UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 DR. JOSEPH LECONTE. 
 GIFT OF MRS. LECONTE. 
 
 No. -V 
 

 
THE 
 
 PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 On Nature's Alps I stand, 
 And see a thousand firmaments beneath ! 
 A thousand systems, as a thousand grains ! 
 So much a stranger, and so late arrived, 
 How shall man's curious spirit not inquire 
 What are the natives of this world sublime, 
 Of this so distant, unterrestrial sphere, ' 
 Where mortal, untranslated, never strayed? 
 
 NIGHT THOUGHTS. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 B Y 
 
 EDWARD HITCHCOCK, D. D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF AMHERST COLLEGE. AND PROFESSOR OP 
 
 BOSTON: 
 OOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 
 09 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1854. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year J854 r by 
 
 GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massadius'etta. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the opinions presented in the following 
 Essay are put forwards without claiming for them any 
 value beyond what they may derive from the argu- 
 ments there offered, they are not published without 
 some fear of giving offence. It will be a curious, but 
 not a very wonderful event, if it should now be deemed 
 as blamable to doubt the existence of inhabitants of 
 the Planets and Stars, as, three centuries ago, it was 
 held heretical to teach that doctrine. Yet probably 
 there are many who will be willing to see the question 
 examined by all the light which modern science can 
 throw upon it ; and such an examination can be under- 
 1aken to no purpose, except the view which has of late 
 been generally rejected have the arguments in its favor* 
 fairly stated and candidly considered. 
 
 Though Eevealed Eeligion contains no doctrine rel- 
 
 101159 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 ground of deep gratitude to the Author of all good, 
 that man is not left to Philosophy for those blessings ; 
 but has a fuller assurance of them, by a more direct 
 communication from Him. 
 
 Perhaps, too, the Author may be allowed to say, 
 that he has tried to give to the book, not only a moral, 
 but a scientific interest ; by collecting his scientific facts 
 from the best authorities, and the most recent discover- 
 ies. He would flatter himself, in particular, that the 
 view of the Kebulse and of the Solar System, which 
 he has here given, may be not unworthy of some atten- 
 tion on the part of astronomers and observers, as an 
 occasion of future researches in the skies. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 PAKE 
 
 INTRODUCTION. . 9 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTION TO RELIGION 33 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE ANSWER FROM THE MICROSCOPE 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 49 
 
 "CHAPTER Y. 
 GEOLOGY. , 72 
 
V1U CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ARGUMENT PROM GEOLOGY. , 98 
 
 CHAPTER YIT. 
 THE NMBULJE. 135 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE FIXED STARS 163 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE PLANETS 192 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 219 
 
 4 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 236 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE UNITY OP THE WORLD 275 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE FUTURE. . 292 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 AMEEICAN EDITION. 
 
 IT is an interesting feature in the literature of our day, that 
 so many minds are turning their attention to the bearings of 
 science upon religion. With a few honorable exceptions, 
 Christian scholars have regarded this as a most unpromising 
 field, which they have left to the tilting and gladiatorship of 
 scepticism. But we owe it mainly to the disclosures of geolo- 
 gy, that the tables are beginning to be turned. For a long 
 time suspected of being in league with infidelity, it was treated 
 as an enemy, and Christians thought only of fortifying them- 
 selves against its attacks. But they are finding out, that if 
 this science has been seen in the enemy's camp, it was only 
 because of their jealousy that it was compelled to remain 
 there ; like captives that are sometimes pushed forwards to 
 cover the front rank and receive the fire of their friends. 
 Judging from the number of works, some of them very able, 
 that appear almost monthly from the press, in which illustra- 
 
X INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
 
 tions of religion are drawn from geology, we may infer that 
 this science is beginning to be recognized by the friends of re- 
 ligion as an efficient auxiliary. 
 
 " The Plurality of Worlds," now republished, is the most 
 recent work of this description that has fallen under our 
 notice. We can see no reason why an Essay of so much 
 ability, in which the reasoning is so dispassionate, and oppo- 
 nents are treated so candidly, should appear anonymously. 
 
 
 
 True, the author takes ground against some opinions widely 
 maintained resp'ecting the extent of the inhabited universe, 
 and seems to suppose that he shall meet with little sympathy ; 
 and this may be his reason, though in our view quite insuf- 
 ficient, for remaining incognito. We think he will find that 
 there are a secret seven thousand, who never have bowed their 
 understandings to a belief of many of the doctrines which he 
 combats, and he might reasonably calculate that his reasoning 
 will add seven thousand more to the number. We confess, 
 however, that though we have long been of this number to 
 a certain extent, we cannot go as far as this writer has done 
 in his conclusions. 
 
 All the world is acquainted with Dr. Chalmers' splendid 
 Astronomical Discourses. Assuming, or rather supposing 
 
 that he has proved, that the universe contains a vast number 
 
 
 
 of worlds peopled like our own, he imagines the infidel to raise 
 an objection to the mission of the Son of God, on the ground 
 that this world is too insignificant to receive such an extraordi- 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XI 
 
 nary interposition. His replies to this objection, drawn chiefly 
 from our ignorance, are ingenious and convincing. But the 
 author of the Plurality of Worlds doubts the premises on 
 which the objection is founded. He thinks the facts of science 
 will not sustain the conclusion that many of the heavenly 
 bodies are inhabited ; certainly not with moral and intellectual 
 beings like man. Nay, by making his appeal to geology, he 
 thinks the evidence strong against such an opinion. This 
 science shows us that this world was once certainly in a molten 
 state, and very probably, at a still earlier date, may have been 
 dissipated into self-luminous vapor, like the nebulse or the 
 comets. Immense periods, then, must have passed before any 
 organic structures, such as have since peopled the earth, could 
 have existed. And during the vast cycles that have elapsed 
 since the first animals and plants appeared upon the globe, it 
 was not in a proper condition to have sustained any other than 
 the inferior races. Accordingly, it has been only a few thou- 
 sand years since man appeared. 
 
 Now, so far as astronomy has revealed the condition of other 
 worlds, almost all of them appear to be passing through those 
 preparatory changes which the earth underwent previous to 
 man's creation. What are the unresolvable nebulae and most 
 of the comets also, but intensely heated vapor and gas 1 What 
 is the sun but a molten globe, or perhaps gaseous matter con- 
 densed so as to possess almost the density of water ? The 
 planets beyond Mars, also, (excluding the asteroids,) appear to 
 
Xll INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
 
 be in a liquid condition, but not from heat, and therefore may 
 be composed of water, or some fluid perhaps lighter than water ; 
 or at least be covered by such fluid. Moreover, so great is 
 their distance from the sun, that his light and heat could not 
 sustain organic beings such as exist upon the earth. Of the 
 inferior planets, Mercury is so near the sun that it would be 
 equally unfit for the residence of such beings. Mars, Venus, 
 and the Moon, then, appear to be the only worlds known to 
 us capable of sustaining a population at all analogous to that 
 upon earth. But of these, the Moon appears to be merely a 
 mass of extinguished volcanos, with neither water nor atmos- 
 phere. It has proceeded farther in the process of refrigeration 
 than the earth, because it is smaller ; and in its present state, 
 is manifestly unfit for the residence either of rational or 
 irrational creatures. So that we are left with only Mars and 
 Venus in the solar system to which the common arguments in 
 favor of other worlds being inhabited, will apply. 
 
 But are not the fixed stars the suns of other systems ? We 
 will thank those who think so, to read the chapter in this work 
 that treats of the fixed stars, and we presume they will be 
 satisfied that at least many of these bodies exhibit characters 
 quite irreconcilable with such an hypothesis. And if some are 
 not central suns, the presumption that the rest are, is weakened, 
 and we must wait till a greater perfection of instruments shall 
 afford us some positive evidence, before we know whether our 
 solar system is a type of any others. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. xiii 
 
 Thus far, it seems to us, our author has firm ground, both 
 geological and astronomical, to stand upon. But he does not 
 stop here. He takes the position that probably our earth may- 
 be the only body in the solar system, nay in the universe, 
 where an intellectual, moral and immortal being, like man, has 
 an existence. He makes the " earth the domestic hearth of 
 the solar system ; adjusted between the hot and fiery haze on 
 one side, and the cold and watery vapor on the other : the only 
 fit region to be a domestic hearth, a seat of habitation." He 
 says that " it is quite agreeable to analogy that the solar sys- 
 tem should have borne but one fertile flower. And even if 
 any number of the fixed stars were also found to be barren 
 flowers of the sky, we need not think the powers of creation 
 wasted, or frustrated, thrown away, or perverted." He does 
 not deny that some other worlds may be the abodes of plants 
 and animals such as peopled this earth during the long ages of 
 preadamic history. But he regards the creation of man as the 
 great event of our world. He looks upon the space between 
 man and the highest of the irrational creatures, as a vast one : 
 for though in physical structure they approach one another, in 
 intellectual and moral powers they cannot be compared. He 
 does not think it derogatory to Divine Wisdom to have 
 created and arranged all the other bodies of the universe to 
 give convenience and elegance to the abode of such a being ; 
 especially since this was to be the theatre of the work of re- 
 demption. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
 
 Now we sympathize strongly in views that give dignity and 
 exaltation to man, and not at all with that debasing philosophy, 
 so common at this day, that looks upon him as little more than 
 a somewhat improved orang. But we cannot admit that man 
 is the only exalted created being to be found among the vast 
 array of worlds around us. Geology does, indeed, teach us, that 
 it is no disparagement of Divine Wisdom and benevolence to 
 
 make a world and if one, why not many; the residence of 
 
 i 
 
 inferior creatures ; nay to leave it without inhabitants through 
 untold ages. But it also shows us, that when such worlds have 
 passed through these preparatory changes, rational and im- 
 mortal beings may be placed upon them. Nay, does not the 
 history of our world show us that this seems to be the grand 
 object of such vast periods of preparation. And is it not in- 
 credible, that amid the countless bodies of the universe, a 
 single globe only, and that a small one, should have reached 
 the condition adapted to the residence of beings made in the 
 image of God *? Of what possible use to man are those num- 
 berless worlds visible only through the most powerful tele- 
 scopes ? Surely such a view gives us a very narrow idea of 
 the plans and purposes of Jehovah, and one not sustained in 
 our opinion by the analogies of science. 
 
 There is another principle to which our author attaches, as 
 we think, too little importance in this connection. When we 
 see how vast is the variety of organic beings on this globe, and 
 how manifold the conditions of their existence ; how exactly 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XV 
 
 adapted they are to the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous states 
 of mutter, can we doubt that rational and intelligent beings 
 may be adapted to physical conditions in other worlds widely 
 diverse from those on this globe ? May not spirits be connect- 
 ed with bodies much heavier, or much lighter, than on earth ; 
 nay, with mere tenuous ether ; and those bodies, perhaps, be 
 better adapted to the play of intellect than ours ; and be un- 
 affected by temperatures which, on earth, would be fatal ? It 
 does seem to us that such conclusions are legitimate inferences 
 from the facts of science ; and if so, we can hardly avoid the 
 
 
 
 conclusion that there may be races of intelligent beings upon 
 other worlds where the condition of things is widely different 
 from that on earth. Yet there is a limit to this principle ; 
 and when we can prove another world to be in a similar con- 
 dition to our earth, when it was inhabited by preadamic races, 
 or not at all inhabited, the presumption is strong, that such a 
 world has inhabitants of a like character, or none at all. 
 
 Our author makes but a slight allusion to some most im- 
 portant statements of revelation, that seem to us to bear 
 strongly upon the hypothesis which he adopts. We refer to 
 the existence of angels, holy and unholy. In the history of the 
 latter, we learn that they kept not their first estate, but left their 
 own habitation. Have we not here an example of other ra- 
 tional creatures, more exalted than man, who, like him, have 
 fallen from their first estate ; and does not the presumption 
 hence arise, that there may be similar examples in other 
 
XVI INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
 
 worlds % And is fhere not a probability, that holy angels now 
 in heaven, may be rational intelligencies who have passed a 
 successful probation in other worlds 1 It does seem to us, that 
 these biblical facts make the hypothesis of our author respect- 
 ing man extremely improbable. 
 
 But though we must demur as to some of the views of this 
 work, we can cordially recommend its perusal to intelligent 
 and reasoning minds. It is an effort in the right direction, and 
 we think will do much to correct some false notions respect- 
 ing the Plurality of Worlds. And even the author's peculiar 
 hypothetical views are sustained with much ability. He states 
 the facts of geology and astronomy with great clearness and 
 correctness, and seems quite familiar with mathematical reason- 
 ing. Nor does he advance opinions that come into collision 
 with natural or revealed religion ; though, as already stated, we 
 think his favorite notions narrow our conceptions of the Divine 
 plans and purposes. We predict for the work an extended 
 circulation among scientific men and theologians ; and com- 
 mend it with confidence to all readers and in our country 
 they are numerous who are fond of tracing out the connection 
 between science and religion. E. H. 
 
 9 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE, April, 1864. 
 
THE 
 
 PLURALITY OF WORLDS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 
 
 " WHEN I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the 
 moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is 
 man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that 
 thou visitest him ?" 
 
 1. These striking words of the Hebrew Psalmist have 
 been made, by an eloquent and pious writer of our own time, 
 the starting point of a remarkable train of speculation. Dr. 
 Chalmers, in his Astronomical Discourses, has treated the re- 
 flection thus suggested, in connection with such an aspect of 
 the heavens and the stars, the earth and the universe, as 
 modern astronomy presents to us. Even from the point of 
 view in which the ancient Hebrew looked at the stars ; seeing 
 only their number and splendor, their lofty position, and the 
 vast space which they visibly occupy in the sky ; compared 
 with the earth, which lies dark, and mean, and perhaps 
 small in extent, far beneath them, and on which man has his 
 
18 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 habitation ; it appeared wonderful, and scarcely credible, that 
 the maker of all that array of luminaries, the lord of that 
 wide and magnificent domain, should occupy himself with the 
 concerns of men : and yet, without a belief in His fatherly 
 care and goodness to us, thoughtful and religious persons, 
 accustomed to turn their minds constantly to a Supreme 
 Governor and constant Benefactor, are left in a desolate and 
 bewildered state of feeling. The notion that while the 
 heavens are the work of God's .fingers, the sun, moon, and 
 stars ordained by him, He is not mindful of man, does not 
 regard him, does not visit him, was not tolerable to the 
 thought of the Psalmist. While we read, we are sure that 
 he believed that, however insignificant and mean man might 
 be, in comparison with the other works of God, however 
 difficult it might seem to conceive, that he should be found 
 worthy the regards and the visits of the Creator of All, yet 
 that God was mindful of him, and did visit him. The ques- 
 tion, " What is man, that this is so ?" implies that there is an 
 answer, whether man can discover it or not. " What is man, 
 that God is mindful of him ?" indicates a belief, unshaken, 
 however much perplexed, that man is something, of such a 
 kind that God is mindful of him. 
 
 2. But if there was room for this questioning, and cause 
 for this perplexity, to a contemplative person, who looked at 
 the skies, with that belief concerning the stars, which the 
 ancient Hebrew possessed, the question recurs with far 
 greater force, and the perplexity is immeasurably increased, 
 by the knowledge, concerning the stars, which is given to us 
 by the discoveries of modern astronomy. The Jew probably 
 believed the earth to be a region, upon the whole, level, how- 
 ever diversified with hills and valleys, and the skies to be a 
 vault arched over this level ; a firmament in which the 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 19 
 
 moon and the stars were placed. What magnitude to assign 
 to this vault, he had no means of knowing ; and indeed, the 
 very aspect of the nocturnal heavens, with the multitude of 
 stars, of various brightness, which come into view, one set 
 after another, as the light of day dies away, suggests rather 
 the notion of their being scattered through a vast depth of 
 space, at various distances, than of their being so many 
 lights fastened to a single vaulted surface. But however he 
 might judge of this, he regarded them as placed in a space, 
 of which the earth was the central region. The host of 
 heaven all had reference to the earth. The sun and the 
 moon were there, in order to give light to it, by day and by 
 night. And if the stars had not that for their principal 
 office, as indeed the amount of light which they gave was 
 not such as to encourage such a belief, and perhaps the 
 perception, that the stars must have been created for some 
 other object than to give light to man, was one of the prin- 
 cipal circumstances which suggested the train of thought that 
 we are now considering ; yet still, the region of the stars 
 had the earth for its centre and base. Perhaps the Psalmist, 
 at a subsequent period of his contemplations, when he was 
 pondering the reflections which he has expressed in this pas- 
 sage, might have been led to think that the stars were 
 placed there in order to draw man's thoughts to the great- 
 ness of the Creator of all things ; to give some light to his 
 mental, rather than to his bodily eye ; to show how far His 
 mode of working transcends man's faculties ; to suggest that 
 there are things in heaven, very different from the things 
 which are on earth. If he thought thus, he was only follow- 
 ing a train of thought on which contemplative minds, in all 
 ages and countries, have often dwelt ; and which we cannot, 
 even now, pronounce to be either unfounded or exhausted ; 
 
20 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 as we trust hereafter to show. But whether or not this be so, 
 we may be certain that the Psalmist regarded the stars, as 
 things having a reference to the earth, and yet not resembling 
 the earth ; as works of God's fingers, very different from the 
 earth -with its tribes of inhabitants ; as luminaries, not worlds. 
 In the feeling of awe and perplexity, which made him ask, 
 " What is man that thou art mindful of him ?" there was no 
 mixture of a persuasion that there were, in those luminaries, 
 creatures, like man, the children and subjects of God ; and 
 therefore, like man, requiring his care and attention. In ask- 
 ing, " What is man, that thou visitest him ?" there was no 
 latent comparison, to make the question imply, "that thou 
 visitest him, rather than those who dwell in those abodes ?" 
 It was the multitude and magnificence of God's works, which 
 made it seem strange that he should care for a thing so small 
 and mean as man; not the supposed multitude of God's 
 intelligent creatures inhabiting those works, which made it 
 seem strange that he should attend to every person upon this 
 earth. It was not that the Psalmist thought that, among a 
 multitude of earths, all peopled like this earth, man might 
 seem to be in danger of being overlooked and neglected by 
 his Maker ; but that, there being only one earth, occupied by 
 frail, feeble, sinful, short-lived creatures, it might be unworthy 
 the regards of Him who dwelt in regions of eternal light and 
 splendor, unsullied by frailty, inaccessible to corruption. 
 
 3. This, we can have no doubt, or something resembling 
 this, was the Psalmist's view, when he made the reflection, 
 which we have taken as the basis of our remarks. And even 
 in this view, (which, after all that science has done, is perhaps 
 still the most natural and familiar,) the reflection is extremely 
 striking ; and the words cannot be uttered without finding an 
 echo in the breast of every contemplative and religious per- 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 21 
 
 son. But this view is, as most readers at this time are 
 aware, very different from that presented to us by Modern 
 Astronomy. The discoveries made by astronomers are sup- 
 posed by most persons to have proved, or to have made it in 
 the highest degree probable, that this view of the earth, as 
 the sole habitation of intelligent subjects of God's govern- 
 ment ; and of the stars, as placed in a region of which the 
 earth is the centre, and yet differing in their nature from this 
 lower world ; is altogether erroneous. According to astrono- 
 mers, the earth is not a level space, but a globe. Some of 
 the stars which we see in the vault of heaven, are globes, like 
 it ; some smaller than the earth, some larger. There are 
 reasons, drawn from analogy, for believing that these globes, 
 the other planets, are inhabited by living creatures, as the 
 earth is. The earth is not at rest, with the celestial lumina- 
 ries circulating above it, as the ancients believed, but itself 
 moves in a circle about the sun, in the course of every year ; 
 and the other planets also move round the sun in like manner, 
 in circles, some within and some without that which the earth 
 describes. This collection of planets, thus circulating about 
 the sun, is the SOLAR SYSTEM : of which the earth thus forms 
 a very small part. Jupiter and Saturn are much larger than 
 the earth. Mars and Venus are nearly as large. If these 
 be inhabited, as the Earth is, which the analogy of their form, 
 movements and conditions, seems to suggest, the population 
 of the earth is a very small portion of the population of the 
 solar system. And if the mere number of the subjects of 
 God'ss government could produce any difficulty in the applica- 
 tion of his providence to them, a person to whom this view 
 of the world which we inhabit had been disclosed, might well, 
 and with far more reason than the Psalmist, exclaim, " Lord, 
 
22 
 
 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 what is man, that thou art mindful of him ? the inhabitants of 
 this Earth, that thou regardest him ?" 
 
 4. But this is only the first step in the asserted revelations 
 of astronomy. Some of the stars are, as we have said, 
 planets of the kind just described. But these stars are a few 
 only : five, or at most six, of those visible to the unassisted 
 eye of man. All the rest, innumerable as they appear, and 
 numerous as they really are, arc, it is found, objects of an- 
 other kind. They are not, as the planets are, opaque globes, 
 deriving their light from a sun, about which they circulate.' 
 They shine by a light of their own. They are of the nature 
 of the sun, not of the planets. That they appear mere specks 
 of light, arises from their being at a vast distance from us. 
 At a vast distance they undoubtedly are ; for even with our 
 most powerful telescopes, they still appear mere specks of 
 light ; mere luminous points. They do not, as the planets 
 do, when seen through telescopes, exhibit to us a circular face 
 or disk, capable of being magnified and distinguished into 
 parts and features. But this impossibility of magnifying 
 them by means of telescopes, does not at all make us doubt 
 that they may be far larger than the planets. For we know, 
 from other sources of information, that their distance is im- 
 mensely greater than that of any of the planets. We can 
 measure the bodies of the solar system ; the earth, by abso- 
 lutely going round a part of it, or in other ways ; the other 
 bodies of the system, by comparing their positions, as seen 
 from different parts of the earth.. In this manner we find that 
 the earth is a globe 8,000 miles in diameter. In this way, again, 
 we find that the circle which the earth describes round the 
 sun has, in round numbers, a radius about 24,000 times the 
 earth's radius ; that is, nearly a hundred millions of miles. 
 The earth is ? at one time, a hundred millions of miles on one 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 23 
 
 side of the sun; and at another time, half a year afterwards, 
 a hundred millions of miles on the other side. Of the bright 
 stars which shine by their own light, the fixed stars, as we 
 call them, (to distinguish them from the planets, the wander- 
 'ing stars,) if any one were at any moderate distance from 
 us, we should see it change its apparent place with regard to 
 the others, in consequence of our thus changing our point of 
 view two hundred millions of miles : just as a distant spire 
 changes its apparent place with regard to the more distant 
 mountain, when we move from one window of our house to 
 the other. But no such change o.f place is discernible in any 
 of the fixed stars : or at least, if we believe the most recent 
 asserted discoveries of astronomers, the change is so small as 
 to imply a distance in the star, of more than two hundred 
 thousand times the radius of the earth's orbit, which is, itself, 
 as we have said, one hundred millions of miles.* This dis- 
 tance is so vastly great, that we can very well believe that the 
 fixed stars, though to our best telescopes they appear only as 
 points of light, are really as large as our sun, and would give 
 as much light as he does, if we could approach as near to 
 them. For since they are thus, the nearest of them, two 
 hundred thousand times as far off as he is, even if we could 
 magnify them a thousand times, which we can hardly do, they 
 would still be only one two-hundredth of the breadth of the 
 sun ; and thus, still a mere point. 
 
 * It is quite to our purpose to recollect the impression which such 
 discoveries naturally make upon a pious mind. 
 
 Oh ! rack me not to such extent, 
 
 These distances belong to Thee ; 
 The world's too little for Thy tent> 
 
 A grave too big for me 1 
 
 GEOBGE HERBERT. 
 
24 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 5. But if each fixed star be of the nature of the sun, and 
 not smaller than the sun, does not analogy lead us to suppose 
 that they have, some of them at least, planets circulating about 
 them, as our sun has ? If the Sun is the centre of the Solar 
 System, why should not Sirius, (one of the brightest of the' 
 fixed stars,) be the centre of the Sirian System ? And why 
 should not that system have as many planets, with the same 
 resemblances and differences of the figure, movements, and 
 conditions of the different planets, as this ? Why should not 
 the Sirian System be as great and as varied as the solar sys- 
 tem ? And this being granted, why should not these planets 
 be inhabited, as men have "inferred the other planets of the 
 solar system, as well as the earth,* to be? And thus we have, 
 added to the population of the universe of which we have 
 already spoken, a number (so far as we have reason to be- 
 lieve) not inferior to the number of inhabitants of the solar 
 system : this number being, according to all the analogies, 
 very many fold that of the population of the whole earth ? 
 
