently attested
by travelers, especially in Africa. During the eclipse of July eighteenth,
eighteen sixty in Algeria, men and women resorted to prayer
(03:59):
or or fled affrighted to their homes. During the eclipse
of July twenty ninth, eighteen seventy eight, which was total
in the United States, a negro, suddenly crazed with terror
and persuaded that the end of the world was coming,
cut the throats of his wife and children. It must
be admitted that such phenomena are well calculated to overwhelm
(04:21):
the imagination. The sun, the god of day, the star
upon whose light we are dependent, grows dim, and just
before it becomes extinguished, takes on a sickly and mournful hue.
The light of the sky pales. The animal creation is
stricken with terror. The beast of burden falters at his task.
(04:43):
The dog flees to its master. The hen retreats with
her brood to the coop, the birds cease their songs
and have been seen even to drop dead with fright.
Arago relates that during the total eclipse of the Sun
of Perpenam on July eighth, eighteen forty two, twenty thousand
spectators were assembled, forming an impressive spectacle. When the solar
(05:06):
disk was nearly obscured and irresistible, anxiety took possession of everybody.
Each felt the need of sharing his impressions with his neighbor.
A deep murmur arose, like that of the far away
sea after a storm. This murmur deepened as the crescent
of light grew less, and when it had disappeared in
sudden darkness had supervened. The silence which ensued marked this
(05:29):
phase of the eclipse as accurately as the pendulum of
our astronomical clock. The magnificence of the spectacle triumphed over
the petulance of youth, over the frivolity, which some people
mistake for a sign of superiority, Over the indifference which
the soldier frequently assumes. A profound silence reigned also in
the sky. The birds had ceased their songs after a
(05:53):
solemn interval of about two minutes. Joyous transports and frantic
applause greeted with the same spontaneity. The first reappearance of
the solar rays, and the melancholy and indefinable sense of
depression gave way to a deep and unfeigned exultation which
no one sought to moderate or repress. Every One who
(06:13):
witnessed this phenomenon, one of the most sublime which nature offers,
was profoundly moved and took away with him an impression
never to be forgotten. The peasants especially, were terrified by
the darkness, as they believed that they were losing their sight.
A poor child tending his flog, completely ignorant of what
(06:34):
was coming, saw the sun slowly growing dim in a
cloudless sky. When its light had entirely disappeared, the poor child,
completely carried away by terror, began to cry and call
for help. His tears flowed again when the first ray
of light reappeared. Reassured, he clasped his hands, crying, Oh,
beautiful Sun, is not the cry of this child the
(06:58):
cry of humanity. So long as eclipses were not known
to be the natural consequences of the motion of the
Moon about the Earth, and before it was understood that
their occurrence could be predicted with the utmost precision. It
was natural that they should have produced a deep impression
and been associated with the idea of the end of
the world. The same is true of other celestial phenomena,
(07:21):
and notably of the sudden appearance of unknown suns, an
event much rarer than an eclipse. The most celebrated of
these appearances was that of fifteen seventy two. On the
eleventh of November of that year, about a month after
the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, a brilliant star of the
first magnitude suddenly appeared in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The
(07:43):
stupefaction was general, not only on the part of the public,
to which it was visible every night in the sky,
but also on the part of scientists, who could not
explain its appearance. Astrologers found the solution of the enigma
in the assertion that it was the star of the Magi,
whose reappearance announced the return of the Son of God,
(08:04):
the Last Judgment, and the resurrection. This statement made a
deep impression upon all classes of society. The star gradually
diminished in splendor, and at the end of about eighteen
months went out without having caused any other disaster than
that which human folly itself adds to the misery of
a none too prosperous planet. Science records several apparitions of
(08:27):
this nature, but the above was the most remarkable. A
like agitation has accompanied all the grand phenomena of nature,
especially those which have been unforeseen. In the chronicles of
the Middle Ages, and even in more recent memoirs, we
read of the terror which the Aurora borealis, showers of
shooting stars and the fall of meteorites have produced among
(08:49):
the alarmed spectators. Recently, during the meteor shower of November
twenty seventh, eighteen seventy two, when the sky was filled
with more than forty thousand meteorites belonging to the dispersed
comet of Biella, women of the lower classes at Nice,
especially as also at Rome, in their excitement, sought information
(09:10):
of those whom they thought able to explain the cause
of these celestial fireworks, which they had at once associated
with the end of the world and with the fall
of the stars, which it was foretold would usher in
that last great event. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have sometimes
attained such proportions as to lead to the fear that
the end of the world was at hand. Imagine the
(09:32):
state of mind of the inhabitants of Herculaneum and of Pompeii,
when the eruption of Vesuvius buried them in showers of ashes.
