Excerpt from "The Hall of Fantasy"

Hawthorne expresses his delight in the realized, as opposed to idealized, earth and articulates a mild opposition to the Millerite idea that the world is coming to a hasty end. He wants the world to continue, but will not insist upon that, trusting instead to Providence.

"Oh, you are ungrateful to our Mother Earth!" rejoined I. "Come what may, I never will forget her! Neither will it satisfy me to have her exist merely in idea. I want her great, round, solid self to endure interminably, and still to be peopled with the kindly race of man, whom I uphold to be much better than he thinks himself. Nevertheless, I confide the whole matter to Providence, and shall endeavor so to live, that the world may come to an end at any moment, without leaving me at a loss to find foothold somewhere else."