 And this is the conclusion, when we reason from one star 
 only, from Sirius. But the argument is the same, from each 
 of the stars. For we have no reason to think that Sirius, 
 though one of the brightest, is more like our sun than any of 
 the others is. The others appear less bright in various de- 
 grees, probably because they are further removed from us in 
 various degrees. They may not be all of the same size and 
 brightness ; it is very unlikely that they are. But they may 
 as easily be larger than the sun, as smaller. The natural as- 
 sumption for us to make, having no ground for any other 
 opinion, is, that they are, upon the average, of the size of our 
 sun. On that assumption, we have as many solar systems as 
 we have fixed stars ; and, it may be, six or ten, or twenty 
 times as many inhabited globes ; inhabited by creatures of 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. .; 25 
 
 whom we must suppose, by analogy, that God is mindful, if 
 he is mindful of us. The question recurs with overwhelming 
 force, if we still follow the same train of reflection : " What 
 is man, that God is mindful of him T' 
 
 6. But we have not yet exhausted the views which thus add 
 to the force of this reflection. The fixed stars, which appear 
 to the eye so numerous, so innumerable, in the clear sky on a 
 moonless night, are not really so numerous as they seem. To 
 the naked eye, there are not visible more than four or five 
 thousand. The astronomers of Greece, and of other countries, 
 even in ancient times, counted them, mapped them, and gave 
 them names and designations. But Astronomy, who thus 
 began her career by diminishing, in some degree, the sup- 
 posed numbers of the host of heaven, has ended by im- 
 measurably increasing them. The first application of the 
 telescope to the skies discovered a vast number of fixed stars, 
 previously unseen : and every improvement in that instru- 
 ment has disclosed myriads of new stars, visibly smaller than 
 those which had before been seen ; and smaller and smaller, 
 as the power of vision is more and more strengthened by new 
 aids from art ; as if the regions of space contained an in- 
 exhaustible supply of such objects ; as if infinite space were 
 strewn with stars in every part of it to which vision could 
 reach. The small patch of the sky which forms, at any mo- 
 ment, the field of view of one of the great telescopes of 
 Herscbel, discloses to him as many stars, and those of as 
 many different magnitudes, as the whole vault of the sky 
 exhibits to the naked eye. But the magnifying power of such 
 an instrument only discloses, it does not make, these stars. 
 There appears to be quite as much reason to believe, that 
 each of these telescopic stars is a sun, surrounded by its 
 special family of planets, as to believe that Sirius or Arcturus 
 
 2 
 
26 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 is so. Here, then, we have again an extension, indefinite to 
 our apprehension, of the universe, as occupied by material 
 structures ; and if so, why not by a living population, such as 
 the material structures which are nearest to us support 1 
 
 7. Even yet we have not finished the series of successive 
 views which astronomers have had opened to them, extending 
 more and more their spectacle of the fulness and largeness of 
 the universe. Not only does the telescope disclose myriads 
 of stars, unseen to the naked eye, and new myriads with each 
 increase of the powers of the instrument ; but it discloses also 
 patches of light, which, at first at least, do not appear to con- 
 sist of stars : Nebulae, as they are called ; bright specks, it 
 might seem, of stellar matter, thin, diffused, and irregular ; 
 not gathered into regular and definite forms, such as we may 
 suppose the stars to be. Every one who has noticed the 
 starry skies, may understand what is the general aspect of 
 such nebulae, by looking at the milky way or galaxy, an ir- 
 regular band of nebulous light, which runs quite round the 
 sky ; " A circling zone, powdered with stars ;" as Milton 
 calls it. But the nebulas of which I more especially speak, 
 are minute patches, discovered mainly by the telescope, and 
 in a few instances only discernible by the naked eye. And 
 what I have to remark especially concerning them at present 
 is, that though to visual powers which barely suffice to discern 
 them, they appear like mere bright clouds, patches of diffused 
 starry matter ; yet that, when examined by visual powers of 
 a higher order, by more penetrating telescopes, these patches 
 of continuous feeble light are, in many instances at least, dis- 
 tinguishable into definite points : they are found, in fact, to be 
 aggregations of stars ; which before appeared as diffused light, 
 only because our telescopes, though strong enough to reveal 
 to our senses the aggregate mass of light of the cluster, were 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 27 
 
 not strong enough to enable us to discern any one of the stars 
 of which the cluster consists. The galaxy, in this way, may, 
 in almost every part, be resolved into separate stars' ; and thus, 
 the multitude of the stars in the region of the sky occupied by 
 that winding stream of light, is, when examined by a powerful 
 telescope, inconceivably numerous. 
 
 8. The small telescopic nebulae are of various forms ; some 
 of them may be in the shape of flat strata, or cakes, as it 
 were, of stars, of small thickness, compared with the extent 
 of the stratum. Now, if our sun were one of the individuals 
 of such a stratum, we, looking at the stars of the stratum, 
 from his neighborhood, should see them very numerous and 
 close in the direction of the edge of the stratum, and com- 
 paratively few and rare in other parts of the sky.. We should, 
 in short, see 'a galaxy running round the sky, as we see in 
 fact. And hence Sir William Herschel has inferred, that 
 our sun, with its attendant planets, has its place in such a 
 stratum ; and that it thus belongs to a host of stars which 
 are, in a certain way, detached from the other nebulae which 
 we see. Perhaps, he adds, some of those other nebulse are 
 beds and masses of stars not less numerous than those which 
 compose our galaxy, and which occupy a larger portion of 
 the sky, only because we are immersed in the interior of the 
 crowd. And thus, a minute speck of nebulous light, discern- 
 ible only by a good telescope, may contain not only as many 
 stars as occupy the sky to ordinary vision, but as many as is 
 the number into which the most powerful telescope resolves 
 the milky light of the galaxy. And of such resolvable 
 nebulae the number, which are discovered in the sky is very 
 great, their forms being of the most various kind ; so that 
 many of them may be, for aught we can tell, more amply 
 stocked with stars than the galaxy is. And if all the stars, or 
 
28 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 a large proportion of the stars, of the galaxy, be suns attended 
 by planets, and these planets peopled with living creatures, 
 what notion must we form of the population of the universe, 
 when we have thus to reckon as many galaxies as there are 
 resolvable nebulae ! the stock of discoverable nebulae being as 
 yet unexhausted by the powers of our telescopes ; and the 
 possibility of resolving them into stars being also an opera- 
 tion which has not yet been pursued to its limit. 
 
 9. For, (and this is the last step which I shall mention in 
 this long series of ascending steps of multitude apparently in- 
 finite,) it now begins to be suspected that not some nebulae 
 only, but all, are resolvable into separate stars. When the 
 nebulae were first carefully studied, it was supposed that they 
 consisted, as they appeared to consist, of some diffused and 
 incoherent matter, not of definite and limited masses. It was 
 conceived that they were not stars, but Stellar Matter in the 
 course of formation into stars ; and it was conceived, further, 
 that by the gradual concentration of such matter, whirling 
 round its centre while it concentrated, not only stars, that is, 
 suns, might be formed, but also systems of planets, circling 
 round these suns ; and thus this Nebular Hypothesis^ as it has 
 been termed, gave a kind of theory of the origin and forma- 
 tion of systems, such as the solar system. But the great 
 telescope which Lord Rosse has constructed, and which is 
 much more powerful than any optical instrument yet fabri- 
 cated, has been directed to many of the nebulas, whose ap- 
 pearance had given rise to this theory ; and the result *has 
 been, in a great number of cases, that the nebulae are proved 
 to consist entirely of distinct stars ; and that the diffused 
 nebulous appearance is discovered to have been an illusion, 
 resulting from the accumulated light of a vast number of 
 small stars near to each other. In this manner, we are led to 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCO VEJUES, 29 
 
 regard every nebula, not as an imperfectly formed star or 
 system, but as a vast multitude of stars, and, for aught we can 
 tell, of systems ; for the apparent smallness and nearness of 
 these stars are, it is thought, mere results of the vast distance 
 at which they are placed from us. And thus, perhaps, all the 
 nebulae are, what some of them seem certainly to be, so many 
 vast armies of stars, each of which stars, we have reason to 
 believe, is of the nature of our sun ; and may have, and ac- 
 cording to analogy has, an accompaniment of living creatures, 
 such as our sun has, certainly on the earth, probably, it is 
 thought, in the other planets. 
 
 10. It is difficult to grasp, in one view, the effect of the 
 successive steps from number to number, from distance to 
 distance, which we have thus been measuring over. We may, 
 however, state them again briefly, in the way of enumeration. 
 
 From our own place on the earth, we pass, in thought, as 
 a first step, to the whole globe of the Earth ; from this, as a 
 second step, to the Planets, the other globes which compose 
 the Solar System. A third step capries us to the Fixed Stars, 
 as visible to the naked eye ; very numerous and immensely 
 distant. The transition to the Telescopic Stars makes a fourth 
 step ; and in this, the number and the space are increased, 
 almost beyond the power of numbers to express how many 
 there are, and at what distances. But a fifth step : perhaps 
 all this array of stars, obvious and telescopic, only make up 
 our Nebula ; while the universe is occupied by other Nebulae 
 innumerable, so distant that, seen from them, our nebula, 
 though including, it may be, stars of the 20th magnitude, which 
 may be 20 times or 2,000 times more remote than Sirius, 
 would become a telescopic speck, as their nebulae- are to us. 
 
 11. Various images and modes of representation have been 
 employed, in order to convey to the mind some notion of the 
 
30 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 dimensions of the scheme of the universe to which we are thus 
 introduced. Thus, we may reckon that a cannon-ball, moving 
 with its usual original velocity unabated, would describe the 
 interval between the sun and the earth in about one year. 
 And this being so, the same missile would, from what has been 
 said, occupy more, we know not how much more, than 200,- 
 000 years in going to the nearest fixed star : and perhaps a 
 thousand times as much, in going to other stars belonging to 
 our group ; and then again, 200,000 times so much, or some 
 number of the like order, in going from one group to another. 
 When we have advanced a step or two in -this mode of state- 
 ment, the velocity of the cannon-ball hardly perceptibly 
 affects the magnitude of the numbers which we have to use. 
 
 And the same nearly is the case if we have recourse to the 
 swiftest motion with which we are acquainted ; that of Light. 
 Light travels, it is shown by indisputable scientific reasonings, 
 in about eight minutes from the sun to the earth. Hence we 
 can easily calculate that it would occupy at least three years 
 to travel as far as Sirius, and probably, three thousand years, 
 or a much greater number, to reach to the smallest stars, or 
 to come from them to us. And thus, as Sir W. Herschel 
 remarked, since light is the only vehicle by which information 
 concerning these distant bodies is conveyed to us, we do, by 
 seeing them, receive -information, not what they are at this 
 moment, but what they were, as to visible condition, thou- 
 sands of years ago. Stars may have been created when man 
 was created, and yet their light may not have reached him.* 
 
 * This thought is, however, older. Young expresses it in his Niglit 
 Thoughts, Night IX., (published iu 1744) : 
 
 How distant some of these nocturnal suns I 
 So distant (says the sage) 'twere not absurd 
 To doubt if beams, set out at nature's birth, 
 Are yet arrived at this BO foreign world* 
 
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 31 
 
 Stars may have been extinguished thousands of years ago, 
 and yet may still be visible to our eyes, by means of the 
 light which they emitted previous to their extinction, and 
 which has not yet died away. 
 
 12. So vast then are the distances at which the different 
 bodies of the universe are distributed ; and yet so numerous 
 are those bodies. In the vastness of their distances, there is, 
 indeed, nothing which need disturb our minds, or which, after 
 a little reflection, is likely to do so : for when we have said 
 all that can be said, about the largeness of these distances, still 
 there is no difficulty in finding room for them. We nec- 
 essarily conceive Space as being infinite in its extent : how- 
 ever much space the heavenly bodies occupy, there is space 
 beyond them : if they are not there, space is there neverthe- 
 less. That the stars and planets are so far from each other, is 
 an arrangement which prevents their disturbing each other 
 with their mutual attractions, to any destructive extent ; and 
 is an arrangement which the spacious, the infinite universe, 
 admits of, without any difficulty. 
 
 13. But we are more especially concerned with the Num- 
 lers of the heavenly bodies. So many planets about our sun : 
 so many suns, each perhaps with its family of planets : and 
 then, all these suns making^but one group: and other groups 
 coming into view, one after another, in seemingly endless suc- 
 cession : and all these planets being of the nature of our 
 earth, as all these stars are of the nature of our sun : all 
 this, presents to us a spectacle of a world of a countless host 
 of worlds of which, when we regard them as thus arranged 
 in planetary systems, and as having, according to all proba- 
 bility, years and seasons, days and nights, as we have, we can- 
 not but accept it as at least a likely suggestion, that they have 
 also inhabitants; intelligent beings who can reckon these 
 
32 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 days and years ; who subsist on the fruits which the season 
 brings forth, and have their daily and yearly occupations, ac- 
 cording to their faculties. When we take, as our scheme of 
 the universe, such a scheme as this, we may well be over- 
 whelmed with the number of provinces, besides that in which 
 man dwells, which the empire of the Lord of all includes ; 
 and, recurring to the words of the Psalmist, we may say with 
 a profundity of meaning immeasurably augmented " Lord, 
 what is man T' 
 
 It was this view, I conceive, which Dr. Chalmers had in his 
 thoughts, in pursuing the speculations which I have mentioned, 
 in the outset of this Essay. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTION TO RELIGION. 
 
 1. SUCH astronomical views, then, as those just stated, we 
 may suppose to be those to which Chalmers had reference, in 
 the argument of his Astronomical Discourses. These real or 
 supposed discoveries of astronomers, or a considerable part 
 of them, were the facts which were present to his mind, and 
 of which he there discusses the bearings upon religious truths. 
 This multiplicity of systems and worlds, which the telescopic 
 scrutiny of the stars is assumed to have disclosed, or to have 
 made probable, is the main feature in the constitution of the 
 universe, as revealed by science, to which his reflections are 
 directed. Nor can we say that, in fixing upon this view, he 
 has gone out of his way, to struggle with obscure and latent 
 difficulties, such as the bulk of mankind know and care little 
 about. For in reality, such views are generally diffused in 
 our time and country, are common to all classes of readers, 
 and as we may venture to express it, are the popular views of 
 persons of any degree of intellectual culture, who have, 
 directly or derivatively, accepted the doctrines of modern 
 science. Among such persons, expressions which imply that 
 the stars are globes of luminous matter, like the sun ; that 
 there are, among them, systems of revolving bodies, seats of 
 
 9* 
 
34 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 life and of intelligence; are so frequent and familiar, that 
 those who so speak, do not seem to be aware that, in using 
 such expressions, they are making any assumption at all ; any 
 more than they suppose themselves to be making assumptions, 
 when they speak of the globular form of the earth, or of its 
 motion round the sun, or of its revolution on its axis. It was, 
 therefore, a suitable and laudable purpose, for a writer like 
 Chalmers, well instructed in science, of large and compre- 
 hensive views with regard both to religion and to philosophy, 
 of deep and pervasive piety, and master of a dignified and 
 persuasive eloquence, to employ himself in correcting any 
 erroneous opinions and impressions respecting the bearing 
 which such scientific doctrines have upon religious truth. It 
 was his lot to labor among men of great intellectual curiosity, 
 acuteness, and boldness : it was his tendency to deal with new 
 views of others on the most various subjects, religious, phi- 
 losophical, and social ; and, on such subjects, to originate new 
 views of his own. It fell especially within his province, there- 
 fore, to satisfy the minds of the public who listened to him, 
 with regard to the conflict, if a conflict there was, or seemed 
 to be, between new scientific doctrines, and permanent relig- 
 ious verities. He was, by his culture and his powers, pe- 
 culiarly fitted, and therefore peculiarly called, to mediate be- 
 tween the scientific and the religious world of his time. 
 
 2. The scientific doctrine which he especially deals with, in 
 the work to which I refer, is the multiplicity of worlds ; the 
 existence of many seats of life, of enjoyment, of intelligence ; 
 and it may be, as he suggests also, of moral law, of transgress- 
 ion, of alienation from God, and of the need, and of the 
 means, of reconciliation to Him ; or of obedience to Him 
 and sympathy with Him. That if there be many worlds re- 
 sembling our world in other respects, they may resemble it in 
 
ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTION TO RELIGION. 35 
 
 some of these, is an obvious, and we may say, an irresistible 
 conjecture, in any speculative mind to which the doctrine 
 itself has been conveyed. Nor can it fail to be very interest- 
 ing, to see how such a writer as I have described deals with 
 such a suggestion ; how far he accepts or inclines to accept it ; 
 and if so, what aspect such a view leads him to give to truths, 
 either belonging to Natural or to Revealed Theology, which, 
 before the introduction of such a view, were regarded as bear- 
 ing only upon the world of which man is the inhabitant. 
 
 3. The mode in which Chalmers treats this suggestion, is to 
 regard it as the ground of an objection to Religion, either 
 Natural or Revealed. He supposes an objector to take his 
 stand upon the multiplicity of worlds, assumed or granted as 
 true ; and to argue that, since there are so many worlds be- 
 side this, all alike claiming the care, the government, the good- 
 ness, the interposition, of the Creator, it is in the highest 
 degree extravagant and absurd, to suppose that he has done, 
 for this world, that which Religion, both Natural and Re- 
 vealed, represents him as having done, and as doing. When 
 we are told that God has provided, and is constantly provid- 
 ing, for the life, the welfare, the comfort of all tlje living 
 things which people this earth, we can, by an effort of thought 
 and reflection, bring ourselves to believe that it is so. When 
 we are further told that He has given a moral law to. man, the 
 intelligent inhabitant of the earth, and governs him by a moral 
 government, we are able, or at least the great bulk of thought- 
 ful men, on due consideration of all the bearings of the case, 
 are able, to accept the conviction, that this also is so. When 
 we are still farther asked to believe that the imperfect sway 
 of this moral law over man has required to be remedied by a 
 special interposition of the -Governor of the world, or by a 
 series of special interpositions, to make the Law clear, and to 
 
36 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 remedy the effects of man's transgression of it ; this doctrine 
 also, according to the old and unscientific view, which repre- 
 sents the human race as, in an especial manner, the summit 
 and crown of God's material workmanship, the end of the 
 rest of creation, and the selected theatre of God's dealings 
 with transgression and with obedience, we can conceive, and, 
 as religious persons hold, we can find ample and satisfactory 
 evidence to believe. ' But if this world be merely one of in- 
 numerable worlds, all, like it, the workmanship of God ; all, 
 the seats of life, like it ; others, like it, occupied by intelligent 
 creatures, capable of will, of law, of obedience, of disobedience, 
 as man is ; to hold that this world has been the scene of God's 
 care and kindness, and still more, of his special interpositions, 
 communications, and personal dealings with its individual in- 
 habitants, in the way which Religion teaches, is, the objector 
 is conceived to maintain, extravagant and incredible. It is to 
 select one of the millions of globes which are scattered through 
 the vast domain of space, and to suppose that one to be 
 treated in a special and exceptional manner, without any 
 reason for the assumption of such a peculiarity, except that 
 this globe happens to be the habitation of us, who make this 
 assumption. If Religion require us to assume, that one par- 
 ticular corner of the Universe has been thus singled out, and 
 made an* exception to the general rules by which all other 
 parts of the Universe are governed ; she makes, it may be 
 said, a demand upon our credulity which cannot fail to be re- 
 jected by those who are in the habit of contemplating and ad- 
 miring those general laws. Can the Earth be thus the centre 
 of the moral and religious universe, when it has been shown 
 to have no claim to be the centre of the physical universe 1 
 Is it not as absurd to maintain this, as it would be to hold, at 
 the present day, the old Ptolemaic hypothesis, which places 
 
ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTION TO RELIGION. 37 
 
 the Earth in the centre of the heavenly motions, instead of the 
 newer Copernican doctrine, which teaches that the Earth re- 
 volves round the Sun ? Is not Religion disproved, by the ne- 
 cessity under which she lies, of making such an assumption 
 as this ? 
 
 4. Such is, in a general way, the objection to Religion with 
 which Chalmers deals ; and, as I have said, his mode of treat- 
 ing it is highly interesting and instructive. Perhaps, however, 
 we shall make our reasonings and speculations apply to a 
 wider class of readers, if we consider the view now spoken of, 
 not as an objection, urged by an opponent of religion, but 
 rather as a difficulty, felt by a friend of religion. It is, I con- 
 ceive, certain that many cf those who are not at all disposed 
 to argue against religion, but who, on the contrary, feel that 
 their whole internal comfort and repose are bound up indis- 
 solubly with their religious convictions, are still troubled and 
 dismayed at the doctrines of the vastness of the universe, and 
 the multitude of worlds, which they suppose to be taught and 
 proved by astronomy. They have a profound reverence for 
 the Idea of God ; they are glad to acknowledge their constant 
 and universal dependence upon His preserving power and 
 goodness ; they are ready and desirous to recognize the work- 
 ing of His providence ; they receive the moral law, as His 
 law, with reverence and submission ; they regard their trans- 
 gressions of this law as sins against Him ; and are eager to 
 find the mode of reconciliation to Him, when thus estranged 
 from him ; they willingly think of God, as near to them. But 
 while they listen to the evidence which science, as we have 
 said, sets before them,- of the long array of groups, and hosts, 
 and myriads, of worlds, which are brought to our knowledge, 
 they find themselves perturbed and distressed. They would 
 willingly think of God as near to them ; but during the pro- 
 
38 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 gress of this enumeration, He appears, at every step, to be re- 
 moved further and further from them. To discover that the 
 Earth is so large, the number of its inhabitants so great, its 
 form so different from what man at first imagines it, may per- 
 haps have startled them ; but in this view, there is nothing 
 which a pious mind does not easily surmount. But if Venus 
 and Mars also have their inhabitants ; if Saturn and Jupiter, 
 globes so much larger than the earth, have a proportional 
 amount of population ; may not man be neglected or over- 
 looked ? Is he worthy to be regarded by the Creator of all ] 
 May not : must not, the most pious mind recur to the excla- 
 mation of the Psalmist : " Lord, what is man, that thou art 
 mindful of him 1" And must not this exclamation, under 
 the new aspect of things, be accompanied by an enfeebled and 
 less confident belief that God is mindful of him ? And then, 
 this array of planets, which derive their light from the Sun, 
 extends much further than even the astronomer at first sus- 
 pected. The orbit of Saturn is ten times as wide as the 
 orbit of the earth ; but beyond Saturn, and almost twice as 
 far from the sun, Herschel discovers Uranus, another great 
 planet ; and again, beyond Uranus, and again at nearly twice 
 his distance, the subtle sagacity of the astronomers of our day, 
 surmises, and then detects, another great planet. In such a 
 system as this, the earth shrinks into insignificance. Can its 
 concerns engage the attention of him who made the whole ? 
 But again, this whole Solar System itself, with all its orbits 
 and planets, shrinks into a mere point, when compared with 
 the nearest fixed star. And again, the distance which lies be- 
 tween us and such stars, shrinks into incalculable smallness, 
 when we journey in thought to other fixed stars. And again, 
 and again, the field of our previous contemplation suffers an im- 
 measurable contraction, as we pass on to other points of view. 
 
ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTION TO RELIGION. 39 
 
 5. And in all these successive moves, we are still within, 
 the dominions of the same Creator and Governor; and at 
 every move, we are brought, we may suppose, to new bodies 
 of his subjects, bearing, in the expansion of their numbej:, 
 some proportion to the expanse of space which they occupy. 
 And if this be so, how shall the earth, and men, its inhabitants, 
 thus repeatedly annihilated, as it were, by the growing mag- 
 nitude of the known Universe, continue to be anything in the 
 regard of Him who embraces all 1 Least of all, how shall 
 men continue to receive that special, persevering, providential, 
 judicial, personal care, which religion implies; and without 
 the belief of which, any man who has religious thoughts, must 
 be disturbed and unhappy, desolate and forsaken 1 
 
 6. Such are, I conceive, the thoughts of many persons, under 
 the influence of the astronomical views which Chalmers refers 
 to as being sometimes employed against religious belief. Of 
 course, it is natural that the views which are used by un- 
 believers as arguments against religious belief, should create 
 difficulties and troubles in the minds of believers ; at least, 
 till the argument is rebutted. And of course also, the 
 answers to the arguments, considered as infidel arguments, 
 would operate to remove the difficulties which believers enter- 
 tain on such grounds. Chalmers' reasonings against such 
 arguments, therefore, will, so far as they are valid, avail to re- 
 lieve the mental trouble of believers, who are perplexed and 
 oppressed by the astronomical views of which I have spoken ; 
 as well as to confute and convince those who reject religion, 
 on such astronomical grounds. It may, however, as I have 
 said, be of use to deal with these difficulties rather as difficul- 
 ties of religious men, than as objections of irreligious men; to 
 examine rather how we can quiet the troubled and perplexed 
 believer, than how we can triumph over the dogmatic and 
 
40 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 self-satisfied infidel. I, at least, should wish to have the 
 former, rather than the latter of these tasks, regarded as that 
 which I propose to myself. 
 
