Prophecy is The Nature of the Universe
"First please observe the earth and sea and sky;
These three, a threefold nature, Memmius,
Three forms so unalike, so interwoven,
One day will give to destruction; all the mass
And mighty engine of the world, upheld
For many centuries, will crash in ruin.
Nor do I fail to see how strange and new
This ruin of heaven and earth must strike the mind,
How hard it is to prove by words of mine;
As happens when some unaccustomed thing
Comes to the ears, something eyes cannot grasp
Nor hands lay hold of, hands the surest way
To bring belief to hearts and minds of men.
Yet I'll speak out. Perhaps the facts themselves
Will bring belief and in a little time
The earth with mighty movements torn apart
You will see and all the world convulsed with shocks.
This far from us may pilot fortune steer,
And reason rather than the event declare
The fearful crash that brings the world's collapse". - Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, book 5, 91-109
Ahasuerus at the End of the World by Adolf Hirémy Hirschl (1888)
