Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Donald E. Morse: The End of the World in American History and Fantasy: The Trumpet of the Last Judgement

(Peter Brown qtd. in Bloom 162). Nor was there a need to heed the biblical admonition to "sell all ye have and give it to the poor" for both the poor and the rich along with the moderately well off were now all living in the End of Time and none had need of the things of this world. But 1843 came and went without incident as did 21 March and 3 April 1844, the other "two popular dates for Christ's return" (Butler 195). After this first disappointment "the so-called 'seventh-month' faction, made up of youthful, under-educated 'radicals,' usurped or bypassed Millerite leadership, and by August predicted the Second Advent on October 22, 1844" (Butler 196). Miller himself eventually agreed to this new date. Some Millerites and their followers gathered on the high places on that day in October so to be among the first to greet the Second Coming and welcome the New World. But the faithful had once again to endure yet another disappointment. This time, no one recalculated the figures and no one reprogrammed the Big Event. Instead, in a state of shock, they returned to their homes and communities and painfully re-began their lives. (See Butler for an excellent account of their reactions and action.) They had expected the Second Corning in 1844 but would receive instead the American Civil War. Ironically, the widespread acceptance of Miller's prophecy of the end of all time coincides with the dawning of the understanding of two of the most extraordinary scientific discoveries about the extent and nature of time. Both would undermine completely the very possibility of Apocalypse

—except for fantastic fiction. James Hutton and Charles Darwin discovered that time, far from being a finite arrow pointing towards The End, was potentially infinite and virtually without direction pointing towards nothing but the indefinite future. The geologist's discovery of "deep time" extended the life of the universe from thousands past millions into billions of years. "Time which measures everything in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes," wrote Hutton, "is to nature endless and as nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone it had existence; and as the natural course of time, which to us seems infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation that may have an end" (Hutton qtd. in Mitchison 9). Charles Lyell in his highly influential Principles of Geology (1830) linked Hutton's 228