 % I shall hereafter attempt to explain more fully the diffi- 
 culties which the doctrine of the Plurality of Worlds appears 
 to some persons to throw in the way of Revealed. Religion ; 
 but before I do so, there is one part of Chalmers' answer, 
 bearing especially upon Natural Religion, which it may be 
 proper to attend to. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ANSWER FROM THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 1. IT is not my business, nor my intention, to criticize the 
 remarkable work of Chalmers to which I have so often referred. 
 But I may say, that the arguments there employed by him, 
 so far as they go upon astronomical or philosophical grounds, 
 are of great weight ; and upon the whole, such as we may both 
 assent to, as scientifically true, and accept as rationally per- 
 suasive. I think, however, that there are other arguments, 
 also drawn from scientific discoveries, which bear, in a very 
 important and striking manner, upon the opinions in question, 
 and which Chalmers has not referred to ; and I conceive that 
 there are philosophical views of another kind, which, for those 
 who desire and who will venture to regard the Universe and 
 its Creator in the wider and deeper relations which appear to 
 be open to human speculation, may be a source of satisfaction. 
 When certain positive propositions, maintained as true while 
 they are really highly doubtful, have given rise to difficulties 
 in the minds of religious persons, other positive propositions, 
 combating these, propounded and supported by argument, 
 that they may be accepted according to their evidence, may, 
 at any rate, have force enough to break down and dissipate 
 such loosely founded difficulties. To present to the reader's 
 
42 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 mind such speculations as I have thus indicated, is the object 
 of the following pages. They can, of course, pretend to no 
 charm, except for persons who are willing to have their minds 
 occupied with such difficulties and such speculations as I have 
 referred to. Those who are willing to be so employed, may, 
 perhaps, find in what I have to say something which may in- 
 terest them. For, of the arguments which I have to expound, 
 some, though they appear to me both very obvious and very 
 forcible, have never, so far as I am aware, been put forth in 
 that religious bearing which seems to belong to them ; and 
 others, though aspiring to point out in some degree the rela- 
 tion of the Universe and its Creator, are of a very simple kind ; 
 that is, for minds which are prepared to deal with such subjects 
 at all. 
 
 2. As I have said, the arguments with which we are here 
 concerned refer both to Natural Religion and to Revealed 
 Religion ; and there is one of Chalmers' arguments, bearing 
 especially upon the former branch of the subject, which I may 
 begin by noticing. Among the thoughts which, it was stated, 
 might naturally arise in men's minds, when the telescope re- 
 vealed to them an innumerable multitude of worlds besides 
 the one which we inhabit, was this : that the Governor of the 
 Universe, who has so many worlds under his management, 
 cannot be conceived as bestowing upon this Earth, and its va- 
 rious tribes of inhabitants, that care which, till then, Natural 
 Religion had taught men that he does employ, to secure to 
 man the possession and use of his faculties of mind and body ; 
 and to all animals the requisites of animal existence and 
 animal enjoyment. And upon this Chalmers remarks, that 
 just about the time when science gave rise to the suggestion 
 of this difficulty, she also gave occasion to a remarkable reply 
 to it. Just about the same time that the invention of the 
 
THE ANSWER FROM THE MICROSCOPE. 43 
 
 Telescope showed that there were innumerable worlds, which 
 might have inhabitants requiring the Creator's care as much as 
 the tribes of this earth do, the invention of the Microscope 
 showed that there were, in this world, innumerable tribes of 
 animals, which had been all along enjoying the benefits of the 
 Creator's care, as much as those kinds with which man had 
 been familar from the beginning. The telescope suggested 
 that there might be dwellers in Jupiter or in Saturn, of giant 
 size and unknown structure, who must share with us the pre- 
 serving care of God. The microscope showed that there had 
 been, close to us, inhabiting minute crevices and crannies, 
 peopling the leaves of plants, and the bodies of other animals, 
 animalcules of a minuteness hitherto unguessed, and of a 
 structure hitherto unknown, who had been always sharers with 
 us in God's preserving care. The telescope brought into view 
 worlds as numerous as the drops of water which make up the 
 ocean ; the microscope brought into view a world in almost 
 every drop of water. Infinity in one direction was balanced 
 by infinity in the other. The doubts which men might feel 
 as to what God could do, were balanced by certainties which 
 they discovered, as to what he had always been doing. His 
 care and goodness could not be supposed to be exhausted by 
 the hitherto known population of the earth, for it was proved 
 that they had not hitherto been confined to that population. 
 The discovery of new worlds at vast distances from us, was 
 accompanied by the discovery of new worlds close to us, 
 ^ven in the very substances with which we were best ac- 
 quainted ; and was thus rendered ineffective to disturb the 
 belief of those who had regarded the world as having God for 
 its governor. 
 
 3. This is a striking reflection, and is put by Chalmers in a 
 very striking manner ; and it is well fitted to remove the 
 
44 THE PLURALITY OP WOBLDS. 
 
 scruples to which it is especially addressed. If there be any 
 persons to whom the astronomical discoveries which the tele- 
 scope has brought to light, suggests doubts or difficulties with 
 regard to such truths of Natural Religion as God's care for 
 and government of the inhabitants of the earth, the discov- 
 eries of the many various forms of animalcular life which the 
 microscope has brought to light are well fitted to remove such 
 doubts, and to solve such difficulties. We may easily believe 
 that the power of God to sustain and provide for animal life, 
 animal sustenance, animal enjoyment, can suffice for innumer- 
 able worlds besides this, without being withdrawn or -dis- 
 tracted or wearied in this earth ; for we find that it does suf- 
 fice for innumerable more inhabitants of this earth than we 
 were before aware of. If we had imagined before, that, in 
 conceiving God as able and willing to provide for the life and 
 pleasure of all the sentient beings which we knew to exist upon 
 the earth, we had formed an adequate notion of his power 
 and of his goodness, these microscopical discoveries are well 
 adapted to undeceive us. They show us that all the notions 
 which our knowledge, hitherto, had enabled us to form of the 
 powers and attributes . of the Creator and Preserver of all 
 living things, are vastly, are immeasurably below the real 
 truth of the case. They show us that God, as revealed to us 
 in the animal creation, is the Author and Giver of life, of 
 the organization which life implies, of the contrivances by 
 which it is conducted and sustained, of the enjoyment by which 
 it is accompanied, to an extent infinitely beyond what the* 
 unassisted vision of man could have suggested. The /acts 
 which are obvious to man, from which religious minds in all 
 ages have drawn their notions and their evidence of the 
 Divine power and goodness, care and wisdom, in providing for 
 its creatures, require, we find, to be indefinitely extended, in 
 
THE ANSWER FROM THE MICROSCOPE. 45 
 
 virtue of the new tribes of minute creatures, and still new 
 tribes, and still more minute, which we find existing around 
 us. The views of our Natural Theology must be indefinitely 
 extended on one side ; and therefore we need not be startled 
 or disturbed at having to extend them indefinitely on the other 
 side ; at having to believe that there are, in other worlds, 
 creatures whom God has created, whom he sustains in life, 
 for whom he provides the pleasures of life, as he does for the 
 long unsuspected creatures of this world. 
 
 4. This is, I say, a reflection which might quiet the mind of 
 a person, whom astronomical discoveries had led to doubt of 
 the ordinary doctrines of Natural Religion. But, I think, it 
 may be questioned, whether, to produce such doubts, is a com- 
 mon or probable effect of an acquaintance with astronomical 
 discoveries. Undoubtedly, by such discoveries, a person who 
 believes in God, in his wisdom, power, and goodness, on the 
 evidence of the natural world, is required to extend and exalt 
 his conceptions of those Divine Attributes. He had believed 
 God to be the Author of many forms of life ; he finds him to 
 be the" Author of still more forms of life. He had traced 
 many contrivances in the structure of animals, for their sus- 
 tentation and well-being ; his new discoveries disclose to him 
 (for that is undoubtedly among the effects of microscopic re- 
 searches) still more nice contrivances. He had seen reason 
 to think that all sentient beings have their enjoyments ; he 
 finds new fields of enjoyment of the same kind. But in all 
 this, there is little or nothing to disturb the views and con- 
 victions of the Natural Theologian. He must, even by the 
 evidence of facts patent to ordinary observation, have been 
 led to believe that the Divine Wisdom and Power are not 
 only great, but great in a degree which we cannot fathom or 
 comprehend ; that they are, to our apprehension, infinite : his 
 
46 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 new discoveries only confirm the impression of this infinite 
 character of the Divine Attributes. He had before believed 
 the existence of an intelligent and wise Creator, on the evi- 
 dence of the marks of design and contrivance, which the 
 creation exhibited : of such design and contrivance he dis- 
 covers new marks, new examples. He had believed that God 
 is good, because he found those contrivances invariably had 
 the good of the creature for their object : "he finds, still, that 
 this is the general, the universal scheme of the creation, now 
 when his view of it is extended. He has no difficulty in ex- 
 panding his religious conceptions, to correspond with hid 
 scientific discoveries, so far as the microscope is the instru- 
 ment of discovery ; there is no reason why he should have 
 any more difficulty in doing the same, when the telescope is 
 his informant. It is true, that in this case the information is 
 more imperfect. It does not tell him, even that there are 
 living inhabitants in the regions which it reveals ; and, conse- 
 quently, it does not disclose any of those examples of design 
 which belong to the structure of living things. But if we sup- 
 pose, from analogy, that there are living things in those 
 regions, we have no difficulty in conceiving, from analogy 
 also, that those living things are constructed with a care and 
 wisdom such as appear in the inhabitants of earth. It will 
 not readily or commonly occur to a speculator on such sub- 
 jects, that there is any source of perplexity or unbelief, in 
 such an assumption of inhabitants of other worlds, even if we 
 make the assumption. It is as easy, it may well and reason- 
 ably be thought, for God to create a population for the planets 
 as to make the planets themselves ; as easy to supply 
 Jupiter with tenants, as with satellites ; as easy to devise 
 the organization of an inhabitant of Saturn, as the structure 
 and equilibrium of Saturn's ring. It is no more difficult for 
 
THE ANSWER FROM THE MICROSCOPE. 47 
 
 the Universal Creator to extend to those bodies the powers 
 which operate in organized matter, than the powers which 
 operate in brute matter. It is as easy for Him to establish 
 circulation and nutrition in material structures, as cohesion 
 and crystallization, which we must suppose the planetary 
 masses to possess ; or attraction and inertia, which we know 
 them to possess. No doubt, to our conception, organization 
 appears to be a step beyond cohesion ; circulation of living 
 fluids, a step beyond crystallization of dead masses : but 
 then, it is in tracing such steps, that we discern the peculiar 
 character of the Creator's agency. He does not merely work 
 with mechanical and chemical powers, as man to a certain ex- 
 tent can do ; but with organic and vital powers, which man 
 cannot command. The Creator, therefore, can animate the 
 dust of each planet, as easily as make the dust itself. And 
 when from organic life we rise to sentient life, we have still 
 only another step in the known order of Creative Power. To 
 create animals, in any province of the Universe, cannot be 
 conceived as much more incomprehensible or incredible, than 
 to create vegetables. No doubt, the addition of the living 
 and sentient principle to the material, and even to the organic 
 structure, is a mighty step ; and one which may, perhaps, be 
 made the occasion of some speculative suggestions, in a sub- 
 sequent part of this Essay ; but still, it is not likely that any 
 one, who had formed his conceptions of the Divine Mind from 
 its manifestations in the production and sustentation of animal, 
 as well as vegetable life, on this earth, would have his belief 
 in the operation of such a Mind, shaken, by any necessity 
 which might be impressed upon him, of granting the existence 
 of animal life on other planets, as well as on the earth, or 
 even on innumerable such planets, and on innumerable sys- 
 tems of planets and worlds, system above system. 
 
48 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 5. The remark of Chalmers, therefore, to which I have re- 
 ferred, striking as it is, does not appear to bear directly upon 
 a difficulty of any great force. If astronomy gives birth to 
 scruples which interfere with religion, they must be found in 
 some other quarter than in the possibility of mere animal life 
 existing in other parts of the Universe, as well as on our 
 earth. That possibility may require us to enlarge our idea of 
 the Deity, but it has little or no tendency to disturb our ap- 
 prehension of his attributes. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 
 
 1. WE have attempted to show that if the discoveries made 
 by the Telescope should excite in any one's mind, difficulties 
 respecting those doctrines of Natural Religion, the adequacy 
 of the Creator to the support and guardianship of all the ani- 
 mal life which may exist in the universe, the discoveries of 
 the Microscope may remove such difficulties ; but we have 
 remarked also, that the train of thought which leads men to 
 dwell upon such difficulties does not seem to be common. 
 
 But what will be the train of thought to which we shall be 
 led, if we suppose that there are, on other planets, and in 
 other systems, not animals only, living things, which, however 
 different from the animals of this earth, are yet in some way 
 analogous to them, according to the difference of circum- 
 stances; but also creatures analogous to man; intellectual 
 creatures, living, we must suppose, under a moral law, respon- 
 sible for transgression, the subjects of a Providential Govern- 
 ment 1 If we suppose that, in the other planets of our solar 
 systems, and of other systems, there are creatures of such a 
 kind, and under such conditions as these, how far will the re- 
 ligious opinions which we had previously entertained be dis- 
 turbed or modified ? Will any new difficulty be introduced 
 
50 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 into our views of the government of the world by such a sup- 
 position ? , 
 
 2. I have spoken of man as an Intellectual Creature ; mean- 
 ing thereby that he has a Mind ; powers of thought, by 
 which he can contemplate the relations and properties of 
 things in a general and abstract form ; and among other re- 
 lations, moral relations, the distinction of right and wrong in 
 his actions. Those powers of thought lead him to think of a 
 Creator and Ordainer of all things ; and his perception of 
 right and wrong leads him to regard this Creator as also the 
 Governor and Judge of his creatures. The operation of Jiis 
 mind directs him to believe in a Supreme Mind : his moral 
 nature directs him to believe that the course of human affairs, 
 and the condition of men, both as individuals and as bodies, is 
 determined by the providential government of God. 
 
 3. With regard to the bearing of a merely intellectual nature 
 on such questions, it does not appear that any considerable 
 difficulty would be at once occasioned in our religious views, 
 by supposing such a nature to belong to other creatures, the 
 inhabitants of other planets, as well as to man. The existence 
 of our own minds directs us, as I have said, to a Supreme 
 Mind ; and the nature of Mind is conceived to be, in all its 
 manifestations, so much the same, that we can conceive minds 
 to be multiplied indefinitely, without fear of confusion, inter- 
 ference, or exhaustion. There may be, in Jupiter, creatures 
 endowed with an intellect which enables them to discover and 
 demonstrate the relations of space ; and if so, they cannot 
 have discovered and demonstrated anything of that kind as 
 true, which is not true for us also: their Geometry must 
 coincide with ours, as far as each goes : thus showing how 
 absurdly, as Plato long ago observed, we give to the science 
 which deals with the relations of space, a name (geometry)^ 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. t'l 
 
 borrowed from the art of measuring the earth. The earth 
 with its properties is no more the special basis of geometry, 
 than are Jupiter or Saturn, or, so far as we can judge, Sirius 
 or Arcturus and their systems, with their properties. Wher- 
 ever pure intellect is, we are compelled to conceive that, when 
 employed upon the same objects, its results and conclusions 
 are the same. If there be intelligent inhabitants of the Moon, 
 they may, like us, have employed their intelligence in reason- 
 ing upon the properties of lines and angles and triangles ; and 
 must, so far as they have gone, have arrived, in their thoughts, 
 at the same properties of lines and angles and triangles, at 
 which we have arrived. They must, like us, have had to dis- 
 tinguish between right angles and oblique angles. They may 
 have come to know, as some of the inhabitants of the earth 
 came to know, four thousand years ago, that, in a right-angled 
 triangle, the square on the larger side is equal to the sum of 
 the squares on the other two sides. We can conceive occur- 
 rences which would give us evidence that the Moon, as well as 
 the Earth, contains geometers. If we were to see, on the face 
 of the full moon, a figure gradually becoming visible, repre- 
 senting a right-angled triangle with a square constructed on 
 each of its three sides as a base ; we should regard it as the 
 work of intelligent creatures there, who might be thus making 
 a signal to the inhabitants of the earth, that they possessed 
 such knowledge, and were desirous of making known to their 
 nearest neighbors in the solar system, their existence and their 
 speculations. In such an event, curious and striking as it 
 would be, we should see nothing but what we could under- 
 stand and accept, without unsettling our belief in the Supreme 
 and Divine Intelligence. On the contrary, we could hardly 
 fail to receive such a manifestation as a fresh evidence that the 
 Divine Mind had imparted to the inhabitants of the Moon, as 
 
53 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 he has to us, a power of apprehending, in a very general and 
 abstract form, the relations of that space in which he performs 
 his works. We should judge, that having been led so far in 
 their speculations, they must, in all probability, have been led 
 also to a conception of the Universe, as the field of action of 
 a universal and Divine Mind; that having thus become geo- 
 meters, they must have ascended to the Idea of a God who 
 works by geometry. 
 
 4. But yet, by such a supposition, on further consideration, 
 we find ourselves introduced to views entirely different from 
 those to which we are led by the supposition of mere animal 
 life, existing in other worlds than the earth. For, not to dwell 
 here upon any speculations as to how far the operations of our 
 minds may resemble the operations of the Divine Mind ; a 
 subject which we shall hereafter endeavor to discuss; we 
 know that the advance to such truths as those of geometry 
 has been, among the inhabitants of the earth, gradual and pro- 
 gressive. Though the human mind have had the same powers 
 and faculties, from the beginning of the existence of the race 
 up to the present time, (as we cannot but suppose,) the results 
 of the exercise of these powers and faculties have been very 
 different in different ages ; and have gradually grown up, fron> 
 small beginnings, to the vast and complex body of knowledge 
 concerning the scheme and relations of the Universe, which 
 is at present accessible to the minds of human speculators. It 
 is, as we have said, probably about four thousand years, since 
 the first steps in such knowledge were made. Geometry is 
 said to have had its origin in Egypt ; but it assumed its ab- 
 stract and speculative character first among the Greeks. 
 Pythagoras is related to have been the first who saw, in 
 the clear light of demonstration, the property of the right- 
 angled triangle, of which we have spoken. The Greeks, from 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY, 53 
 
 the time of Socrates, stimulated especially by Plato, pursued, 
 with wonderful success, the investigation of this kind of truths. 
 They saw that such truths had their application in the heavens, 
 far more extensively than on the earth. They were enabled, 
 by such speculations, to unravel, in a great degree, the scheme 
 of the universe, before so seemingly entangled and perplexed. 
 They determined, to a very considerable extent, the relative 
 motions of the planets and of the stars. And in modern times, 
 after a long interval, in which such knowledge was nearly station- 
 ary, the progress again began ; and further advances were suc- 
 cessively made in man's knowledge of the scheme and structure 
 of the visible heavens ; till at length the intellect of man was led 
 to those views of the extent of the Universe and the nature of 
 the stars, which are the basis of the diseussions in which we 
 are now engaged. And thus man, having probably been, in 
 the earliest ages of the existence of the species, entirely igno- 
 rant of abstract tr.uth, and of the relations which, by the 
 knowledge of such truth, we can trace in nature, (as the bar- 
 barous tribes which occupy the greater part of the earth's sur- 
 face still are ;) has, by a long series of progressive steps, come 
 into the possession of knowledge, which we cannot regard 
 without wonder and admiration ; and which seems to elevate 
 him in no inconsiderable degree, towards a community of 
 thought with that Divine Mind, into the nature and scheme of 
 whose works he is thus permitted to penetrate. 
 
 5. Now the knowledge which man is capable, by the nature 
 of his mental faculties, of acquiring, being thus blank and 
 rudimentary at first, and only proceeding gradually, by the 
 steps of a progress, numerous, slow, and often long inter- 
 rupted, to that stage in which it is the basis of our present 
 speculations; the view which we have just taken, of the na- 
 ture of Intellect, as a faculty always of the same kind, always 
 
54 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 uniform in its operations, always consistent in its results, ap- 
 pears to require reconsideration ; and especially with refer- 
 ence to the application which we made of that view, to the 
 intelligent inhabitants of other planets and other worlds, if 
 such inhabitants there be. For if we suppose that there are, 
 in the Moon, or in Jupiter, creatures possessing intellectual 
 faculties of the same kind as those of man ; capable of appre- 
 hending the same abstract and general truths ; able, like man, 
 to attain to a knowledge of the scheme of the Universe ; yet 
 this supposition merely gives the capacity and the ability ; and 
 does not include any security, or even high probability, as it 
 would seem, of the exercise of such capacity, or of the success- 
 ful application of such ability. Even if the surface of the 
 Moon be inhabited by creatures as intelligent as men, why 
 must we suppose that they know anything more of the geo- 
 metry and astronomy, than the great bulk of the less cultured 
 inhabitants of the earth, who occupy, really, a space far larger 
 than the surface of the Moon ; and, all intelligent though they 
 be, and in the full possession of mental faculties, are yet, on 
 the subjects of geometry and astronomy, entirely ignorant ; 
 their minds, as to such a knowledge, a blank 1 It does not 
 follow, then, that even if there be such inhabitants in the 
 Moon, or in the Planets, they have any sympathy with us, or 
 any community of knowledge on the subjects of which we 
 are now speaking. The surface of the Moon, or of Jupiter, 
 or of Saturn, even if well peopled, may be peopled only with 
 tribes as barbarous and ignorant as Tartars, or Esquimaux, or 
 Australians ; and therefore, by making such a supposition, we 
 do little, even hypothetically, to extend the dominion of that 
 intelligence, by means of which all intelligent beings have 
 some community of thought with each other, arid some sug- 
 gestion of the working of the Divine and Universal Mind* 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 55 
 
 6. But, in fact, the view which we have given of the mode 
 of existence of the human species upon the earth, as being a 
 progressive existence, even in the development of the intel- 
 lectual powers and their results, necessarily fastens down our 
 thoughts and our speculations to the earth, and makes us feel 
 how visionary and gratuitous it is to assume any similar kind 
 of existence in any region occupied by other beings than man. 
 As we have said, we have no insuperable difficulty in conceiv- 
 ing other parts of the Universe to be tenanted by animals. 
 Animal life implies no progress in the species. Such as they 
 are in one century, such are they in another. The conditions 
 of their sustentation and generation being given, which no 
 difference of physical circumstances can render incredible, the 
 race may, so far as we can see, go on forever. But a race 
 which makes a progress in the development of its faculties 
 cannot thus, or at least cannot with the same ease, be conceived 
 as existing through mil time, and under all circumstances. 
 Progress implies, or at least suggests, a beginning and an end. 
 If the mere existence of a race imply a sustaining and pre- 
 serving power in the Creator, the progress of a race implies a 
 guiding and impelling power ; a Governor and Director, as 
 well as a Creator and Preserver. And progress, not merely 
 in material conditions, not merely in the exercise of bodily 
 faculties, but in the exercise of mental faculties, in the intel- 
 lectual condition of a portion of the species, still more implies 
 a special position and character of the race, which cannot, with- ' 
 out great license of hypothesis, be extended to other races ; ) 
 and which, if so extended, becomes unmeaning, from the im- ) 
 possibility of our knowing what is progress in any other 
 species ; from what and towards what it tends. The intel- 
 lectual progress of the human species has been a progress in 
 the use of thought, and in the knowledge which such use pro- 
 
56 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 cures; it has been a progress from mere' matter to mind; 
 from the impressions of sense to ideas ; from what in knowl- 
 edge is casual, partial, temporary, to what is necessary, uni- 
 versal, and eternal. We can conceive no progress, of the na- 
 ture of this, which is not identical with this-; nothing like it, 
 which is not the same. And, therefore, if we will people 
 other planets with creatures, intelligent as man is intelligent, 
 we must not only give to them the intelligence, but the intel- 
 lectual history of the human species. They must have had 
 their minds unfolded by steps similar to those by which the 
 human mind has been unfolded ; or at least, differing from 
 them only as the intellectual history of one nation of the 
 earth differs from that of another. They must have had their 
 Pythagoras, their Plato, their Kepler, their Galileo, their 
 Newton, if they know what we know. And thus, in order to 
 conceive, on the Moon or on Jupiter, a race of beings intelli- 
 gent like man, we must conceive, there, olonies of men, with 
 histories resembiing more or less the histories of human col- 
 onies ; and indeed resembling the history of those nations 
 whose knowledge we inherit, far more closely than the history 
 of any other terrestrial nation resembles that part of terrestrial 
 history. If we do this, we exercise an act of invention and 
 imagination which may be as coherent as a fairy tale, but 
 which, without further proof, must be as purely imaginary and 
 arbitrary. But if we do not do this, we cannot conceive that 
 those regions are occupied at all by intelligent beings. Intel- 
 ligence, as we see in the human race, in order to have those 
 characters which concern our argument, implies a history of 
 intellectual development ; and to assume arbitrarily a history 
 of intellectual development for the inhabitants of a remote 
 planet, as a ground of reasoning either for or against Religion, 
 is a proceeding which we can hardly be expected either to as- 
 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY, 57 
 
 sent to or to refute. If we are to form any opinions with re- 
 gard to the condition of such bodies, and to trace any bearing of 
 such opinions upon our religious views, we must proceed upon 
 some ground which has more of reality than such a gratuitous 
 assumption. 
 