Was not this for them the end of the world?
And more recently, were not those who witnessed the eruption
of Krakatoa of the same opinion. Impenetrable darkness lasting eighteen hours,
(09:52):
an atmosphere like a furnace, filling the eyes, nose and
ears with ashes, the deep and incessive cannonade of volcano,
the falling of pumice stones from the black sky, the
terrible scene illuminated only at intervals by the lurid lightning
or the fireballs on the spars and rigging of vessels.
The thunder echoing from cloud and sea with an infernal musketry.
(10:16):
The shower of ashes turning into a deluge of mud.
This was the experience of the passengers of a Java
vessel during the night of eighteen hours from the twenty
six to the twenty eighth of August eighteen eighty three,
when a portion of the island of Krakatoa was hurled
into the air and the sea, after having first retreated,
swept upon the shore to a height of thirty five
(10:38):
meters into a distance of from one to ten kilometers
over a coastline of five hundred kilometers, and in the reflux,
carried away with it the four cities Geringen, marrak Talloch,
Baton and Anjer, and the entire population of the region,
more than forty thousand souls. For a long time, the
(10:59):
progress of the vessels was hindered by floating bodies inextricably interlaced,
and human fingers with their nails and fragments of heads
with their hair were found in the stomach of fishes.
Those who escaped, or who saw the catastrophe from some
vessel and lived to welcome again the light of day,
which had seemed forever extinguished, relate in terror with what
(11:20):
resignation they expected the end of the world, Persuaded that
its very foundations were giving way, and that the knell
of a universal doom had sounded. One eye witness assures
us that he would not again pass through such an experience.
For all the wealth that could be imagined, the sun
was extinguished, and death seemed to rain sovereign over nature.
(11:40):
This eruption, moreover, was of such terrific violence that it
was heard through the earth at the antipodes. It reached
an altitude of twenty thousand meters, producing an atmospheric disturbance
which made the circuit of the entire globe in thirty
five hours. Their barometer fell four millimeters in Paris even
and left for more than than a year in the
upper layers of the atmosphere of fine dust, which illumined
(12:04):
by the sun, gave rise to those magnificent twilight displays
admired so much throughout the world. These are formidable disturbances
partial ends of the world. Certain earthquakes deserve citation with
these terrible volcanic eruptions, so disastrous have been their consequences.
In the earthquake of Lisbon November first, seventeen fifty five,
(12:28):
thirty thousand persons perished. The shock was felt over an
area four times as large as that of Europe. When
Lima was destroyed October twenty eighth, seventeen twenty four, the
sea rose twenty seven meters above its ordinary level, rushed
upon the city, and erased it. So completely that not
a single house was left. Vessels were found in the
(12:50):
fields several kilometers from the shore. On December tenth, eighteen
sixty nine, the inhabitants of the city of Onla in
Asia Minor, alarmed by subterranean noises and a first violent
trembling of the earth, took refuge on a neighboring hilltop,
whence to their stupefaction, they saw several crevasses open in
(13:10):
the city, which within a few moments entirely disappeared in
the bowels of the earth. We have direct evidence that,
under circumstances far less dramatic, as for example, on the
occasion of the earthquake at Nice February twenty third, eighteen
eighty seven, the idea of the end of the world
was the very first which presented itself to the mind.
(13:32):
The history of the Earth furnishes a remarkable number of
like dramas, catastrophes of a partial character, threatening the world's
final destruction. It is fitting that we should devote a
moment to the consideration of these great phenomena, as also
to the history of that belief in the end of
the world, which has appeared in every age, though modified
(13:53):
by the progress of human knowledge faith has in part
disappeared mystery and superstition which struck the imagination of our ancestors,
and which has been so curiously represented in the portals
of our great cathedrals and in the sculpture and painting
inspired by Christian traditions. This theological aspect of the Last
(14:13):
Great Day has given place to the scientific study of
the probable life of the solar system to which we belong.
The geocentric and anthropocentric conception of the universe, which makes
man the center and end of creation, has become gradually
transformed and has at last disappeared. For we know that
our humble planet is but an island in the infinite,
(14:35):
that human history has thus far been founded on pure allusions,
and that the dignity of man consists in his intellectual
and moral worth, is not the destiny and sovereign end
of the human mind, the exact knowledge of things, the
search after truth. During the nineteenth century, evil prophets more
(14:55):
or less sincere have twenty five times announced the end
of the world, basing their prophecies upon kabalistic calculations destitute
of serious foundation. Like predictions will recur so long as
the race exists. But this historic interlude, although opportune, has
for a moment interrupted our narrative. Let us hasten to
(15:18):
return to the twenty fifth century, for we have reached
its most critical moment. End of Chapter six, Part two,
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