C.S. Lewis makes reference to John Donne’s poem, “What if this Present Were the World’s Last Night?”
And he makes this point:
“A moralist will tell you that the personal triumph of an athlete or of a girl at a ball is transitory; the point is to remember that an empire or a civilization is also transitory. All achievements and triumphs, in so far as they are merely this-worldly achievements and triumphs, will come to nothing in the end. Most scientists here join hands with the theologians; the earth will not always be habitable. … The difference is that whereas the scientists expect only a slow decay from within, we reckon with sudden interruption from without - at any moment. “What if this present were the world’s last night?”” “FERN-SEED AND ELEPHANTS And other essays on Christianity” Fontana/Collins, 1975