 7. Thus the condition of man upon the earth, as a condition, 
 of intellectual progress, implies such a special guidance and 
 government exercised over the race by the Author of his 
 being., as produces progress ; and we have not, so far as we yet 
 perceive, any reason for supposing that He exercises a like 
 guidance and government over any of the other bodies with 
 which the researches of astronomers have made us acquainted. 
 The earth and its inhabitants are under the care of God in a 
 special manner ; and we are utterly destitute of any reason 
 for believing that other planets and other systems are under 
 the care of God in the same manner. If we regarded merely 
 the existence of unprogressive races of animals upon our globe, 
 we might easily suppose that other globes also are similarly 
 tenanted ; and we might infer, that the Creator and Upholder 
 of animal life was active on those globes, in the same manner 
 as upon ours. But when we come to a progressive creature, 
 whose condition implies a beginning, and therefore suggests an 
 end, we form a peculiar judgment with respect to God's care 
 of that creature, which we have not as yet seen the slightest 
 grounds to extend to other possible fields of existence, where 
 we discern no indication of progress, of beginning, or of end. 
 So far as we can judge, God is mindful of man, and has launched 
 and guided his course in a certain path which makes his lot 
 and state different from that of all other creatures. 
 
 8. Now when we have arrived at this result, we have, I con- 
 ceive, reached one of the points at which the difficulties which 
 astronomical discovery puts in the way of religious conviction 
 
 3* 
 
58 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 begin to appear. The Earth and its human inhabitants are, as 
 far as we yet know, in an especial manner the subjects of God's 
 care and government, for the race is progressive. Now can 
 this be? Is it not difficult to believe that it is so 1 ? The 
 earth, so small a speck, only one among so many, so many 
 thousands, so many millions of other bodies, all, probably, of 
 the same nature with itself, wherefore should it draw to it the 
 special regards of the Creator of all, and occupy his care in an 
 especial manner ? The- teaching of the history of the human 
 race, as intellectually progressive, agrees with the teaching of 
 Religion, in impressing upon us that God is mindful of man ; 
 that he does regard him ; but still, there naturally arises in our 
 minds a feeling of perplexity and bewilderment, which ex- 
 presses itself in the words already so often quoted, What is 
 man, that this should be so ? Can it be true that this province 
 is thus singled out for a special and peculiar administration by 
 the Lord of the Universal Empire 1 
 
 9. Before I make any attempt to answer these questions, I 
 must pursue the difficulty somewhat further, and look at it in 
 other forms. As I have said, the history of Man has been, in 
 certain nations, a history of intellectual progress, from the 
 earliest times up to our own day. But intellectual progress 
 has been, as I have also said, in a great measure confined to 
 certain nations thus especially favored. The greater part of 
 the earth's inhabitants have shared very scantily in that wealth 
 of knowledge to which the brightest and happiest intellects 
 among men have thus been led. But though the bulk of 
 mankind have thus had little share in the grand treasures of 
 science which are open to the race, their life has still been 
 very different from that of other animals. Many nations, 
 though they may not have been conspicuous in the history of 
 intellectual progress, have yet not been without their place in 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 59 
 
 progress of other kinds in arts, in arms, and, above all, in 
 morals in the recognition f the distinction of right and 
 wrong in human actions, and in the practical application of this 
 distinction. Such a progress as this has been far more exten- 
 sively aimed at, than a progress in abstract and general knowl- 
 edge ; and, we may venture to say, has been, in many nations 
 and in a very great measure, really effected. No doubt the 
 imperfection of this progress, and the constant recurrence of 
 events which appear to counteract and reverse it, are so ob- 
 vious and so common as to fill with grief and indignation the 
 minds of those who regard such a progress as the great busi- 
 ness of the human race ; but yet still, looking at the whole 
 history of the human race, the progress is visible ; and even 
 the grief and the indignation of which we have spoken are a 
 part of its evidences. There has been, upon the whole, a 
 moral government of the human race. The moral law, the 
 distinction of right and wrong, has been established in every 
 nation ; and penalties have been established for wrong-doing. 
 The notion of right and wrong has been extended, from mere 
 outward acts, to the springs of action, to affection, desire, and 
 will. The course of human affairs has generally been such, 
 that the just, the truthful, the kind, the chaste, the orderly por- 
 tion of mankind have been happier than the violent and wicked. 
 External wrong has been commonly punished by the act of 
 human society. Internal sins, impure and dishonest designs, 
 falsehood, cruelty, have very often led to their own punishment, 
 by their effect upon the guilty mind itself. We do not say 
 that the moral government which has prevailed among men 
 has been such, that we can consider it complete and final in 
 its visible form. We see that the aspect of things is much the 
 contrary ; and we think we see reasons why it may be ex- 
 pected to be so. But still, there has existed upon earth a moral 
 
60 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 government of the human race, exercised, as we must needs 
 hold, by the Creator of man ; partly through the direct oper- 
 ation of man's faculties, affections, and emotions ; and partly 
 through the authorities which, in all ages and nations, the na- 
 ture of man has led him to establish. Now this moral progress 
 and moral government of the human race is one of the lead- 
 ing facts on which Natural Religion is founded. We are thus 
 led to regard God as the Moral Governor of man ; not only 
 his Creator and Preserver, but his Lawgiver and his Judge. 
 And the grounds on which we entertain this belief are pecu- 
 liarly the human faculties of man, and their operation in history 
 and in society. The belief is derived from the whole complex 
 nature of man the working of his Affections, Desires, Con- 
 victions, Reason, Conscience, and whatever else enters into the 
 production of human action and its consequences. God is seen 
 to be the Moral Governor of man by evidence which is espe- 
 cially derived from the character of Man, and which we could 
 not attempt to apply to any other creature than man without 
 making our words altogether unmeaning. But would it not 
 be too bold an assumption to speak of the Conscience of an 
 inhabitant of Jupiter 1 Would it not be a rash philosophy to 
 assume the operation of Remorse or Self-approval on the 
 planet, in order that we may extend to it the moral govern- 
 ment of God ? Except we can point out something more solid 
 than this to reason from, on such subjects, there is no use in 
 our attempting to reason at all. Our doctrines must be mere 
 results of invention and imagination. Here then, again, we 
 are brought to the conviction that God is, so far as we yet 
 see, in an especial and peculiar manner, the Governor of the 
 earth and of its human inhabitants, in such a way that the like 
 government cannot be conceived to be extended to other 
 planets, and other systems, without arbitrary and fanciful as- 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 61 
 
 sumptions ; assumptions either of unintelligible differences with 
 incomprehensible results, or of beings in all respects human, 
 inhabiting the most remote regions of the universe. And here, 
 again, therefore, we are led to the same difficulty which we 
 have already encountered : Can the earth, a small globe 
 among so many millions, have been selected as the scene of 
 this especially Divine Government 1 
 
 10. That when we attempt to extend our sympathies to the 
 inhabitants of other planets *and other worlds, and to regard 
 them as living, like us, under a moral government, we are 
 driven to suppose them to be, in all essential respects, human 
 beings like ourselves, we have proof, in all the attempts which 
 have been made, with whatever license of hypothesis and 
 fancy, to present to us descriptions and representations of the 
 inhabitants of other parts of the universe. Such representa- 
 tions, though purposely made as unlike human beings as the 
 imagination of man can frame them, still are merely combi- 
 nations, slightly varied, of the elements of human being ; and 
 thus show us that not only our reason, but even our imagina- 
 tion, cannot conceive creatures subjected to the same govern- 
 ment to which man is subjected, without conceiving them as 
 being men of one kind or other. A mere animal life, with no 
 interest but animal enjoyment, we may conceive as assuming 
 forms different from those which appear in existing animal 
 races ; though even here, there are, as we shall hereafter at- 
 tempt to show, certain general principles which run through 
 all animal life. But when in addition to mere animal im- 
 pulses, we assume or suppose moral and intellectual interests, 
 we conceive them as the moral arid intellectual interests of 
 man. Truth and falsehood, right and wrong, law and trans- 
 gression, happiness and misery, reward and punishment, are 
 the necessary elements of all that can. interest us of all that 
 
62 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 we can call Government. To transfer these to Jupiter or to 
 Sirius, is merely to imagine those bodies to be a sort of island 
 of Formosa, or new Atlantis, or Utopia, or Platonic Polity, 
 or something of the like kind. The boldest and most reso- 
 lute attempts to devise some life different from human life, 
 have not produced anything more different than romance- 
 writers and political theorists have devised as a form of human 
 life. And this being so, there is no more wisdom or philoso- 
 phy in believing such assemblages of beings to exist in Jupiter 
 or Sirius, without evidence, than in believing them to exist in 
 the island of Formosa, with the like absence of evidence. ' -^ 
 11. Any examination of what has been written on this sub. 
 jecj; would show that, in speculating about moral and intellec- 
 tual beings in other regions of the universe, we merely make 
 them to be men in another place. With regard to the plants 
 and animals of other planets, fancy has freer play ; but man 
 cannot conceive any moral creature who is not man. Thus 
 Fontenclle, in his Dialogues on the Plurality of Worlds, makes 
 the inhabitants of Venus possess, in an exaggerated degree, the 
 characteristics of the men of the warm climates of the earth. 
 They are like the Moors of Grenada ; or rather, the Moors of 
 Grenada would be to them as cold as Greenlanders and Lap- 
 landers to us. And the inhabitants of Mercury- have so much 
 vivacity, that they would pass with us for insane. " Enfin 
 c'est dans Mercure que sont les Petites-Maisons de 1'Univers." 
 The inhabitants of Jupiter and Saturn are immensely slow and 
 phlegmatic. And though he and other writers attempt to 
 make these inhabitants of remote regions in some respects su- 
 perior to man, telling us that instead of only five senses, they 
 may have six, or ten, or a hundred, still these are mere words 
 which convey no meaning ; and the great astronomer Bessel 
 had reason to say, that those who imagined inhabitants in the 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OP THE DIFFICULTY. 63 
 
 Moon and Planets, supposed them, in spite of all their protest- 
 ations, as like to men as one egg to another.* 
 
 12. But there is one step more, which we still have to 
 make, in order to bring out this difficulty in its full force. As 
 we have said, the moral law has been, to a certain extent, 
 established, developed, and enforced among men. But, as I 
 have also said, looking carefully at the law, and at the degree 
 of man's obedience to it, and at the operation of the sanctions 
 by which it is supported, we cannot help seeing, that man's 
 knowledge of the law is imperfect, his conviction of its au- 
 thority feeble, his transgressions habitual, their punishment 
 and consequences obscure. When, therefore, we regard God, 
 as the Lawgiver and Judge of man, it will not appear strange 
 to us, that he should have taken some mode of promulgating 
 his Law, and announcing his Judgments, in addition to that 
 Ordinary operation of the faculties of man, of which we have 
 spoken. Revealed Religion teaches us that he has done so : 
 that from the first placing of the race of man upon the earth, 
 it was his purpose to do so : that by his dealing with the race 
 of man in the earlier times, and at various intervals, he made 
 preparation for the mission of a special Messenger, whom, in 
 the fulness of time, he sent upon the earth in the form of a 
 man ; and wl}o both taught men the Law of God in a purer 
 and clearer form than any in which it had yet been given ; 
 and revealed His purpose, of rewards for obedience, and 
 punishments for disobedience, to be executed in a state of 
 being to which this human life is only an introduction ; and 
 established the means by which the spirit of man, when alien- 
 ated from God by transgression, may be again reconciled to 
 Him. The arrival of this especial Messenger of Holiness, 
 Judgment, and Redemption, forms the great event in the his- 
 
 * Popular Vorlesuugen iiber "Wissenschaftliche Gegenstande, p. 31. 
 
64 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 tory of the earth, considered in a religious view, as the abode 
 of God's servants. It was attended with the sufferings and 
 cruel death of the Divine Messenger thus sent; was preceded 
 by prophetic announcements of his coming ; and the history 
 of the world, for the two thousand years that have since 
 elapsed, has been in a great measure occupied with the conse- 
 quences of that advent. Such a proceeding shows, of course, 
 that God has an especial care for the race of man. The earth, 
 thus selected as the theatre of such a scheme of Teaching and 
 of Redemption, cannot, in the eyes of any one who accepts 
 this Christian faith, be regarded as being on a level with any 
 other domiciles. It is the Stage of the great Drama of God's 
 Mercy and- Man's Salvation ; the Sanctuary of the Universe ; 
 the Holy Land of Creation ; the Royal Abode, for a time at 
 least, of the Eternal King. This being the character which 
 has thus been conferred upon it, how can we assent to the as- 
 sertions of Astronomers, when they tell us that it is only one 
 among millions of similar habitations, not distinguishable 
 from them, except that it is smaller than most of them that 
 we can measure ; confused and rude in its materials like them ? 
 Or if we believe the Astronomers, will not such a belief lead 
 us to doubt the truth of the great scheme of Christianity, 
 which thus makes the earth the scene of a special dispen- 
 sation. 
 
 1 3. This is the form in which Chalmers has taken up the 
 argument. This is the difficulty which he proposes to solve ; 
 or rather, (such being as I have said the mode in which he 
 presents the subject,) the objection which he proposes to re- 
 fute. It is the bearing of the Astronomical discoveries of 
 modern times, not upon the doctrines of Natural Religion, but 
 upon the scheme of Christianity, which he discusses. And 
 the question which he supposes his opponent to propound, as 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 65 
 
 an objection to the Christian scheme, is : How is it consist- 
 ent with the dignity, the impartiality, the comprehensiveness, 
 the analogy of God's proceedings, that he should make so 
 special and pre-eminent a provision for .the salvation of the 
 inhabitants of this Earth, where there are such myriads of 
 other worlds, all of which may require the like provision, and 
 all of which have an equal claim to their Creator's care ? 
 
 14. The answer which Chalmers gives to this objection, is 
 one drawn, in 'the first instance, from our ignorance. He 
 urges that, when the objector asserts that other worlds may 
 have the like need with our own, of a special provision for 
 the rescue of their inhabitants from the consequences of the 
 transgression of God's laws, he is really making an assertion 
 without the slightest foundation. Not only does Science not give 
 us any information on such subjects, but the whole spirit of 
 the scientific procedure, which has led to the knowledge which 
 we possess, concerning other planets and other systems, is 
 utterly opposed to our making such assumptions, respecting 
 other worlds, as the objection involves. Modern Science, in 
 proportion as she is confident when she has good grounds 
 of proof, however strange may be the doctrines proved, is not 
 only diffident, but is utterly silent, and abstains even from 
 guessing, when she has no grounds of proof. Chalmers takes 
 Newton's reasoning, as offering a special example of this 
 mixed temper, of courage in following the evidence, and 
 temperance in not advancing whSn there is no evidence. He 
 puts, in opposition to this, the example of the true philosophi- 
 cal temper, a supposed rash theorist, who should make un- 
 warranted suppositions and assumptions, concerning matters 
 to which our scientific evidence does not reach ; the animals 
 and plants, for instance, which are to be found in the planet 
 Jupiter. No one, he says, would more utterly 'reject and con- 
 
G6 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 demn such speculations than Newton, who first rightly ex- 
 plained the motion of Jupiter and of his attendant satellites, 
 about which Science can pronounce her truths. And thus, 
 nothing can be more opposite to the real spirit of modern 
 science, and astronomy in particular, than arguments, such as 
 we have stated, professing to be drawn from science and from 
 astronomy. Since we know nothing about the inhabitants of 
 Jupiter, true science requires that we say and suppose nothing 
 about them ; still more requires that we should not, on the 
 ground of assumptions made with regard to them, and other 
 supposed groups of living creatures, reject a belief, founded on 
 direct and positive proofs, such as is the belief in the truths 
 of Natural and of Revealed Religion. 
 
 1 5. To this argument of Chalmers, we may not only give 
 our full assent, but we may venture to suggest, in accordance 
 with what we have already said, that the argument, when so 
 put, is not stated in all its legitimate force. The assertion 
 that the inhabitants of Jupiter have the same need as we have, 
 of a special dispensation for their preservation from moral 
 ruin, is not only as merely arbitrary an assumption, as any 
 assertion could be, founded on a supposed knowledge of an 
 analogy between the botany of Jupiter, and the botany of the 
 earth ; but it is a great deal more so. There may be circum- 
 stances which may afibrd some reason to believe that some- 
 thing of the nature of vegetables grows on the surface of 
 Jupiter ; for instance, if we mid that he is a solid globe sur- 
 rounded by an atmosphere, vapor, clouds, showers. But, as 
 we have already said, there is an immeasurable distance be- 
 tween the existence of unprogressive tribes of organized crea- 
 tures, plants, or even animals, and the existence of a progress- 
 ive creature, which can pass through the conditions of receiving, 
 discerning, disobeying, and obeying a moral law ; which can 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 67 
 
 be estranged from God, and then reconciled to him. To as- 
 sume, without further proof, that there are, in Jupiter, crea- 
 tures of such a nature that these descriptions apply to them, 
 is a far bolder and more unphilosophical assumption, than any 
 that the objector could make concerning the botany of Jupiter ; 
 and therefore, the objection thus supposed to be drawn from 
 our supposed knowledge, is very properly answered by an ap- 
 peal to our really utter ignorance, as to the points on which 
 the argument rests. 
 
 16. This appeal to our ignorance is the main feature in Chal- 
 mer's reasonings, so far as the argument on the one side or the 
 other has reference to science. Chalmers, indeed, pursues the 
 argument into other fields of speculation. He urges, that not 
 only we have no right to assume that other worlds require a re- 
 demption of the same kind as that provided for man, but that 
 the very reverse maybe the case. Man maybe the only 
 transgressor ; and this, the only world that needed so great a 
 provision for its salvation. We read in Scripture, expressions 
 which imply that other beings, besides man, take an interest in 
 the salvation of man. May not this be true of the inhabitants 
 of other worlds, if such inhabitants there be ? These specula- 
 tions he pursues to a considerable length, with great richness 
 of imagination, and great eloquence. But the suppositions on 
 which they proceed are too loosely connected with the results 
 of science, to make it safe for us to dwell upon them here. 
 
 17. I conceive, as I have said, that the argument with which 
 Chalmers thus deals admits of answers, also drawn from mod- 
 ern science, which to many persons will seem more complete 
 than that which is thus drawn from our ignorance. But before 
 I proceed to bring forward these answers, which will require 
 several steps of explanation, I have one or two remarks still 
 to make. 
 
68 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 18. Undoubtedly they who believe firmly both that the earth 
 has been the scene of a Divine Plan for the benefit of man, 
 and also that other bodies in the universe are inhabited by 
 creatures who may have an interest in such a Plan, are natu- 
 rally led to conjectures and imaginations as to the nature and 
 extent of that interest. The religious poet, in his Night 
 Thoughts, interrogates the inhabitants of a distant star, whether 
 their race too has, in its history, events resembling the fall of 
 man, and the redemption of man. 
 
 Enjoy your happy realms their golden age ? 
 
 And had your Eden an abstemious Eve ? 
 
 Or, if your mother fell are you redeemed? *" 
 
 And if redeemed, is your Redeemer scorned ? 
 
 And such imaginations may be readily allowed to the 
 preacher or the poet, to be employed in order to impress upon 
 man the conviction of his privileges, his thanklessness, his in- 
 consistency, and the like. But every form in which such re- 
 flections can be put shows how intimately they depend upon the 
 nature and history of man. And when such reflections are 
 made the source of difficulty or objection in the way of relig- 
 ious thought, and when these difficulties and objections are rep- 
 resented as derived from astronomical discoveries, it cannot 
 be superfluous to inquire whether astronomy has really dis- 
 covered any ground for such objections. To some persons it 
 may be more grateful to remedy one assumption by another : 
 the assumption of moral agents in other worlds, by the as- 
 sumption of some operation of the Divine Plan in other 
 worlds. But since many persons find great difficulty in con- 
 ceiving such an operation of the Divine Plan in a satisfactory 
 way ; and many persons also think that to make such unau- 
 thorized and fanciful assumptions with regard to the Divine 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 69 
 
 Plans for the government of God's creatures is a violation of 
 the humility, submission of mind, and spirit of reverence 
 which religion requires ; it may be useful if we can show that 
 such assumptions, with regard to the Divine Plans, are called 
 forth by assumptions equally gratuitous on the other side : 
 that Astronomy no more reveals to us extra-terrestrial moral 
 agents, than Religion reveals to us extra-terrestrial Plans of 
 Divine government. Chalmers has spoken of the rashness of 
 making assumptions on such subjects without proof; leaving 
 it however, to be supposed, that though astronomy does not 
 supply proof of intelligent inhabitants of other parts of the 
 universe, she yet does offer strong analogies in favor of such 
 an opinion. But such a procedure is more than rash : when 
 astronomical doctrines are presented in the form in which they 
 have been already laid before the reader, which is the ordinary, 
 and popular mode of apprehending them, the analogies in favor 
 of " other worlds," are (to say the least) greatly exaggerated. 
 And by taking into account what astronomy really teaches us, 
 and what we learn also from other sciences, I shall attempt to 
 reduce such " analogies" to their true value. 
 
 14. The privileges of man, which make the difficulty in as- 
 signing him his place in the vast scheme of the Universe, we 
 have described as consisting in his being an intellectual, moral, 
 and religious creature. Perhaps the privileges implied in the 
 last term, and their place in our argument, may justify a word 
 more of explanation. Religion teaches us that there is opened 
 to man, not only a prospect of a life in the presence of God, 
 after this mortal life, but also the possibility and the duty of 
 spending this life as in the presence of God. This is properly 
 the highest result and manifestation of the effect of Religion 
 upon man. Precisely because it is this, it is difficult to speak 
 of this effect without seeming to use the language of enthusi- 
 
70 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 asm ; and yet again, precisely because it is so, our argument 
 would be incomplete without a reference to it. There is for 
 man, a possibility and a duty of bringing his thoughts, pur- 
 poses, and affections more and more into continual unison with 
 the will of God. This, even Natural Religion taught men, was 
 the highest point at which man could aim ; and Revealed Re- 
 ligion has still more clearly enjoined the duty of aiming at such 
 a condition. The means of a progress towards such a state 
 belong to the Religion of the heart and mind. They include 
 a constant purification and elevation of the thoughts, affections, 
 and will, wrought by habits of religious reflection and medita- 
 tion, of prayer and gratitude to God. Without entering into 
 further explanation, all relifious persons will agree that such a 
 progress is, under happy influences, possible for man, and is the 
 highest condition to which he can attain in this life. Whatever 
 names may have been applied at different times to the steps of 
 such a progress ; the cultivation of the divine nature in us ; 
 resignation ; devotion ; holiness ; union with God ; living in 
 God, a"nd with God in us ; religious persons will not doubt 
 that there is a reality of internal state corresponding to these 
 expressions ; and that, to be capable of elevation into the con- 
 dition which these expressions indicate, is one of the especial 
 privileges of man. Man's soul, considered especially as the 
 subject of God's government, is often called his Spirit; and 
 that man is capable of such conformity to the will of God, and 
 approximation to Him, is sometimes expressed by speaking of 
 him as a spiritual creature. And though the privilege of be- 
 ing, or of being capable of becoming, in this sense, a spiritual 
 creature, is a part of man's religious privileges ; we may some- 
 times be allowed to use this additional expression, in order to re- 
 mind the reader, how great those religious privileges are, and how 
 close is the relation between man and God } which they imply. 
 
FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 71 
 
 15. We have given a view of the peculiar character of man's 
 condition, which seem to claim for him a nature and place 
 unique and incapable of repetition, in the scheme of the uni- 
 verse ; and to this view astronomy, exhibiting to us the 
 habitation of man as only one among many similar abodes, 
 offers an objection. We are, therefore, now called upon, I 
 conceive, to proceed to exhibit the answer which a somewhat 
 different view of modern science suggests to this difficulty or 
 objection. 
 
 For this purpose, we must begin, by regarding the Earth in 
 another point of view, different from that hitherto considered 
 by us. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 1. MAN, as I trust has been made apparent to the conscious- 
 ness and conviction of the reader, is an intelligent, moral, re- 
 ligious, and spiritual creature ; and we have to discuss the 
 difficulty, or perplexity, or objection, which arises in our 
 minds, when we consider such a creature as occupying an 
 habitation, which is but one among many globes apparently 
 equally fitted to be the dwelling-places of living things a 
 mere speck in the immensity of creation an atom among 
 such a vast array of material structures a world, as we needs 
 must deem it, among millions of other objects which appear 
 to have an equal claim to be regarded as worlds. 
 
 2. The difficulty appears to be great, either way. Can the 
 earth alone be the theatre of such intelligent, moral, religious, 
 and spiritual action ? On the other hand, can we conceive such 
 action to go on in the other bodies of the universe ? If we 
 take the latter alternative, We must people other planets and 
 other systems with men such as we are, even as to their his- 
 tory. For the intellectual and moral condition of man implies 
 a history of the species ; and the view of man's condition 
 which religion presents, not only involves a scheme of which 
 the history of the human race is a part, but also asserts a pe- 
 
GEOLOGY. 73 
 
 culiar reference had, in the provisions of God, to the nature of 
 man ; and even a peculiar relation and connection between 
 the human and the divine nature. To extend such suppositions 
 to other worlds would be a proceeding so arbitrary and fan- 
 ciful, that we are led to consider whether the alternative sup- 
 position may not be more admissible. The alternative sup- 
 position is, that man is, in an especial and eminent manner, 
 the object of God's care ; that his place in the creation is, not 
 that he merely occupies one among millions of similar domiciles 
 provided in boundless profusion by the Creator of the Universe, 
 but that he is the servant, subject, and child of God, in a way 
 unique and peculiar ; that his being a spiritual creature, (in- 
 cluding his other attributes in the highest for the sake of brev- 
 ity,) makes him belong to a spiritual world, which is not to be 
 judged of merely by analogies belonging to the material uni- 
 verse. 
 
 3. Between these two difficulties the choice is embarrassing, 
 and the decision must be unsatisfactory, except we can find 
 some furthef ground of judgment. But perhaps this is not 
 hopeless. We have hitherto referred to the evidence and an- 
 alogies supplied by one science, namely, astronomy. But 
 there are other sciences which give us information concerning 
 the nature and history of the earth. From some of these, 
 perhaps, we may obtain some knowledge of the place of the 
 earth in the scheme of creation how far it is, in its present 
 condition, a thing unique, or only one thing among many like 
 it Any science which supplies us with evidence or informa- 
 tion on this head, will give us aid in forming a judgment upon 
 the question under our consideration. To such sciences, then, 
 we will turn our attention. 
 
 One science has employed itself in investigating the nature 
 and history of the earth by an examination of the materials 
 
 4 
 
74 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 of which it is composed ; namely, Geology. Let us call to 
 mind some of the results at which this science has arrived. 
 
 4. A very little attention to what is going on among the 
 materials of which the earth's surface is composed, suffices to 
 show us that there are causes of change constantly and effect- 
 ually at work. The earth's surface is composed of land and 
 water, hills and valleys, rocks and rivers. But these features 
 undergo change, and produce change in each other. The 
 mountain-rivers cut deeper and deeper into the ravines in 
 which they run ; they break up the rocks over which they 
 rush, use the fragments as implements of further destruction, 
 pile them up in sloping mounds where the streams issue from 
 the mountains, spread them over the plains, fill up lakes with 
 sediment, push into the sea great deltas. The sea batters the 
 cliffs and eats away the land, and again, forms banks and 
 islands where there had been deep water. Volcanoes pour out 
 streams of lava, which destroy the vegetation over which they 
 flow, and which again, after a series of years, are themselves 
 clothed with vegetation. Earthquakes throw down tracts of 
 land beneath the sea, and elevate other tracts from the bottom 
 of the ocean. These agencies are everywhere manifest ; and 
 though at a given moment, at a given spot, their effect may 
 seem to us almost imperceptible, too insignificant to be taken 
 account of, yet in a long course of years almost every place 
 has undergone considerable changes. Rivers have altered 
 their courses, lakes have become plains, coasts have been swept 
 away or have become inland districts, rich valleys have been 
 ravaged by watery or fiery deluges, the country has in some 
 way or other assumed a new face. The present aspect of the 
 earth is in some degree different from what it was a few thou- 
 sand years ago. 
 
 5. But yet, in truth, the changes of which we thus speak 
 
GEOLOGY. 75 
 
 have mot been very considerable. The forms of countries, the 
 lines of coasts, the ranges of mountains, the groups of valleys, 
 the courses of rivers, are much the same now as they were in 
 ancient times. The face of the earth, since man has had any 
 knowledge of it, may have undergone some change, but the 
 changeable has borne a small proportion to the permanent. 
 Changes have taken place, and are taking place, but they do 
 not take place rapidly. The ancient earth and the modern 
 earth are, in all their main physical features, identical ; and 
 we must go backwards through a considerably larger interval 
 than that which carries us back to what we usually term an- 
 tiquity, before we are led, by the operation of causes now at 
 work, to an aspect of the earth's surface very different from 
 that which it now presents. 
 
 6. For instance, rivers do, no doubt, more or less alter, in 
 the course of years, by natural causes. The Rhine, the Rhone, 
 the Po, the Danube, have, certainly, during the last four thou- 
 sand years, silted up their beds in level places, expanded the 
 deltas at their mouths, changed the channels by which they 
 enter the sea ; and very probably, in their upper parts, altered 
 the forms of their waterfalls and of their shingle beds. Yet 
 even if we were thus to go backwards ten thousand, or twenty, 
 or thirty thousand years, (setting aside great and violent causes 
 of change, as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the like,) 
 the general form and course of these rivers, and of the ranges 
 of mountains in which they flow, would not be different from 
 what it is now. And the same may be said of coasts and 
 islands, seas and bays. The present geography of the earth 
 may be, and from all the evidence which we have, must be, 
 very ancient, according to any measures of antiquity which 
 can apply to human affairs. 
 
 7. But yet the further examination of the materials of the 
 
76 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 earth carries us to a view beyond this. Though the general 
 forms of the land and the waters of continents and seas, were, 
 several thousand years ago, much the same as they now are ; 
 yet it was not always so. We have clear evidence that large 
 tracts which are now dry ground, were formerly the bed of 
 the ocean ; and these, not tracts of the shore, where the vary- 
 ing warfare of sea and land is still going on, but the very 
 central parts of great continents ; the Alps, the Pyrenees, the 
 Himalayas. For not only are the rocks of which these great 
 mountain-chains consist, of such structure that they appear to 
 have been formed as layers of sediment at the bottom of 
 water ; but also, these layers contain vast accumulations of 
 shells, or impressions of shells, and other remains of marine 
 animals. And these appearances are not few, limited, or 
 partial. The existence of such marine remains, in the solid 
 substance of continents and mountains, is a general, predomi- 
 nant, and almost universal fact, in every part of the earth. 
 Nor is any other way of accounting for this fact admissible, 
 than that those materials really have, at some time, formed 
 bottoms of seas. The various other conjectures and hypoth- 
 eses, which were put forward on this subject, when the amount, 
 extent, multiplicity, and coherence of the phenomena were not 
 yet ascertained, and when their natural history was not yet 
 studied, cannot now be considered as worthy of the smallest 
 regard. That many of our highest hills are formed of materi- 
 als raised from the depths of ocean, is a proposition which 
 cannot be doubted, by any one, who fairly examines the evi- 
 dence which nature offers. 
 
 8. If we take this proposition only, we cannot immediately 
 connect it with our knowledge respecting the surface of the 
 earth in its present form. We learn that what is now land, 
 has been sea ; and we may suppose (since it is natural to as- 
 
GEOLOGY. 77 
 
 sume that the bulk of the sea has not much changed) that 
 what is now sea was formerly land. But, except we can learn 
 something of the manner in which this change took place, we 
 cannot make any use of our knowledge. Was the change 
 sudden, or gradual ; abrupt, or successive ; brief, or long- 
 continuing ? 
 
 9. To these questions, the further study of the facts enables 
 us to return answers with great confidence. The change or 
 changes which produced the effects of which we have spoken 
 the conversion of the bottom of the ocean into the centre 
 of our greatest continents and highest mountains, were un- 
 doubtedly gradual, successive, and long continued. We 
 must state very briefly the grounds on which we make this 
 assertion. 
 
 10. The masses which form our mountain-chains, offer evi- 
 dence, .as I have said, that they were deposited as sediment at 
 the bottom of a sea, and then hardened. They consist of suc- 
 cessive layers of such sediment, making up the whole mass of 
 the mountain. These layers are, of course, to a certain ex- 
 tent, a measure of the. time during which the deposition of 
 sediment took place. The thicker the mass of sediment, the 
 more numerous and varied its beds, and the longer period 
 must we suppose to have been requisite for its formation. 
 Without making any attempt at accurate or definite esti- 
 mation, which would be to no purpose, it is plain that a mass 
 of sedimentary strata five thousand or ten thousand feet 
 thick, must have required, for its deposit, a long course of 
 years, or rather, a long course of ages. 
 
 11. But again : on further examination it is found, that we 
 have not merely one series of sedimentary deposits, thus 
 forming our mountains. There are a number of different 
 series of such layers or strata, to be found in different ranges 
 
78 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 of hills, and in the same range, one series resting upon an- 
 other. These different series of strata are distinguishable 
 from one another by their general structure and appearance, 
 besides more intimate characters, of which we shall shortly 
 have to speak. Each such series appears to have a certain 
 consistency of structure within itself; the layers of which it 
 is composed being more or less parallel, but the successive 
 series are not thus always parallel, the lower ones being often 
 highly inclined and irregular, while the upper ones are more 
 level and continuous : as if the lower strata had been broken 
 up and thrown into disorder, and then a new series of strata 
 had been deposited horizontally on their fragments. But in 
 whatever way these different sedimentary series succeeded 
 each other, each series must have required, as we have seen, 
 a long period for its formation ; and to estimate the length of 
 the interval between the two series, we have, at the present 
 stage of our exposition, no evidence. 
 
 12. But the mechanical structure of the strata, the result, 
 as it seems, of aqueous sedimentary deposit, is not the only, 
 nor the most important evidence, with regard to the length of 
 time occupied by the formation of the rocky layers which 
 now compose our mountains. As we .have said, they contain 
 shells, and other remains of creatures which live in the sea 
 These they contain, not in small numbers, scattered and de- 
 tached, but in vast abundance, as they are found in those parts 
 of the ocean which. is most alive with them. There are the 
 remains of oysters and other shell-fish in layers, as they live 
 at present in the seas near our shores ; of corals, in vast 
 patches and beds, as they now occur in the waters of the 
 Pacific ; of shoals of fishes, of many different kinds, in im- 
 mense abundance. Each of these beds of shells, of corals, and 
 of fishes, must have required many years, perhaps many cen- 
 
GEOLOGY. 79 
 
 turies, for the growth of the successive individuals and suc- 
 cessive generations of which it consists : as long a time, 
 perhaps, as the present inhabitants of the sea have lived 
 therein : or many times longer, if there have been many such 
 successive changes. And thus, while the present condition of 
 the earth extends backwards to a period of vast but unknown 
 antiquity ; we have, offered to our notice, the evidence of a 
 series of other periods, each of which, so far as we can judge, 
 may have been as long or longer than that during which the 
 dry land, has had its present form. 
 
 13. But the most remarkable feature in the evidence is yet 
 to come. We have spoken in general of the oysters, and cor- 
 als, and fishes, which occur in the strata of our hills ; as if they 
 were creatures of the same kinds which we now designate by 
 those names. But a more exact examination of these remains 
 of organized beings, shows that this is not so. The tribes of 
 animals which are found petrified in our rocks are almost all 
 different, so far as our best natural historians can determine, 
 from those which now live in our existing seas. They are dif- 
 ferent species ; different genera. The creatures which we find 
 thus embedded in our mountains, are not only dead as indi- 
 viduals, but extinct as species. They belonged, not only to a 
 terrestrial period, but to an animal creation, which is now past 
 away. The earth is, it seems, a domicile which has outlasted 
 more than one race of tenants. 
 
 14. It may seem rash and presumptuous in the natural his- 
 torian to pronounce thus peremptorily that certain forms of life 
 are nowhere to be found at present, even in the unfathomable 
 and inaccessible depths of the ocean. But even if this were 
 so, the proposition that the earth has changed its inhabitants, 
 
 since the rocks were formed, of which our hills consist, does 
 not depend for its proof on this assumption. For in the or- 
 
80 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ganic bodies which our strata contain, we find remains, not only 
 of marine animals, but of animals which inhabit the fresh 
 waters, and the land, and of plants. And the examination of 
 such remains having been pursued with great zeal, and with all 
 the aids which natural history can supply, the result has been, 
 the proofs of a vast series of different tribes of animals and 
 plants, which have successively occupied the earth and the seas ; 
 and of which, the number, variety, multiplicity, and strange- 
 ness, exceed, by far, everything which could have been pre- 
 viously imagined. Thus Cuvier found, in the limestone strata 
 on which Paris stands, animals of the most curious forms, com- 
 bining in the most wonderful manner the qualities of different 
 species of existing quadrupeds. In another series of strata, 
 the Lias, which runs as a band across England from N. E. to 
 S. W., we have the remains of lizards, or lacertine animals, dif- 
 ferent from those which now exist, of immense size and of ex- 
 traordinary structure, some approaching to the form of fishes 
 (ichthyosaurus) ; others, with the neck of a serpent ; others 
 with wings, like the fabled forms of dragons. Then beyond 
 these, that is, anterior to them in the series of time, we have 
 the immense collection of fossil plants, which occur in the Coal 
 Strata ; the shells and corals of the Mountain Limestone ; the 
 peculiar fishes, different altogether from existing fishes, of the 
 Old Red Sandstone ; and though, as we descend lower and 
 lower, the traces of organic life appear to be more rare and 
 more limited in kind, yet still we have, beneath these, in slates 
 and in beds of limestone, many fossil remains, still differing 
 from those which occur in the higher, and therefore, newer 
 strata. 
 
 15. We have no intention of instituting any definite calcula- 
 tion with regard to the periods of time which this succession 
 of forms of organic life may have occupied. This, indeed, the 
 
GEOLOGY. 81 
 
 boldest geological speculators have not ventured to do. But 
 the scientific discoveries thus made, have a bearing upon the 
 analogies of creation, quite as important as the discoveries of 
 astronomy. And therefore we may state briefly some of the 
 divisions of the series of terrestrial strata which have sug- 
 gested themselves to geological inquirers. At the outset of 
 such speculations, it was conceived that the lower rocks, com- 
 posed of granite, slate, and the like, had existed before the 
 earth was peopled with living things ; and that these, being 
 broken up into inclined positions, there were deposited upon 
 them, as the sediment of superincumbent waters, strata more 
 horizontal, containing organic remains. The former were then 
 called Primitive or Primary, the latter, Secondary rocks. But 
 it was soon found that this was too sweeping and peremptory a 
 division. Rocks which had been classed as Primary, were 
 found to contain traces of life ; and hence, an intermediate 
 class of Transition strata was spoken of. But this too was 
 soon seen to be too narrow a scheme of arrangement, to take 
 in the rapidly-accumulating mass of facts, organic and others, 
 which the geological record of the earth's history disclosed. 
 It appeared that among the fossil-bearing strata there might be 
 discerned a long series of Formations : the term formation, - 
 being used to imply a collection of successive strata, which,) 
 taking into account all the evidence, of materials, position, re-[ 
 lations, and organic remains, appears to have been deposited 
 during some one epoch or period ; so as to form a natural 
 group, chronologically and physiologically distinct from the 
 others. In this way it appeared that, taking as the highest part 
 of the Secondary series, the beds of chalk, which, marked by 
 characteristic fossils, run through great tracts of Europe, with 
 other beds, of sand and clay, which generally accompany these ; 
 there was, below this Cretaceous Formation, an Oolitic Forma- 
 
 4* 
 
82 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 tion, still more largely diffused, and still more abundant in its 
 peculiar organic remains. Below this, we have, in England, 
 the New Red Sandstone Formation, which, in other countries, 
 is accompanied bylbeds abundant in fossils, as the Muschelkalk 
 of Germany. Below this again we have the Coal Formation, 
 and the Mountain Limestone, with their peculiar fossils. Be- 
 low these, we have the Old Red Sandstone or Devonian Sys- 
 tem, with its peculiar fishes and other fossils.. Beneath these, 
 occur still numerous series of distinguishable strata ; which 
 have been arranged by Sir Roderick Murchison as the mem- 
 bers of the Silurian formation ; the researches by which it 
 was established having been carried on, in the first place, in 
 South Wales, ,the ancient country of the Silures. Including 
 the lower part of this formation, and descending still lower in 
 order, is the Cambrian formation of Professor Sedgwick. And 
 since the races of organic beings, as we thus descend through 
 successive strata, seem to be fewer and fewer in their general 
 types, till at last they disapear ; these lower members of the 
 geological series have been termed, according to their success- 
 ion, Palaeozoic, Protozoic, and Hypozoic or Azoic. The general 
 impression on the minds of geologists has been, that, as we 
 descend in this long staircase of natural steps, we are brought 
 in view of a state of the earth in which life was scantily mani- 
 fested, so as to appear to be near its earliest stages. 
 
 16. Each of these formations is of great thickness. Several 
 of the members of each formation are hundreds, many of them 
 thousands of feet thick. Taken altogether, they afford an as- 
 tounding record of the time during which they must have been 
 accumulating, and during which these successive groups of ani- 
 mals must have been brought into being, lived, and continued 
 their kinds. 
 
 17. We must add, that over the Secondary strata there are 
 
GEOLOGY. 83 
 
 found, in patches, generally of more limited extent, another, 
 and of course, newer mass of strata, which have been termed 
 Tertiary Formations. Of these, the strata* near and under 
 Paris, lying in a hollow of the subjacent strata, and hence termed 
 the Paris asin, attracted prominent notice in the first place. 
 And these are found to contain an immense quantity of re- 
 mains of animals, which, being well preserved, and being sub- 
 jected to a careful and scientific scrutiny by the great natural- 
 ist George Cuvier, had an eminent share in establishing in the 
 minds of Geologists the belief of the extinct character of fossil 
 species, and of the possibility of reconstructing, from such re- 
 mains, the animals, different from those which now live, which 
 had formerly tenanted the earth. 
 
 18. We have, in this enumeration, a series of groups of 
 strata, each of which, speaking in a general way, has its own 
 population of animals and plants, and is separated, by the pe- 
 culiarities of these, from the groups below and above it. Each 
 group may, in a general manner, be considered as a separate 
 creation of animal and vegetable forms creatures which have 
 lived and died, as the'races now existing upon the earth live 
 and die ; and of which the living existence may, and according 
 to all appearance must, have occupied ages, and series of ages, 
 such as have been occupied by the present living generations / 
 of the earth. This series of creations, or of successive periods ] 
 of life, is, no doubt, a very striking and startling fact, very dif- j 
 ferent from anything which the imagination of man, in previous ) 
 stages of investigation of the earth's condition, had conceived ; 
 but still, is established by evidence so complete, drawn from 
 an examination and knowledge of the structures of living things 
 so exact and careful, as to leave no doubt whatever of the 
 reality of the fact, on the minds of those who have attended to 
 the evidence ; founded, as it is, upon the analogies, offices, an- 
 
84 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 atomy, and combinations of organic structures. The progress 
 of human knowledge on this subject has been carried on and 
 established by tlie same alternations of bold conjectures and 
 felicitous confirmations of them, of minute researches and 
 large generalizations, which have given reality and solidity 
 to the other most certain portions of human knowledge. That 
 f the strata of the earth, as we descend from the highest to the 
 ( lowest, are distinguished in general by characteristic or organic 
 fossils, and that these forms of organization are different from 
 those which now live on the earth, are truths as clearly and 
 indisputably established in the minds of those who have the 
 requisite knowledge of geology and natural history, as that the 
 planets revolve round the sun, and satellites round the planets. 
 That these epochs of creation are something quite different from 
 anything which we now see taking place on the earth, no more 
 disturbs the belief of those facts, which scientific explorers en- 
 tertain, than the seemingly obvious difference between the 
 nebulas which are regarded as yet unformed planetary systems, 
 and the solar system to which our earth belongs, disturbs the 
 belief of astronomers, that such nebula3, as well as our system, 
 really exist. Indeed we may say, as we shall hereafter see, 
 that the fact of our earth having passed through the series of 
 periods of organic life which geologists recognize, is, hitherto, 
 incomparably better established, than the fact that the nebulae, 
 or any of them, are passing through a series of changes, such 
 as may lead to a system like ours ; as some eminent astrono- 
 mers in modern times have held. In this respect ; the history 
 of the world, and its place in the universe, are far more clearly 
 learnt from geology than from astronomy. 
 
 19. But with regard to this series of Organic Creations, if, 
 for the sake of brevity, we may call them so ; we may nat- 
 turally ask, in what manner, by what agencies, at what inter- 
 
GEOLOGY. 85 
 
 vals, they succeeded each other on the earth ? Now, do the 
 researches of geologists give us any information on these 
 points, which may be brought to bear upon our present specu- 
 lations ? If we ask these questions, we receive, from different 
 classes of geologists, different answers. A little while ago, 
 most geologists held, probably the greater number still hold, 
 that the transitions from one of these periods of organic life 
 to another, were accompanied generally by seasons of violent 
 disruption and mutation of the surface of the earth, exceeding 
 anything which has taken place since the surface assumed its 
 present general form ; in the same proportion as the changes 
 of its organic population go beyond any such changes which 
 we can discern to be at present in operation. And there were 
 found to be changes of other kinds, which seemed to show that 
 these epochs of organic transition had also been epochs of me- 
 chanical violence, upon a vast and wonderful scale. It ap- 
 peared that, at some of these epochs at least, the strata pre- 
 viously deposited, as if in comparative tranquillity, had been 
 broken, thrust up from below, or drawn or cast downwards ; 
 so that strata which must at first have been nearly level, were 
 thrown into positions highly inclined, fractured, set on edge, 
 contorted, even inverted. Over the broken edges of these 
 strata, thus disturbed and fractured, were found vast accumu- 
 lations of the fragments which such rude treatment might nat- 
 urally produce ; these fragmentary ruins being spread in beds 
 comparatively level, over the bristling edges of the subjacent 
 rocks, as if deposited in the fluid which had overwhelmed the 
 previous structure ; and with few or no traces of life appear- 
 ing in this mass of ruins ; while, in the strata which lay over 
 them, and which appeared to have been the result of quieter 
 times, new forms of organic life made their appearance in vast 
 abundance. Such is, for example, the relation of the coal 
 
86 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 strata in a great part of England ; broken into innumerable 
 basins, ridges, valleys, strips, and shreds, lying in all positions ; 
 and then filled into a sort of level, by the conglomerate of the 
 magnesian limestone, and the superincumbent red sandstone 
 and oolites. In other cases it appeared as if there were the 
 means of tracing, in these dislocations, the agency of igneous 
 stony matter, which had been injected from below, so as to 
 form mountain-chains, or the cores of such ; and in which the 
 period of the convulsion could be traced, by the strata to 
 which the disturbance extended ; those strata being supposed 
 to have been deposited before the eruption, which were thrust 
 upwards by it into highly-inclined positions ; while those strata 
 which, though near to these scenes of mechanical violence, were 
 still comparatively horizontal, as they had been originally de- 
 posited, were naturally inferred to have been formed in the 
 waters, after the catastrophe had passed away. By such rea- 
 sonings as these, M. Elie de Beaumont has conceived that he 
 can ascertain the relative ages (according to the vast and loose 
 measurements of age which belong to this subject) of the prin- 
 cipal ranges of mountains of the earth's surface. 
 
