cohol from
anything, even from mineralised rocks, and that it is the A.B.C. of the
grocer's trade to manufacture wine from alcohol and water. (_'Hear!
hear!' from all the benches_). As for food, is not chemistry also
capable of manufacturing butter, albumen, and milk from no matter what?
Besides, has the last word been said on the subject? Is it not highly
probable that before long, if it takes up the matter, it will succeed in
satisfying, both on the score of quantity and expense, the desires of
the most refined gastronomy? And, meanwhile.... (_a voice timidly:
'Meanwhile?'_) Meanwhile does not our disaster itself, by a kind of
providential occurrence, place within our reach the best stocked, the
most abundant, the most inexhaustible larder that the human race has
ever had? Immense stores, the most admirable which have hitherto been
laid down, are lying for us under the ice or the snow. Myriads of
domestic or wild animals--I dare not add, of men and women (_a general
shudder of horror_)--but at least of bullocks, sheep and poultry, frozen
instantaneously in a single mass, are lying here and there in the public
markets a few steps away. Let us collect, as long as such work is still
possible out of doors, this boundless quarry which was destined to feed
for years several hundreds of millions, and which will well suffice, in
consequence, to feed a few thousands only for ages, even should they
multiply unduly, in despite of Malthus. If stacked in the neighbourhood
of the orifice of the chief cavern, they will be easy to get at and will
provide a delightful fare for our fraternal love-feasts."

Still further objections were formulated from different quarters. They
were forcibly disposed of with the same irresistible easy assurance. The
conclusion is worthy of a verbatim quotation: "However extraordinary the
catastrophe which has befallen us and the means of escape which is left
us may seem in appearance, a little reflection will suffice to prove to
us that the predicament in which we are, must have been repeated a
thousand times already in the immensity of the universe, and must have
been cleared up in the same fashion, being inevitably and normally the
final phase in the life-drama of every star. The astronomers know that
every sun is bound to become extinct; they know, therefore, that in
addition to the luminous and visible stars, there are in the heavens an
infinitely greater number of extinct and rayless stars which cont