 20. Such estimations of age can, indeed, as we have inti- 
 mated, be only of the widest and loosest kind ; yet they all 
 concur in assigning very great and gigantic periods of time, as 
 having been occupied by the events which have formed the 
 earth's strata, and brought them into their present position. 
 For not only must there have been long ages employed, as 
 we have said, while the successive generations of each group 
 of animals lived, and died, and were entombed in the abraded 
 fragments of the then existing earth ; but the other operations 
 which intervened between these apparently more tranquil 
 processes, must also have occupied, it would seem, long ages- 
 at each interval. The dislocation, disruption, and contortion 
 
GEOLOGY. 87 
 
 of the vast masses of previously existing mountains, by which 
 their framework was broken up, and its ruins covered with 
 beds of its own rubbish, many thousand feet thick, and gradu- 
 ally becoming less coarse and smoother, as the higher beds 
 were deposited upon the lower, could hardly take place, it would 
 seem, except in hundreds and thousands of years. And then 
 again, all these processes of deposition, thus arranging loose 
 masses of material into level beds, must have taken place in 
 the bottom of deep oceans ; and the beds .of these oceans must 
 have been elevated into the position of mountain ridges which 
 they now occupy, by some mighty operation of nature, which 
 must have been comparatively tranquil, since it has not much 
 disturbed those more level beds ; and which, therefore, must 
 have been comparatively long continued. If we accept, as so 
 many eminent geologists have done, this evidence of a vast 
 series of successive periods of alternate violence and repose, 
 we must assign to each such period a duration which cannot 
 but be immense, compared with the periods of time with which 
 we are commonly conversant. In the periods of comparative 
 quiet, such as now exist on the earth's surface, and such as 
 seem to be alone consistent with continued life and successive 
 generation, deposits at the bottom of lakes and seas take place, 
 it would seem, only at the rate of a few feet in a year, or 
 perhaps, in a century. When, therefore, we find strata, bear- 
 ing evidence of such a mode of deposit, and piled up to the 
 amount of thousands and tens of thousands of feet, we are 
 naturally led to regard them as the production of myriads of 
 years ; and to add new myriads, as often as, in the prosecution 
 of geological research, we are brought to new masses of strata 
 of the like kind ; and again, to interpolate new periods of the 
 same order, to allow for the transition from one such group to 
 another. 
 
88 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 21. Nor is there anything which need startle us, in the ne- 
 cessity of assuming such vast intervals of time, when we have 
 once brought ourselves to deal with the question of the an- 
 tiquity of the earth upon scientific evidence alone. For if 
 geology thus carries us far backwards through thousands, it 
 may be, millions of years, astronomy does not offer the 
 smallest argument to check this regressive supposition. On 
 the contrary, all the most subtle and profound investigations 
 of astronomers have, led them to the conviction, that the mo- 
 tions of the earth may have gone on, as they now go on, for 
 an indefinite period of past time. There is no tendency to 
 derangement in the mechanism of the solar system, so far as 
 science has explored it. Minute inequalities in the movements 
 exist, too small to produce any perceptible effect on the con- 
 dition of the earth's surface ; and even these inequalities, 
 after growing up through long cycles of ages, to an amount 
 barely capable of being detected by astronomical scrutiny, 
 reach a maximum ; and, diminishing by the same slow de- 
 grees by which they increased, correct themselves, and disap- 
 pear. The solar system, and the earth as part of it, constitute, 
 so far as we can discover, a Perpetual Motion. 
 
 22. There is therefore nothing, in what we know of the 
 Cosmical conditions of our globe, to contradict the Terrestrial 
 evidence for its vast antiquity, as the seat of organic life. If 
 for the sake of giving defmiteness to our notions, we were to 
 assume that the numbers which express the antiquity of these 
 four Periods ; the Present organic condition of the earth ; 
 the Tertiary Period of geologists, which preceded that ; the 
 Secondary Period, which was anterior to that ; and the Pri- 
 mary Period which preceded the Secondary ; were on the same 
 scale as the numbers which express these four magnitudes : 
 the magnitude of the Earth ; that of the Solar System com- 
 
GEOLOGY. 89 
 
 pared with the Earth ; the distance of the nearest Fixed Stars 
 compared with the solar system ; and the distance of the most 
 remote Nebulse compared with the nearest fixed stars ; there 
 is, in the evidence which geological science offers, nothing to 
 contradict such an assumption. 
 
 23. And as the infinite extent which we necessarily ascribe 
 to space, allows us to find room, without any mental difficulty, 
 for the vast distances which astronomy reveals, and even 
 leaves us rather embarrassed with the infinite extent which 
 lies beyond our farthest explorations; so the infinite duration 
 which we, in like manner, necessarily ascribe to past time, 
 makes it easy for us, so far as our powers of intellect are con- 
 cerned, to go millions of millions of years backwards, in order 
 to trace the beginning of the earth's existence, the first step 
 of terrestrial creation. It is as easy for the mind of man to 
 reason respecting a system which is billions or trillions of 
 miles in extent, and has endured through the like number of 
 years, or centuries, as it is to reason about a system (the 
 earth, for instance,) which is forty million feet in extent, and 
 has endured for a hundred thousand million of seconds, that 
 is, a few thousand years. 
 
 24. This statement is amply sufficient for the argument 
 which we have to found .upon it ; but before I proceed to do 
 that, I will give another view which has recently been adopted 
 by some geologists, of the mode in which the successive 
 periods of creation, which geological research discloses to us, 
 have passed into one another. According to this new view, 
 we find no sufficient reason to believe that the history of the 
 earth, as read by us in the organic and mechanical phenomena 
 of its superficial parts, has consisted of such an alternation of 
 periods of violence and of repose, as we have just attempted 
 to describe. According to these theorists, strata have sue- 
 
90 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ceeded strata, one group of animals and plants has followed 
 another, through a season of uniform change ; with no greater 
 paroxysm or catastrophe, it may be, than has occurred during 
 the time that man has been an observer of the earth. It may 
 be asked, how is this consistent with the phenomena which we. 
 have described ; with the vast masses of ruin, which mark 
 the end of one period and the beginning of another, as is the 
 case in passing from the coal measures of England to the 
 superincumbent beds ; with the highly-inclined strata of the 
 central masses, and the level beds of the upper formations 
 which have been described as marking the mountain ranges of 
 Europe ? To these questions, a reply is furnished, we are 
 told, by a more extensive and careful examination of the strata. 
 It may be, that in certain localities, in certain districts, the 
 transition, from the mountain limestone and the coal, to the 
 superjacent sandstones and oolites, is abrupt and seemingly 
 violent; marked by unconformable positions of the upper 
 upon the lower strata, by beds of conglomerate, by the ab- 
 sence of organic remains in certain of these beds. But if we 
 follow these very strata into other parts of the world, or even 
 into other parts of this island, we find that this abruptness 
 and incongruity between the lower and the higher strata dis- 
 appears. Between the mountain-limestone and the red sand- 
 stone which lies over it, certain new beds are found, which fill 
 up the incoherent interval ; which offer the same evidence as 
 the strata below and above them, of having been produced 
 tranquilly ; and which do not violently differ in position from 
 either group. The appearance of incoherence in the series 
 arose from the occurrence, in the region first examined, of a 
 gap, which is here filled up, a blank which is here supplied. 
 Hence it is inferred, that whatever of violence and extreme 
 disturbance is indicated by the dislocations and ruins there 
 
GEOLOGY. 91 
 
 observed, was local and partial only ; and that, at the very 
 time when these fragmentary beds, void of organized beings, 
 were forming in one place, there were, at the same time, going 
 on, in another part of the earth's surface, not far removed, the 
 processes of the life, death and imbedding of species, as tran- 
 quilly as at any other period. And the same assertion is 
 made with regard to the more general fact, before described, 
 of the stratigraphical constitution of mountain chains. It is 
 asserted that the unconformable relation of the strata which 
 compose the different parts of those chains, is a local occur- 
 rence only ; and that the same strata, if followed into other 
 regions, are found conformable to each other ; or are reduced 
 to a virtually continuous scheme, by the interpolation of other 
 strata, which make a transition, in which no evidence of ex- 
 ceptional violence appears. 
 
 25. We shall not attempt (it is not at all necessary for us 
 to do so) to decide between the doctrines of the two 'geologi- 
 cal schools which thus stand in this opposition to each other. 
 But it will be useful to our argument to state somewhat 
 further the opinions of this latter school on one main point. 
 We must explain the view which these geologists take of the 
 mode of succession of one group of organized beings to an- 
 other: by which, as we have said, the different successive 
 strata are characterized. Such a phenomenon, it would at first 
 seem, cannot be brought within the ordinary rules of the exist- 
 ing state of things. The species of planets and animals which 
 inhabit the earth, do not change from age to age ; they are 
 the same in modern times, as they were in the most remote 
 antiquity, of which we have any record. The dogs and horses, 
 sheep and cattle, lions and wolves, eagles and swallows, corn 
 and vines, oaks and cedars, which occupy the earth now, are 
 not, we have the strongest reasons to believe, essentially dif- 
 
92 . THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ferent now from what they were in the earliest ages. At least, 
 if one or two species have disappeared, no new species have 
 come into existence. We cannot conceive a greater violation 
 of the known laws of nature, than that such an event as the 
 appearance of a new species should have occurred. Even 
 those who hold the uniformity of the mechanical changes of 
 the earth, and of the rate of change, from age to age, and from 
 one geological period to another ; must still, it would seem, 
 allow that the zoological and phytological changes of which 
 geology gives her testimony, are complete exceptions to what 
 is now taking place. The formation of strata at the bottom 
 of the ocean from the ruin of existing continents, may be 
 going on at present. Even the elevation of the bed of the 
 ocean in certain places, as a process imperceptibly slow, may 
 be in action at this moment, as these theorists hold that it is. 
 But still, even when the beds thus formed are elevated into 
 mountain chains, if that should happen, in the course of myri- 
 ads of years, (according to the supposition it cannot be effected 
 in a less period,) the strata of such mountain chains will still 
 contain only the species of such creatures as now inhabit the 
 waters ; and we shall have, even then, no succession of or- 
 ganic epochs, such as geology discovers in the existing moun- 
 tains of the earth. 
 
 26. The answer which is made to this objection appears to 
 me to involve a license of assumption on the part of the uni- 
 formitarian geologist, (as such theorists have been termed,) 
 which goes quite beyond the bounds of natural philosophy : 
 but I wish to state it ; partly, in order to show that the most 
 ingenious men, stimulated by the exigencies of a theory, 
 which requires some hypothesis concerning the succession of 
 species, to make it coherent and complete, have still found it 
 impossible to bring the creation of species of plants and ani- 
 
GEOLOGY. 93 
 
 
 
 mals within the domain of natural science ; and partly, to 
 show how easily and readily geological theorists are led to as- 
 sume periods of time, even of a higher order than those 
 which I have ventured to suggest. 
 
 27. It must, however, be first stated, as a fact on which the 
 assumption is founded which I have to notice, that the organic 
 groups by which these successive strata are characterized, are 
 not so distinct and separate, as it was convenient, for the sake 
 of explanation, to describe them in the first instance. Al- 
 though each body of strata is marked by predominant groups 
 of genera and species, yet it is not true, that all the species of 
 each formation disappear, when we proceed to the next. Some 
 species and genera endure through several successive groups 
 of strata ; while others disappear, and new forms come into 
 view, as we ascend. And thus, the change from one set of 
 organic forms to another, as we advance in time, is made, not 
 altogether by abrupt transitions, but in part continuously. 
 The uniformitarian, in the case of organic, as in the case of 
 mechanical change, obliterates or weakens the evidence of 
 sudden and catastrophic leaps, by interposing intermediate 
 steps, which involve, partly the phenomena of the preceding, 
 and partly those of the subsequent condition. As he allows 
 no universal transition from one deposit .to a succeeding dis-* 
 crepant and unconformable deposit, so he allows no abrupt 
 and complete transition from one collection of organic beings, 
 gne creation, as we may call it, to another. If creation 
 must needs be an act out of the region of natural science, he 
 will have it to be at least an act not exercised at distant in- 
 tervals, and on peculiar occasions ; but constantly going on, 
 and producing its effects, as much at one time in the geologi- 
 cal history of the world, as at another. 
 
 28. And this he holds, not only with regard to the geological 
 
94 'THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 9 
 
 periods which have preceded the existing condition of the 
 earth, but also with regard to the transition from those previous 
 periods to that in which we live. The present population of 
 the earth is not one in which all previous forms are extinct, 
 The past population of the earth was not one in which there 
 are found no creatures still living. On the contrary, he finds 
 that there exists a vast mass of strata, superior to the second- 
 ary strata, which are characterized by extinct forms, and are 
 yet inferior to those deposits which are now going on by the 
 agency of obvious causes. These masses of strata contain a 
 population of creatures, partly extinct species, and partly such 
 species as are still living on our land and in our waters. 'The 
 proportion in which the old and the new species occur in such 
 strata, is various ; and the strata are so numerous, so rich in 
 organic remains,, so different from each other, and have been 
 so well explored, that they have been classified and named ac- 
 cording to the proportion of new and of old species which they 
 contain. Those which contain the largest proportion of species 
 still living, have been termed Pliocene, as containing a greater 
 number of new or recent species. Below these, are strata 
 which are termed Miocene, implying a smaller number of new 
 species. Below these again, are others which have been termed 
 Eocene, as containing few new species indeed, but yet enough 
 to mark the dawn, the Eos, of the existing state of the organic 
 world. These strata are, in many places, of very considerable 
 thickness ; and their number, their succession, and the great 
 amount of extinct species which they contain, shows, in a man- 
 ner which cannot be questioned, (if the evidence of geology is 
 accepted at all,) in what a gradual manner, a portion at least, 
 of the existing forms of organic life have taken the place of a 
 different population previously existing on the surface of the 
 globe. 
 
GEOLOGY. 95 
 
 29. And thus the uniformitarian is led to consider the facts 
 which geology brings to light, as indicating a slow and almost 
 imperceptible, but, upon the whole, constant series of changes, 
 not only in the position of the earth's materials, but in its ani- 
 mal and vegetable population. Land becomes sea and sea be- 
 comes land ; the beds of oceans are elevated into mountain re- 
 gions, carrying with them the remains of their inhabitants ; 
 sheets of lava pour from volcanic vents and overwhelm the 
 seats of life ; and these, again, become fields of vegetation ; or, 
 it may be, descend to the depths of the sea, and are overgrown 
 with groves of coral ; lakes are filled with sediment, imbed- 
 ding the remains of land animals, and form the museums of 
 future zoologists ; the deltas of mighty rivers become the cen- 
 tres of continents, and are excavated as coal-fields by men in 
 remote ages. And yet all this time, so slow is the change, 
 that man is unaware such changes are going on. He knows 
 that the mountains of Scandinavia are rising out of the Baltic 
 at the rate of a few feet in a century ; he knows that the fertile 
 slope of Etna has been growing for thousands of years by the 
 addition of lava streams and parasitic volcanos ; he knows that 
 the delta of the Mississippi accumulates hundreds of miles of 
 vegetable matter every generation ; he knows that the shores ' 
 of Europe are yielding to the sea; but all these appear to him 
 minute items, not worth summing ; infinitesimal quantities, 
 which he cannot integrate. And so, in truth, they are, for him. 
 His ephemeral existence does not allow him to form a just con- 
 ception, in any ordinary state of mind, of the effects of this 
 constant agency of change, working through countless thou- ; 
 sands of years. But Time, inexhausted and unremitting, sums 
 the series, integrates the formula of change ; and thus passes, 
 with sure though noiseless progress, from one geological epoch 
 to another. 
 
96 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 30. And in the meanwhile, to complete the view thus taken 
 by the uniformitarian of the geological history of the earth, 
 by some constant but inscrutable law, creative agency is per- 
 petually at work, to introduce, into this progressive system of 
 things, new species of vegetable and animal life. Organic 
 forms, ever and ever new ones, are brought into being, and left, 
 visible footsteps, as it were, of the progress which Time has 
 made ; marks placed between the rocky leaves of the book 
 of creation ; by which man, when his time comes, may turn 
 back and read the past history of his habitation. But the 
 point for us to remark is, the immeasurable, the inconceivable 
 length of time, if any length of time could be inconceivable, 
 which is required of our thoughts, by this new assumption of 
 the constant production of new species, as a law of creation. 
 We might feel ourselves well nigh overwhelmed, when, by 
 looking at processes which we see producing only a few feet of 
 height or breadth or depth during the life of man, we are called 
 upon to imagine the construction of Alps and Andes, when 
 we have to imagine a world made a few inches in a century. 
 But there, at least, we had something to start from : the ele- 
 ment of change was small, but there was an element of change : 
 we had to expand, but we had not to originate. But in con- 
 ceiving that all the myriads of successive species, which we 
 find in the earth's strata, have come into being by a law which 
 is now operating, we have nothing to start from. We have 
 seen, and know of, no such change ; all sober and skilful natu- 
 ralists reject it, as a fact not belonging to our time. We have 
 here to build a theory without materials ; to sum a series of 
 which every term, so far as we know, is nothing ; to introduce 
 into our scientific reasonings an assumption contrary to all sci- 
 entific knowledge. 
 
 31. This appears to. me to be the real character of the as- 
 
GEOLOGY. 97 
 
 sumption of the constant creation of new species. But, as I 
 have said, it is not my business here, to pronounce upon the 
 value or truth of this assumption. The only use which I wish 
 to make of it is this : If any persons, who have adopted the 
 geological view which I have just been explaining, should feel 
 any interest in the speculations here offered to their notice, they 
 must needs be (as I have no doubt they will be) even more 
 willing than other geologists, to grant to our argument a scale 
 of time for geological succession, corresponding in magnitude 
 to the scale of distances which astronomy teaches us, as those 
 which measure the relation t>f the universe to the earth. 
 
 This being supposed to be granted, I am prepared to proceed 
 with my argument. 
 
 5 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE AKGUMENT FKOM GEOLOGY. 
 
 1. I HAVE endeavored to explain that, according to the dis- 
 coveries of geologists, the masses of which the surface of the 
 earth is composed, exhibit indisputable evidence that, at differ- 
 ent successive periods, the land and the waters which occupy 
 it, have been inhabited by successive races of plants and 
 animals ; which, when taken in large groups, according to the 
 ascending or descending order of the strata, consist of species 
 different from those above and below them.( Many of these 
 groups of species are of forms so different from any living 
 things which now exist, as to give to the life of those ancient 
 periods an aspect strangely diverse from that which life now 
 displays, and to transfer us, in thought, to a creation remote 
 in its predominant forms from that among which we live.^ I 
 have shown also, that the life and successive generations of 
 these groups of species, and the events by which the rocks 
 which contain these remains have been brought into .their pres- 
 ent situation and condition, must have occupied immense in- 
 tervals of time ; intervals so large that they deserve to be 
 compared, in their numerical expression, with the intervals of 
 space which separate the planets and stars from each other. It 
 has been seen, also, that the best geologists and natural his- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 99 
 
 torians have not been able to devise any hypothesis to account 
 for the successive introduction of these new species into the 
 earth's population ; except the exercise of a series of acts of 
 creation, by which they have been brought into being ; either 
 in groups at once, or in a perpetual succession of one or a few 
 species, which the course of long intervals of time might ac- 
 cumulate into groups of species. It is true, that some specu- 
 lators have held that by the agency of natural causes, such as 
 operate upon organic forms, one species might be transmuted 
 into another ; external conditions of climate, food, and the 
 like, being supposed to conspire with internal impulses and 
 tendencies, so as to produce this effect. This supposition is, 
 however, on a more exact examination of the laws of animal 
 life, found to be destitute of proof; and the doctrine of the 
 successive creation of species remains firmly established among 
 geologists. That the extinction of species, and of groups of 
 species, may be accounted for by natural causes, is a proposi- 
 tion much more plausible, and to a certain extent, probable ; 
 for we have good reason to believe that, even within the time 
 of human history, some few species have ceased to exist upon 
 the earth. But whether the extinction of such vast groups 
 of species as the ancient strata present to our notice, can be 
 accounted for in this way, at least without assuming the oc- 
 currence of great catastrophes, which must for a time, have 
 destroyed all forms of life in the district in which they occurred, 
 appears to be more doubtful. The decision of these questions, 
 however, is not essential ^to our purpose. What is important 
 is, that immense numbers of tribes of animals have tenanted 
 the earth for countless ages, before the present state of things 
 began to be. 
 
 2. The present state of things is that to which the existence 
 and the history of MAN belong ; and the remark which I now 
 
100 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 have to make is, that the existence and the history of Man 
 are facts of an entirely different order from any which existed 
 in any of the previous states of the earth ; and that this his- 
 tory has occupied a series of years which, compared with 
 geological periods, may be regarded as very brief and limited. 
 
 3. The remains of man are nowhere found in the strata 
 which contain the records of former states of the earth. Skele- 
 tons of vast varieties of creatures have been disinterred from 
 their rocky tombs ; but these cemeteries of nature supply no 
 portion of a human skeleton. In earlier periods of natural 
 science, when comparative anatomy was as yet very imper- 
 fectly understood, no doubt, many fossil bones were supposed 
 to be human bones. The remains of giants and of antedilu- 
 vians were frequent in museums. But a further knowledge 
 of anatomy has made it appear that such bones all belong to 
 animals, of one kind or another ; often, to animals utterly dif- 
 ferent, in their form and skeleton, from man. Also some 
 bones, really human, have been found petrified in situations in 
 which petrification has gone on in recent times, and is still 
 going on. Human skeletons, imbedded in rocks by this pro- 
 cess, have been found in the island of Guadaloupe, and else- 
 where. But this phenomenon is easily distinguishable from 
 the petrified bones of other animals, which are found in rocks 
 belonging to really geological periods; and does not at all 
 obliterate the distinction between the geological and the his- 
 torical periods. 
 
 4. Indeed not bones only, but objects of art, produced by 
 human workmanship, are found fossilized and petrified by the 
 like processes ; and these, of course, belong to the historical 
 period. Human bones, and human works, are found in such 
 deposits as morasses, sand-banks, lava-streams, mounds of 
 volcanic ashes j and many of them may be of unknown, and, 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 101 
 
 compared with the duration of a few generations, of very 
 great antiquity ; but such deposits are distinguishable, gen- 
 erally without difficulty, from the strata in which the geologist 
 reads the records of former creations. It has been truly said, 
 that the geologist is an Antiquary ; for, like the antiquary, he 
 traces a past condition of things in the remains and effects of 
 it which still subsist; but it has also been truly said, at the 
 same time, that he is an antiquary of 'a new Order; for the 
 remains which he studies are those which illustrate the history 
 of the earth, not of man. The geologist's antiquity is not that 
 of ornaments and arms, utensils and habiliments, walls and 
 mounds ; but of species and of genera, of seas and of moun- 
 tains. It is true, that the geologist may have to study the 
 w r orks of man, in order to trace the effects of causes which 
 produce the results which he investigates ; as when he ex- 
 amines the pholad-pierced pillars of Pateoli, to prove the rise 
 and the fall of the ground on which they stand ; or notes the 
 anchoring-rings in the wall of some Roman edifice, once a 
 maritime fort, but now a ruin remote from the sea ; or when 
 he remarks the streets in the towns of Scania, which are now 
 below the level of the Baltic,* and therefore show that the land 
 has sunk since these pavements were laid. But in studying 
 such objects, the geologist considers the hand of man as only 
 one among many agencies. Man is to him only one of the 
 natural causes of change. 
 
 5. And if, with the illustrious author to whom we have just 
 referred,f we liken the fossil remains, by which the geologist 
 determines the age of his strata, to the Medals and Coins in 
 which the antiquary finds the record of reigns and dynasties ; 
 we must still recollect that a Coin really discloses a vast body 
 of characteristics of man, to which there is nothing approach- 
 * Lyell, ii. 420. [Gth Ed.] f Cuvier. 
 
 V of r 
 
102 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ing in the previous condition of the world. For how much 
 does a Coin or Medal indicate ? Property ; exchange ; gov- 
 ernment ; a standard of value ; the arts of mining, assaying, 
 coining, drawing, and sculpture ; language, writing, and reck- 
 oning ; historical recollections, and the wish to be remembered 
 by future ages. All this is involved in that small human 
 work, a Coin. If the fossil remains of animals may (as has 
 been said) be termed Medals struck by Nature to record the 
 epochs of her history ; Medals must be said to be, not merely, 
 like fossil remains, records of material things ; they are the 
 records of thought, purpose, society, long continued, long im- 
 proved, supplied with multiplied aids and helps ; they are the 
 permanent results, in a minute compass, of a vast progress, 
 extending through all the ramifications of human life. 
 
 6. Not a coin merely, but any, the rudest work of human 
 art, carries us far beyond the domain of mere animal life. 
 There is no transition from man to animals. N doubt, there 
 are races of men very degraded, barbarous, and brutish. No 
 doubt there are kinds of animals which are very intelligent and 
 sagacious ; and some which are exceedingly disposed to and 
 adapted to companionship with man. But by elevating the in- 
 telligence of the brute, we do not make it become the intelli- 
 gence of the man. By making man barbarous, we do not make 
 him cease to be a man. Animals have their especial capacities, 
 which may be carried very far, and may approach near to hu- 
 man sagacity, or may even go beyond it ; but the capacity of 
 man is of a different kind. It is a capacity, not for becoming 
 sagacious, but for becoming rational ; or rather it is a capacity 
 which he has in virtue of being rational. It is a capacity of 
 progress. In animals, however sagacious, however well trained, 
 the progress in skill and knowledge is limited, and very nar- 
 rowly limited. The creature soon reaches a boundary, beyond 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 103 
 
 which it cannot pass ; and even if the acquired habits be trans- 
 mitted by descent to another generation, (which happens in the 
 case of dogs and several other animals,) still the race soon 
 comes to a stand in its accomplishments. But in man, the pos- 
 sible progress from generation to generation, in intelligence 
 and knowledge, and we may also say, in power, is indefinite ; 
 or if this be doubted, it is at least so vast, that compared with 
 animals, his capacity is infinite. And this capacity extends to 
 all races of men its characterizing efficacy : for we have good 
 reason to believe that there is no race of human beings who 
 may not, by a due course of culture, continued through genera- 
 tions, be brought into a community of intelligence and power 
 with the most intelligent and the most powerful races. This 
 seems to be well established, for instance, with regard to the 
 African negroes ; so long regarded by most, by some proba- 
 bly regarded still, as a race inferior to Europeans. It has been 
 found that they are abundantly capable of taking a share in the 
 arts, literature, morality and religion of European peoples. 
 And we cannot doubt that, in the same manner, the native 
 Australians, or the Bushmen of the Cape of Good Hope, have 
 human faculties and human capacities; however difficult it 
 might be to unfold these, in one or two generations, into a 
 form of intelligence and civilization in any considerable degree 
 resembling our own. 
 
 7. It is not requisite for us, and it might lead to unnecessary 
 difficulties, to fix upon any one attribute of man, as peculiarly 
 characteristic, and distinguishing him from brutes. Yet it 
 would not be too much to say that man is, in truth, univer- 
 sally and specifically characterized by the possession of Lan- 
 guage. It will not be questioned that language, in its highest 
 forms, is a wonderful vehicle and a striking evidence of the in- 
 telligence of man. His bodily organs can, by a few scarcely 
 
104 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 perceptible motions, shape the air into sounds which express 
 the kinds, properties, actions and relations of things, under 
 thousands of aspects, in forms infinitely more general and re- 
 condite than those in which they present themselves to his 
 senses; and he can, by means of these forms, aided by the 
 use of his senses, explore the boundless regions of space, the 
 far recesses of past time, the order of nature, the working of 
 the Author of nature. This man does, by the exercise of his 
 Reason, and by the use of Language, a necessary implement 
 of his Reason for such purposes. 
 
 8. That language, in such a stage, is a special character of 
 man, will not be doubted. But it may be thought, there is 
 little resemblance between Language in this exalted degree 
 of perfection, and the seemingly senseless gibberish of the 
 most barbarous tribes. Such an opinion, however, might 
 easily be carried too far. All human language has in it the 
 elements of indefinite intellectual activity, and the germs of in- 
 definite development. Even the rudest kind of speech, used 
 by savages, denotes objects by their kinds, their attributes, their 
 relations, with a degree of generality derived from the intellect, 
 not from the senses. The generality may be very limited ; 
 the relations which the human intellect is capable of appre- 
 hending may be imperfectly conveyed. But to denote kinds 
 and attributes and actions and relations at all, is a beginning of 
 generalization and abstraction ; or rather, is far more than a 
 beginning. It is the work of a faculty which can generalize 
 and abstract ; and these mental processes once begun, the field 
 of progress which is .open to them is indefinite. Undoubtedly 
 it may happen that weak and barbarous tribes are, for many 
 generations, so hard pressed by circumstances, and their facul- 
 ties so entirely absorbed in providing for the bare wants of the 
 poorest life, that their thoughts may never travel to anything 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY, 105 
 
 beyond these, and their language may not be extended so as to 
 be applicable to any other purposes. But this is not the stand- 
 ard condition of mankind. It is not, by such cases, that man, 
 or that human nature, is to be judged. The normal condition 
 of man is one of an advance beyond the mere means of sub- 
 sistence, to the arts of life, and the exercise of thought in a 
 general form. To some extent, such an advance has taken place 
 in almost every region of the earth and in every age. 
 
 9. Perhaps we may often have a tendency to think more 
 meanly than they deserve, of so-called barbarous tribes, and 
 of those whose intellectual habits differ much from our own. 
 We may be prone to regard ourselves as standing at the sum- 
 mit of civilization ; and all other nations and ages, as not only 
 occupying inferior positions, but positions on a slope which 
 descends till it sinks into the nature of brutes. And yet how 
 little does an examination of the history of mankind justify 
 this view ! The different stages of civilization, and of intel- 
 lectual culture, which have prevailed among them, have had no 
 appearance of belonging to one single series, in which the cases 
 differed only as higher or lower. On the contrary, there have 
 been many very different kinds of civilization, accompanied by 
 different forms of art and of thought ; showing how univer- 
 sally the human mind tends to such habits, and how rich it is 
 in the modes of manifesting its innate powers. How different 
 have been the forms of civilization among the Chinese, the In- 
 dians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Mexicans, the Pe- 
 ruvians ! Yet in all, how much was displayed of sagacity and 
 skill, of perseverance and progress, of mental activity and 
 grasp, of thoughtfulness and power. Are we, in thinking of 
 these manifestations of human capacity, to think of them as 
 only a stage between us and brutes 1 or are we to think so, 
 even of the stoical Red Indians of North America, or the en- 
 
 5* 
 
106 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ergetic New Zealanders, and Caffres ? And if not, why of the 
 African Negroes, or the Australians, or the Bushmen ? We 
 may call their Language a jargon. Very probable it would, 
 in its present form, be unable to express a great deal of what 
 we are in the habit of putting into language. But can we re- 
 fuse to believe that, with regard to matters with which they 
 are familiar, and on occasions where they are interested, they 
 would be to each other intelligible and clear ? And if we sup- 
 pose cases in which their affections and emotions are strongly 
 excited, (and affections and emotions at least we cannot deny 
 them,) can we not believe that they would be eloquent and im- 
 pressive 1 Do we not know, in fact, that almost all nations 
 which we call savage, are, on such occasions, eloquent in their 
 own language ? And since this is so, must not their language, 
 after all, be a wonderful instrument as well as ours ? Since 
 it can convey one man's thoughts and emotions to many, 
 clothed in the form which they assume in his mind ; giving to 
 things, it may be, an aspect quite different from that which 
 they would have if presented to their own senses ; guiding 
 their conviction, warming their hearts, impelling their pur- 
 poses ; can language, even in such cases, be otherwise than a 
 wonderful produce of man's internal, of his mental, that is, of 
 his peculiarly human faculties 1 And is not language, there- 
 fore, even in what we regard as its lowest forms, an endow- 
 ment which completely separates man from animals which 
 have no such faculty ? which cannot regard, or which cannot 
 convey, the impressions of the individual in any such general 
 and abstract form ? Probably we should find, as those who 
 have studied the language of savages always have found, that 
 every such language contains a number of curious and subtle 
 practices, contrivances, we cannot help calling them, for 
 marking the relations, bearings and connections of words ; con- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 107 
 
 trivances quite different from those of the languages which we 
 think of as more perfect ; but yet, in the mouths of those who 
 use such speech, answering their purpose with great precision. 
 But without going into such details, the use of any articulate 
 language is, as the oldest Greeks spoke of it, a special and 
 complete distinction of man as man. 
 
 10. It would be an obscure and useless labor, to speculate 
 upon the question whether animals have among themselves 
 anything which can properly be called Language. That they 
 have anything which can be termed Language, in the sense in 
 which we here speak of it, as admitting of general express- 
 ions, abstractions, address to numbers, eloquence, is utterly 
 at variance with any interpretation which we can put upon 
 their proceedings. The broad distinction of Instinct and Rea- 
 son, however obscure it may be, yet seems to be most simply 
 described, by saying, that animals do not apprehend their im- 
 pressions under general forms, and that man does. Resem- 
 blance, and consequent association of impressions, may often 
 show like generalization ; but yet it is different. There is, in 
 man's mind, a germ of general thoughts, suggested by resem- 
 blances, which is evolved and fixed in language ; and by the 
 aid of such an addition to the impressions of sense, man has 
 thousands of intellectual pathways from object to object, from 
 effect to cause, from fact to inference. His impressions are 
 projected on a sphere of thought of which the radii can be 
 prolonged into the farthest regions of the universe. Animals, 
 on the contrary, are shut up in their sphere of sensation, 
 passing from one impression to another by various associa- 
 tions, established by circumstances ; but still, having access 
 to no wider intellectual region, through which lie lines of 
 transition purely abstract and mental. That they have their 
 modes of communicating their impressions and assoeiations, 
 
108 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 their affections and emotions, we know ; but these modes of 
 communication do not make a language ; nor do they disturb 
 the assignment of Language as a special character of man ; 
 nor the belief that man differs in his Kind, and we may say, 
 using a larger phrase, in his Order, from all other creatures. 
 
 11. We may sometimes be led to assign much of the de- 
 velopment of man's peculiar powers, to the influence of ex- 
 ternal circumstances. And that the development of those 
 powers is so influenced, we cannot doubt ; but their develop- 
 ment only, not their existence. We have already said that 
 savages, living a precarious and miserable life, occupied in- 
 cessantly with providing for their mere bodily wants, are not 
 likely to possess language, or any other characteristic of 
 humanity, in any but a stunted and imperfect form. But, 
 that manhood is debased and degraded under such adverse 
 conditions, does not make man cease to be man. Even from 
 such an abject race, if a child be taken and brought up among 
 the comforts and means of development which civilized life 
 supplies, he does not fail to show that he possesses, perhaps in 
 an eminent degree, the powers which specially belong to man. 
 The evidences of human tendencies, human thoughts, human 
 capacities, human affections and sympathies, appear conspicu- 
 ously, in cases in which there has been no time for external 
 circumstances to operate in any great degree, so as to unfold 
 any difference between the man and the brute ; or in which 
 the influence of the most general of external agencies, the im- 
 pressions of several of the senses, have been intercepted. 
 Who that sees a lively child, looking with eager and curious 
 eyes at every object, uttering cries that express every variety 
 of elementary human emotion in the most vivacious manner, 
 exchanging looks and gestures, and inarticulate sounds, with 
 his nurse, can doubt that already he possesses the germs of 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 109 
 
 human feeling, thought and knowledge ? that already, before 
 he can form or understand a single articulate word, he has 
 within him the materials of an infinite exuberance of utter- 
 ance, and an impulse to find the language into which such 
 utterance is to be moulded by the law of his human nature 1 
 And perhaps it may have happened to others, as it has to me, 
 to know a child who had been both deaf, dumb, and blind, 
 from a very early age. Yet she, as years went on, disclosed 
 a perpetually growing sympathy with the other children of 
 the family in all their actions, with which of course she could 
 only acquaint herself by the sense of touch. She sat, dressed, 
 walked, as they did ; even imitated them in holding a book in 
 her hand when they read, and in kneeling when they prayed. 
 No one could look at the change which came over her sight- 
 less countenance, when a known hand touched hers,, and doubt 
 that there was a human soul within the frame. The human 
 soul seemed not only to be there, but to have been fully de- 
 veloped ; though the means by which it could receive such 
 communications as generally constitute human education, were 
 thus cut off. And such modes of communication with her 
 companions as had been taught her, or as she had herself in- 
 vented, well bore out the belief, that her mind was the con- 
 stant dwelling-place, not only of human affections, but of 
 human thoughts. So plainly does it appear that human 
 thought is not produced or occasioned by external circum- 
 stances only ; but has a special and indestructible germ in 
 human nature. 
 
 12. I have been endeavoring to illustrate the doctrine that 
 man's nature is different from the nature of other animals ; as 
 subsidiary to the doctrine that the Human Epoch of the earth's 
 history is different from all the preceding Epochs. But in 
 truth, this subsidiary proposition is not by any means neces- 
 
110 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 sary to my main purpose. Even if barbarous and savage 
 tribes, even if men under unfavorable circumstances, be little 
 better than the brutes, still no one will doubt that the most 
 civilized races of mankind, that man under the most favorable 
 circumstances, is far, is, indeed, immeasurably elevated above 
 the brutes. The history of man includes not only the history 
 of Scythians and Barbarians, Australians and Negroes, but of 
 ancient Greeks and of modern Europeans ; and therefore there 
 can be no doubt that the period of the Earth's history, which 
 includes the history of man, is very difierent indeed from any 
 period which preceded that. To illustrate the peculiarity, the 
 elevation, the dignity, the wonderful endowments of man, we 
 might refer to the achievements, the recorded thoughts and 
 actions, of the most eminent among those nations ; to their 
 arts, their poetry, their eloquence ; their philosophers, their 
 mathematicians, their astronomers ; to the acts of virtue and 
 devotion, of patriotism, generosity, obedience, truthfulness, 
 love, which took place among them ; to their piety, their 
 reverence for the deity, their resignation to his will, their hope 
 of immortality. . Such characteristic -traits of man as man, 
 (which all examples of intelligence, virtue, and religion, are,) 
 might serve to show that man is, in a sense quite different 
 from other creatures, " fearfully and wonderfully made ;" but 
 I need not go into such details. It is sufficient for my pur- 
 pose to sum up the result in the expressions which I have 
 already used ; that man is an intellectual, moral, religious, 
 and spiritual being. 
 
 13. But the existence of man upon the earth being thus an 
 event of an order quite different from any previous part of the 
 earth's history, the question occurs, how long has this state of 
 things endured 1 What period has elapsed since this creature, 
 with these high powers and faculties, was placed upon the 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. Ill 
 
 earth 1 How far must we go backward in time, to find the 
 beginning of his wonderful history ? so utterly wonderful 
 compared with anything which had previously occurred. For 
 as to that point, we cannot feel any doubt. The wildest im- 
 agination cannot suggest that corals and madrepores, oysters 
 and sepias, fishes and lizards, may have been rational and moral 
 creatures ; nor even those creatures which come nearer to hu- 
 man organization ; megatheriums and mastodons, extinct deer 
 and elephants. Undoubtedly the earth, till the existence of 
 man, was a world of mere brute creatures. How long then 
 has it been otherwise ? How long has it been the habitation 
 of a rational, reflective, progressive race 1 Can we by any 
 evidence, geological or other, approximate to the beginning of 
 the Human History ? 
 
 14. This is a large and curious question, and one on which 
 a precise answer may not be within our reach. But an answer 
 not precise, an approximation, as we have suggested, may suf- 
 fice for our purpose. If we can determine, in some measure, 
 the order and scale of the period during which man has occu- 
 pied the earth, the determination may serve to support the 
 analogy which we wish to establish. 
 
 15. The geological evidence with regard to the existence of 
 man is altogether negative. Previous to the deposits and 
 changes which we can trace as belonging obviously to the pres- 
 ent state of the earth's surface, and the operation of causes now 
 existing, there is no vestige of the existence of man, or of his 
 works. As was long ago observed,* we do not find, among 
 the shells and bones which are so abundant in the older strata, 
 any weapons, medals, implements, structures, which speak to 
 us of the hand of man, the workman. If we look forwards 
 ten or twenty thousand years, and suppose the existing works 
 
 * By Bishop Berkeley. See Lyell, m. 346. 
 
112 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 of man to have been, by that time, ruined and covered up by 
 masses of rubbish, inundations, morasses, lava-streams, earth- 
 quakes ; still, when the future inhabitant of the earth digs 
 into and. explores these coverings, he will discover innumerable 
 monuments that man existed so long ago. The materials of 
 many of his works, and the traces of his own mind, which he 
 stamps upon them, are as indestructible as the shells and bones 
 which give language to the oldest work. Indeed, in many cases 
 the oldest fossil remains are the results of objects of seemingly 
 the most frail and perishable material ; of the most delicate 
 and tender animal and vegetable tissues and filaments. That 
 no such remains of textures and forms, moulded by the hand 
 of man, are anywhere found among these, must be accepted as 
 indisputable evidence that man did not exist, so as to be eon- 
 temporary with the plants and animals thus commemorated. 
 According to geological evidence, the race of man is a novelty 
 upon the earth ; something which has succeeded to all the 
 great geological changes. 
 
 16. And in this, almost all geologists are agreed. Even 
 those who hold that, in other ways, the course of change has 
 been uniform ; that even the introduction of man, as a new 
 species of animal, is only an event of the same kind as myr- 
 iads of like events which have occurred in the history of the 
 earth ; still allow that the introduction of man, as a moral 
 being, is an event entirely different from any which had taken 
 place before ; and that event is, geologically speaking, recent. 
 The changes of which we have spoken, as studied by the geol- 
 ogist in connection with the works of man, the destruction of 
 buildings on sea-coasts by the incursions of the ocean, the re- 
 moval of the shore many miles away from ancient harbors, 
 the overwhelming of cities by earthquakes or volcanic erup- 
 tions ; however great when compared with the changes which 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 113 
 
 take place in one or two generations ; are minute and infini- 
 tesimal, when put in comparison with the changes by which 
 ranges of mountains and continents have been brought into 
 being, one after another, each of them filled with the remains 
 of different organic creations. 
 
 17. Further than this, geology does not goon this question. 
 She has no chronometer which can tell us when the first build- 
 ings were erected, when man first dwelt in cities, first used 
 implements or arms; still less, language and reflection. 
 Geology is compelled to give over the question to History. 
 The external evidences of the antiquity of the species fail us, 
 and we must have recourse to the internal. Nature can tell 
 us so little of the age of man, that we must inquire what he 
 can tell us himself. 
 
 18. What man can tell us of his own age what history 
 can say of the beginning of history is necessarily very ob- 
 scure and imperfect. We know how difficult it is to trace to 
 its origin the History of any single Nation : how much more, 
 the History of all Nations ! We know that all such particu- 
 lar histories carry us back to periods of the migrations of 
 tribes, confused mixtures of populations, perplexed and con- 
 tradictory genealogies of races ; and as we follow these fur- 
 ther and further backwards, they become more and more ob- 
 scure and uncertain ; at least in the histories which remain to 
 us of most nations. Still, the obscurity is not such as to lead 
 us to the conviction that research is useless and unprofitable. 
 It is an obscurity such as naturally arises from the lapse of 
 time, and the complexity of the subject. The aspect of the 
 world, however far we go back, is still historical and human ; 
 historical and human, in as high a degree, as it is at the pres- 
 ent day. Men, as described in the records of the oldest times, 
 are of the same nature, act with the same views, are governed 
 
114 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 by the same motives, as at present. At all points, we see 
 thought, purpose, law, religion, progress. If we do not find 
 a beginning, we find at least evidence that, in approaching the 
 beginning, the condition of man does not, in any way, cease 
 to be that of an intellectual, moral, and religious creature. 
 
 19. There are, indeed, some histories which speak to us of 
 the beginning of man's existence upon earth ; and one such 
 history in particular, which comes to us recommended by in- 
 disputable evidence of its own great antiquity, by numerous 
 and striking confirmations from other histories, and from facts 
 still current, and by its connection with that religious view 
 of man's condition, which appears to thoughtful men to be 
 absolutely requisite to give a meaning and purpose to man's 
 faculties and endowments. I speak, of course, of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. This history professes to inform us how man 
 was placed upon the earth ; and how, from one centre, the 
 human family spread itself in various branches into all parts 
 of the world. This genealogy of the human race is accom- 
 panied by a chronology, from which it results that the an- 
 tiquity of the human race does not exceed a few thousand 
 / years. Even if we accept this history as true and authorita- 
 tive, it would not be wise to be rigidly tenacious pf the chro- 
 nology, as to its minute exactness. For, in the first place, of 
 three different forms in which this history appears, the chro- 
 nology is different in all the three : I mean the Hebrew, the 
 Samaritan, and the Septuagint versions of the Old Testament. 
 And even if this were not so, since this chronology is put in 
 the form ef genealogies, of which many of the steps may very 
 probably have a meaning different from the simple succession 
 of generations in a family, (as some of them certainly have,) 
 it would be unwise to consider ourselves bound to the exact 
 number of years stated, in any of the three versions, or even 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 115 
 
 in all. It makes no difference to our argument, nor to any 
 purpose in which we can suppose this narrative to have aj 
 bearing, whether we accept six thousand or ten thousand( 
 years, or even a longer period, as the interval which has nowt 
 elapsed since the creation of man took place, and the peoplingl 
 of the earth began. 
 
 20. And, in our speculations at least, it will be well for us 
 to take into account the view which is given us of the an- 
 tiquity of the human race, by other histories as well as by this. 
 A satisfactory result of such an investigation would be at- 
 tained if, looking at all these histories, weighing their value, 
 interpreting their expressions fairly, discovering their sources 
 of error, and of misrepresentation, we should find them all 
 converge to one point ; all give a consistent and harmonious 
 view of the earliest stages of man's history ; of the times and 
 places in which he first appeared as man. If all nations of men 
 are branches of the same family, it cannot but interest us, to find 
 all the family traditions tending upwards towards the same 
 quarter ; indicating a divergence from the same point ; exhib- 
 iting a recollection of the original domicile, or of the same 
 original family circle. 
 
 21. To a certain extent at least, this appears to be the result 
 of the historical investigations which have been pursued rela- 
 tive to this subject. A certain group of nations is brought 
 before us by these researches which, a few thousands of years 
 ago, were possessed of arts, and manners, and habits, and be- 
 lief, which make them conspicuous, and which we can easily 
 believe to have been contemporaneous successors of a com- 
 mon, though, it may be even then, remote stock. Such are 
 the Jews, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians. The histories 
 of these nations are connected with and confirm each other. 
 Their languages, or most of them, have certain affinities, which 
 
116 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 glossologists, on independent grounds, have regarded. as affini- 
 ties implying an original connection. Their chronologies, 
 though in many respects discrepant, are not incapable of 
 being reduced into an harmony by very probable suppositions. 
 Here we have a very early view of the condition of a portion 
 of the earth as the habitation of man, and perhaps a sugges- 
 tion of a condition earlier still. 
 
 22. It is true, that there are other nations also, which claim 
 an antiquity for their civilization equal to or greater than that 
 which we can ascribe to these. Such are the Indians and the 
 Chinese. But while we do not question that these nations 
 were at a remote period in possession of arts, knowledge, and 
 regular polity, in a very eminent degree, we are not at all 
 called upon to assent to the immense numbers, tens of thou- 
 sands and hundreds of thousands of years, by which such na- 
 tions, in their histories, express their antiquity. For, in the 
 first place, such numbers are easily devised and transferred to 
 the obscure early stages of tradition, when the art of numera- 
 tion is once become familiar. These vast intervals, applied to 
 series of blank genealogies, or idle fables, gratify the popular 
 appetite for numerical wonders, but have little claim on crit- 
 ical conviction. 
 
 23. And in the next place, we discover that not enumeration 
 only, but a more recondite art, had a great share in the fab- 
 rication of these gigantic numbers of years. Some of the 
 nations of whom we have thus spoken, the Indians, for exam- 
 ple, had, at an early period, possessed themselves of a large 
 share of astronomical knowledge. They had observed and 
 examined the motions of the Sun, the Moon, the Planets, and 
 the Stars, till they had discovered Cycles, in which, after long 
 and seemingly irregular wanderings in the skies, the heavenly 
 bodies came round again to known and regular positions. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 117 
 
 They had thus detected the order that reigns in the seeming 
 disorder ; and had, by this means, enabled themselves to know 
 beforehand when certain astronomical events would occur; 
 certain configurations of the Planets, for instance, and eclipses ; 
 and knowing how such events would occur in future, they were 
 also able to calculate how the like events had occurred in the 
 past. They could thus determine what eclipses and what 
 planetary configurations had occurred, in thousands and tens 
 of thousands of years of past time ; and could, if they were 
 disposed to falsify their early histories, and to confirm the fal- 
 sification by astronomical evidence, do so with a very near ap- 
 proximation to astronomical truth. Such astronomical con- 
 firmation of their assertions, so incapable in any common 
 apprehension of being derived from any other source than 
 actual observation of the fact, naturally produced a great ef- 
 fect upon common minds ; and still more, on those who ex- 
 amined the astronomical fact, enough only to see that it was, 
 approximately, at least, true. But in recent times the fal- 
 lacy of this evidence has been shown, and the fabrication 
 detected. For though the astronomical rules which they had 
 devised were approximately true, they were true approxi- 
 mately only. The more exact researches of modern European 
 astronomy discovered that their cycles, though nearly exact, 
 were not quite so. There was in them an error which made, 
 the cycle, at every revolution of its period, when it was ap- 
 plied to past ages, more and more wrong ; so that the astro- 
 nomical events which they asserted to have happened, as they 
 had calculated that they would have happened, the better in- 
 formed astronomer of our day knows would not have happened 
 exactly so, but in a manner differing more and more from 
 their statement, as the event was more and more remote. 
 And thus the fact which they asserted to have been observed, 
 
118 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 had not really happened ; and the confirmation, which it had 
 been supposed to lend to their history, disappeared. And 
 thus, there is not, in the asserted antiquity of Indian civiliza- 
 tion and Indian astronomy, anything which has a well-founded 
 claim to disturb our belief that the nations of the more western 
 regions of Asia had a civilization as ancient as theirs. And 
 considerations of nearly the same kind may be applied to the 
 very remote astronomical facts which are recorded as having 
 been observed in the history of some others of the ancient 
 nations above mentioned. 
 
 24. Still less need we be disturbed by the long series of 
 dynasties, each occupying a large period of years, which the 
 Egyptians are said to have inserted in their early history, so 
 as to carry their origin beyond the earliest times which I have 
 mentioned. If they spoke of the Greek nations as children com- 
 pared with their own long-continued age, as Plato says they did, 
 a few thousands of years of previous existence would well entitle 
 them to do so. So far as such a period goes, their monuments 
 and their hieroglyphical inscriptions give a reality to their 
 pretensions, which we may very willingly grant. And even 
 the history of the Jews supposes that the Egyptians had at- 
 tained a high point in arts, government, knowledge, when 
 Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was still leading the 
 life of a nomad. But this supposition is not inconsistent with 
 the account which the Jewish Scriptures give, of the origin of 
 nations ; especially if, as we have said, we abstain from any 
 rigid and narrow interpretation of the chronology of those 
 scriptures ; as on every ground, it is prudent to do. 
 
 25. It appears then not unreasonable to believe, that a very 
 few thousands, or even a few hundreds of years before the 
 time of Abraham, the nations of central and western Asia 
 offer to us the oldest aspect of the life of man upon the earth ; 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 119 
 
 and that in reasoning concerning the ' antiquity of the human 
 race, we may suppose that at that period, he was in the 
 earliest stages of his existence. Although, in truth, if we 
 were to accept the antiquity claimed by the Egyptians, the 
 Indians, or the Chinese, the nature of our argument would not 
 be materially altered ; for ten thousand, or even twenty thou- 
 sand years, bears a very small proportion to the periods of 
 time which geology requires for the revolutions which she de- 
 scribes ; and, as I have said, we have geological evidence also, 
 to show how brief the human period has been, when com- 
 pared with the period which preceded the existence of man. 
 And if this be so ; if such peoples as those who have left to 
 us the monuments of Egypt and of Assyria, the pyramids 
 and ancient Thebes, the walls of. Nineveh and Babylon, were 
 the first nations which lived as nations ; or if they were sepa- 
 rated from such only by the interval by which the Germans 
 of to-day are separated from the Germans of Tacitus ; we 
 may well repeat our remark, that the history of man, in the 
 earliest times, is as truly a history of a wonderful, intellectual, 
 social, political, spiritual creature, as it is at present. We 
 see, in the monuments of those periods, evidences so great 
 and so ull of skill, that even now, they amaze us, of arts, gov- 
 ernment, property, thought, the love of beauty, the recog- 
 nition of deity ; evidences of memory, foresight, power. If 
 London or Berlin were now destroyed, overwhelmed, and, 
 four thousand years hence, disinterred, these cities would not' 
 afford stronger testimony of those attributes, as existing in 
 modern Europeans, than we have of such qualities in the 
 ancient Babylonians and Egyptians. . The history of man, as 
 that of a creature pre-eminent in the creation, is equally such, 
 however far back we carry our researches. 
 
 26. Nor is there anything to disturb this view, in the fact 
 
120 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 of the existence of the uncultured and barbarous tribes which 
 occupy, and always have occupied, a large portion of the 
 earth's surface. For, in the first place, there is not, in the 
 aspect of the fact, or in the information which history gives 
 us, any reason to believe that such tribes exhibit a form of 
 human existence, which, in the natural order of progress, is 
 earlier than the forms of civilized life, of which we have 
 spoken. The opinion that the most savage kind of human 
 life, least acquainted with arts, and least provided with re- 
 sources, is the state of nature out of which civilized life has 
 everywhere gradually emerged, is an opinion which, though at 
 one time popular, is unsupported by proof, and contrary to 
 probability.* Savage tribes do not so grow into civilization ; 
 their condition is, far more probably, a condition of civiliza- 
 tion degraded and lost, than of civilization incipient and pro- 
 spective. Add to this, that if we were to assume that this 
 were otherwise ; if man thus originally and naturally savage, 
 did also naturally tend to become civilized ; this tendency is 
 an endowment no less wonderful, than those endowments 
 which civilization exhibits. The capacity is as extraordinary 
 as the developed result ; for the capacity involves the result. 
 If savage man be the germ of the most highly civilize'd man, 
 he differs from all other animal germs, as man differs from 
 brute. And add to this again, that in the tribes which we call 
 savage, and whose condition most differs, in external circum- 
 stances, from ours, there are, after all, a vast mass of human 
 attributes : thought, purpose, language, family relations ; 
 
 * A recent popular -writer, who has asserted the self-civilizing ten- 
 dency of man, has not been able, it would seem, to adduce any ex- 
 ample of the operation of this tendency, except a single tribe of North 
 American Indians, in whom it operated for a short time, and to a small 
 extent. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 121 
 
 generally property, law, government, contract, arts, and 
 knowledge, to no small extent ; and in almost every case, re- 
 ligion. Even uncivilized man is an intellectual, moral, social, 
 religious creature ; nor is there, in his condition, any reason 
 why he may not be a spiritual creature, in the highest sense in 
 which the most civilized man can be so. 
 
 27. Here then we are brought to the view which, it would 
 seem, offers a complete reply to the difficulty, which astronom- 
 ical discoveries appeared to place in the way of religion : 
 the difficulty of the opinion that man, occupying this speck of 
 earth, which is but as an atom in the Universe, surrounded by 
 millions of other globes, larger, and, to appearance, nobler 
 than that which he inhabits, should be the object of the 
 peculiar care and guardianship, of the favor and government, 
 of the Creator of All, in the way in which Religion teaches us 
 that He is. For we find that man, (the human race, from its 
 first origin till now,) has occupied but an atom of time, as he 
 has occupied but an atom of space : that as he is surrounded 
 by myriads of globes which may, like this, be the habitations 
 of living things, so he has been preceded, on this earth, by 
 myriads of generations of living things, not possibly or prob- 
 ably only, but certainly ; and yet that, comparing his history 
 with theirs, he has been, certainly has been fitted to be, the 
 object of the care and guardianship, of the favor and govern- 
 ment, of the Master and Governor of All, in a manner en- 
 tirely different from anything which it is possible to believe 
 with regard to the countless generations of brute creatures 
 which had gone before him. If we will doubt or overlook the 
 difference between man and brutes, the difficulty of ascribing 
 to man peculiar privileges, is made as great by the revelations 
 of geology, as of astronomy. The scale of man's insignifi- 
 cance is, as we have said, of the same order in reference to 
 
 6 
 
THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 time, as to space. There is nothing which at all goes beyond 
 the magnitude which observation and reasoning suggest for 
 geological periods, in supposing that the tertiary strata occu- 
 pied, in their deposition and elevation, a period as much 
 greater than the period of human history, as the solar system 
 is larger than the earth : that the secondary strata were as 
 much longer than these in their formation, as the nearest fixed 
 star is more distant than the sun : that the still earlier masses, 
 call them primary, or protozoic, or what we will, did, in their 
 production, extend through a period of time as vast, compared 
 with the secondary period, as the most distant nebula is re- 
 moter than the nearest star. If the earth, as the habitation 
 of man, is a speck in the midst of an infinity of space, the 
 earth, as the habitation of man, is also a speck at the end of 
 an infinity of time. If we are as nothing in the surrounding 
 universe, we are as nothing in the elapsed eternity ; or rather, 
 in the elapsed organic antiquity, during which the earth has 
 
 / existed and been the abode of life. If man is but one small 
 
 
 
 family in the midst of innumerable possible households, he is 
 also but one small family, the successor of innumerable tribes 
 / of animals, not possible only, but actual. If the planets may 
 ( be the seats of life, we know that the seas which have given 
 } birth to our mountains were the seats of life. If the stars may 
 have hundreds of systems of tenanted planets rolling round 
 them, we know that the secondary group of rocks does contain 
 hundreds of tenanted beds, witnessing of as many systems of 
 organic creation. If the nebulas may be planetary systems in 
 the course of formation, we know that the primary and transi- 
 tion rocks either show us the earth in the course of formation, 
 as the future seat of life, or exhibit such life as already begun. 
 28. How far that which astronomy thus asserts as possible, 
 is probable : what is the value of these possibilities of life in 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 123 
 
 distant regions of the universe, we shall hereafter consider. 
 But in what geology asserts, the case is clear. It is no possi- 
 bility, but a certainty. No one will now doubt that shells and 
 skeletons, trunks and leaves, prove animal and vegetable life 
 to have existed. Even, therefore, if Astronomy could de- 
 monstrate all that her most fanciful disciples assume, Geology 
 would still have a complete right to claim an equal hearing ; 
 to insist upon having her analogies regarded. She would 
 have a right to answer the questions of Astronomy, when she 
 says, How can we believe this ? and to have her answers ac- 
 cepted. 
 
 29. Astronomy claims a sort of dignity over all other sci-, 
 ences, from her antiquity r , her certainty, and the vastness of her; 
 discoveries. But the antiquity of astronomy as a science had 
 no share in such speculations as we are discussing ; and if it 
 had had, new truths are better than old conjectures ; new dis- 
 coveries must rectify old errors ; new answers must remove 
 old difficulties. The vigorous youth of Geology makes her 
 fearless of the age of Astronomy. And as to the certainty of 
 Astronomy, it has just as little to do with these speculations. 
 The certainty stops, just when these speculations begin. There 
 may, indeed, be some danger of delusion on this subject. Men 
 have been so long accustomed to look upon astronomical sci- 
 ence as the mother of certainty, that they may confound as- 
 tronomical discoveries with cosmological conjectures ; though 
 these be slightly and illogically connected with those. And 
 then, as to the vastness of astronomical discoveries, granting 
 that character, inasmuch as it is to a certain degree, a matter 
 of measurement, we must observe, that the discoveries of I 
 geology are no less vast : they extend through time, as those 
 of astronomy do through space. They carry us through mill- 
 ions of years, that is, of the earth's revolutions, as those of { 
 
124 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 astronomy do through millions of the earth's diameters, or of 
 diameters of the earth's orbit. Geology fills the regions of 
 duration with events, as astronomy fills the regions of the uni- 
 verse with objects. She carries us backwards by the relation 
 of cause and effect, as astronomy carries us upwards by the re- 
 lations of geometry. As astronomy steps on from point to 
 point of the universe by a chain of triangles, so geology steps 
 ! from epoch to epoch of the earth's history by a chain of me- 
 chanical and organical laws. If the one depends on the axioms 
 of geometry, the other depends on the axioms of causation. 
 
 30. So far then, Geology has no need to regard Astronomy 
 as her superior ; and least of all, when they apply themselves 
 together to speculations like these. But in truth, in such'spec- 
 ulations, Geology has an immeasurable superiority. She has 
 the command of an implement, in addition to all that Astron- 
 omy can use ; and one, for the purpose of such speculations, 
 adapted far beyond any astronomical element of discovery. 
 She has, for one of her studies, one of her means of dealing 
 with her problems, the knowledge of Life, animal and vege- 
 table. Vital organization is a subject of attention which has, 
 in modern times, been forced upon her. It is now one of the 
 main parts of her discipline. The geologist must study the 
 traces of life in every form ; must learn to decypher its faint- 
 est indications and its fullest development. On the question, 
 then, whether there be in this or that quarter, evidence of life, 
 he can 'speak with the confidence derived from familiar knowl- 
 edge ; while the astronomer, to whom such studies are utterly 
 foreign, because he has no facts which bear upon them, can of- 
 fer, on such questions, only the loosest and most arbitrary con- 
 jectures ; which, as we have had to remark, have been rebuked 
 by eminent men, as being altogether inconsistent with the ac- 
 knowledged maxims of his science. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 125 
 
 31. When, therefore, Geology tells us that the earth, which 
 has been the seat of human life for a few thousand years only, 
 has been the seat of animal life for myriads, it may be, mill- 
 ions of years, she has a right to offer this, as an answer to any 
 difficulty which Astronomy, or the readers of astronomical 
 books, may suggest, derived from the considerations that the 
 Earth, the seat of human life, is but one globe of a few thou- 
 sand miles in diameter, among millions of other globes, at dis- ^ 
 tances millions of times as great. 
 
 32. Let the difficulty be put in any way the objector pleases. 
 Is it that it is unworthy of the greatness and majesty of God, 
 according to our conceptions of Him, to bestow such peculiar 
 care on so small a part of His creation 1 But we know, from 
 geology, that He has bestowed upon this small part of His cre- 
 ation, mankind, this special care ; He has made their period, 
 though only a moment in the ages of animal life, the only pe- 
 riod of intelligence, morality, religion. If then, to suppose 
 that He has done this, is contrary to our conceptions of His 
 greatness and majesty, it is plain that our conceptions are er- 
 roneous ; they have taken a wrong direction. God has not 
 judged, as to what is worthy of Him, as we have judged. He 
 has found it worthy of Him to bestow upon man His special 
 care, though he occupies so small a portion of time ; and why 
 not, then, although he occupies so small a portion of space ? 
 
 33. Or is the objection this ; that if we suppose the earth 
 only to be occupied by inhabitants, all the other globes of the 
 universe are wasted ; turned to no purpose 1 Is waste of this 
 kind considered as unsuited to the character of the Creator ? 
 But here again, we have the like waste, in the occupation of 
 the earth. All its previous ages, its seas and its continents, 
 have been wasted upon mere brute life ; often, so far as we can 
 see, for myriads of years, upon the lowest, the least conscious 
 
126 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 forms of life; upon shell-fish, corals, sponges. Why then 
 should not the seas and continents of other planets be occupied 
 at present with a life no higher than this, or with no life at all ? 
 j Will it be said that, so far as material objects are occupied by 
 life, they are not wasted ; but that they are wasted, if they are 
 entirely barren and blank of life 1 This is a very arbitrary 
 saying. Why should the life of a sponge, or a coral, or an 
 oyster, be regarded as a good employment of a spot of land 
 and water, so as to save it from being wasted ? No doubt, if 
 the coral or the oyster be there, there is a reason why it is so, 
 consistently with the attributes of God. But then, on the same 
 ground, we may say that if it be not there, there is a reason 
 why it is not so. Such a mode of regarding the parts of the 
 universe can never give us reasons why they shoul^ or should 
 not be inhabited, when we have no other grounds for knowing 
 whether they are. If it be a sufficient employment of a spot 
 of rock or water that it is the seat of organization of organic 
 powers ; why may it not be a sufficient employment of the 
 same spot that it is the seat of attraction, of cohesion, of erys- 
 taline powers 1 All the planets, all parts of the universe, we 
 have good reason to believe, are pervaded by attraction, by 
 forces of aggregation and atomic relation, by light and heat. 
 Why may not these be sufficient to prevent the space being 
 wasted, in the eyes of the Creator ? as, during a great part of 
 the earth's past history, and over large portions of its present 
 mass, they are actually held by Him sufficient ; for they are 
 all that occupy those portions. This notion, then, of the im- 
 probability of there being, in the universe, so vast an amount 
 of waste spaces, or waste bodies, as is implied in the opinion 
 that the earth alone is the seat of life, or of intelligence, is con- 
 futed by the fact, that there are vast spaces, waste districts, 
 and especially waste times, to an extent as great as such a no- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 127 
 
 tion deems improbable. The avoidance of such waste, accord- 
 ing to our notions of waste, is no part of the economy of cre- 
 ation, so far as we can discern that economy, in its most cer- 
 tain exemplifications. 
 
 34. Or will the objection be made in this way ; that such a 
 peculiar dignity and importance given to the earth is contrary 
 to the analogy of creation ; that since there are so many 
 globes, similar to. the earth, like her, revolving round the 
 sun, like her, revolving on her axes, several of them, like her, 
 accompanied by satellites ; it is reasonable to suppose that 
 their destination and office is the same as hers ; that since 
 there are so many stars, each like the sun, a source of light, 
 and probably of heat, it is reasonable to suppose that, like 
 the sun, tjiey are the centres of systems of planets, to which 
 their light and heat are imparted, to uphold life : is it thought 
 that such a resemblance is a strong ground for believing that 
 the planets of our system, and of other systems, are inhabited 
 as the earth is ? If such an astronomical analogy be insisted 
 on, we must again have recourse to geology, to see what such 
 analogy is worth. And then, we are led to reflect, that if we 
 were to follow such analogies, we should be led to suppose 
 that all the successive periods of the earth's history were oc- 
 cupied with life of the same order ; that as the earth, in its 
 present condition, is the seat of an intelligent population, so 
 must it have been, in all former conditions. The earth, in its 
 former conditions, was able and fitted to support life ; even 
 the life of creatures closely resembling man in their bodily 
 structure. Even of monkeys, fossil remains have been found. 
 But yet, in those former conditions, it did not support human 
 life. Even those geologists who have dwelt most on the dis- 
 covery of fossil monkeys, and other animals nearest to man, 
 have not dreamt that there existed, before man, a race of 
 
128 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 rational, intelligent, and progressive creatures. As we have 
 seen, geology and history alike refute such a fancy. The 
 notion, then, that one period of time in the history of the 
 earth must resemble another, in the character of its popula- 
 tion, because it resembles it in physical circumstances, is neg- 
 atived by the facts which we discover in the history of the 
 earth. And so, the notion that one part of the universe must 
 resemble another in its population, because it resembles it in 
 physical circumstances, is negatived as a law of creation. 
 Analogy, further examined, affords no support to such a 
 notion. The analogy of time, the events of which we know, 
 corrects all such guesses founded on a supposed analogy of 
 space, the furniture of which, so far as this point is concerned, 
 we have no sufficient means of examining. 
 
 35. But in truth, we may go further. Not only does the 
 analogy of creation not point to any such entire resemblance 
 of similar parts, as is thus assumed, but it points in the op- 
 posite direction. Not entire resemblance, but universal dif- 
 ference is what we discover; not the repetition of exactly 
 similar cases, but a series of cases perpetually dissimiliar, 
 presents itself; not constancy, but change, perhaps advance ; 
 not one permanent and pervading scheme, but preparation 
 and completion of successive schemes ; not uniformity and a 
 fixed type of existences, but progression and a climax. This 
 may be said to be the case in the geological aspect of the 
 world; for, without occupying ourselves with the question, 
 how far the monuments of animal life, which we find preserved 
 in the earth's strata, exhibited a gradual progression from 
 ruder and more imperfect forms to the types of the present ter- 
 restrial population ; from sponges and mollusks, to fish and 
 lizards, from cold-blooded to warm blooded animals, and so 
 on, till we come to the most perfect vertebrates j a doctrine 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 129 
 
 which many eminent geologists have held, and still hold ; 
 without discussing this question, or assuming that the fact is 
 so ; this at least cannot be denied or doubted, that man is in- 
 comparably the most perfect and highly-endowed creature 
 which ever has existed on the earth. How far previous pe- 
 riods of animal existence were a necessary preparation of the 
 earth, as the habitation of man, or a gradual progression to- 
 wards the existence of man, we need not now inquire. But 
 this at least we may say ; that man, now that he is here, 
 forms a climax to all that has preceded ; a term incompar- 
 ably exceeding in value all the previous parts of the series ; 
 a complex and ornate capital to the subjacent column ; a per- 
 sonage of vastly greater dignity and importance than all the 
 preceding line of the procession. The analogy of nature, in 
 this case at least, appears to be, that there should be inferior, 
 as well as superior provinces, in the universe ; and that the 
 inferior may occupy an immensely larger portion of time> 
 than the superior ; why not then of space 1 The intelligent 
 part of creation is thrust into the compass of a few years, in 
 the course of myriads of ages ; why not then into the compass 
 of a few miles, in the expanse of systems ? The earth was 
 brute and inert, compared with its present condition, dark and 
 chaotic, so far as the light of reason and intelligence are con- 
 cerned, for countless centuries before man was created. Why 
 then may not other parts of creation be still in this brute and 
 inert and chaotic state, while the earth is under the influence 
 of a higher exercise of creative power ? If the earth was, for 
 ages, a turbid abyss of lava and of mud, why may not Mars 
 or Saturn be so still? If the germs of life were, gradually, 
 and at. long intervals, inserted in the terrestrial slime, why 
 may they not be just inserted, or not yet inserted, in Jupiter ? 
 Or why should we assume that the condition of those planets 
 
130 THE PLURALITY OF WOKLDS. 
 
 resembles ours, even so far as such suppositions imply? 
 Why may they not, some or all of them, "be barren masses of 
 stone and metal, slag and scoriae, dust and cinders 1 That 
 some of them are composed of such materials, we have better 
 reason to believe, than we have to believe anything else re- 
 specting their physical constitution, as we shall hereafter en- 
 deavor to show. If then, the earth be the sole inhabited spot 
 in the work of creation, the oasis in the desert of our system, 
 there is nothing in this contrary to the analogy of creation. 
 But if, in some way which perhaps we cannot discover, the 
 earth obtained, for accompaniments, mere chaotic and barren 
 masses, as conditions of coming into its present state ; as it ' 
 may have required, for accompaniments, the brute and im- 
 perfect races of former animals, as conditions of coming into 
 its present state, as the habitation of man ; the analogy is 
 against, and not in favor of, the belief that they too (the other 
 masses, the planets, &c.) are habitations. I may hereafter 
 dwell more fully on such speculations ; but the possibility that 
 the planets are such rude masses, is quite as tenable, on as- 
 tronomical grounds, as the possibility that the planets resem- 
 ble the earth, in matters of which astronomy can tell us no- 
 thing. We say, therefore, that the example of geology re- 
 futes the argument drawn from the supposed analogy of one 
 part of the universe with another ; and suggests a strong sus- 
 picion that the force of analogy, better known, may tend in 
 the opposite direction. 
 
 36. When such possibilities are presented to the reader, he 
 may naturally ask, if we are thus to regard man as the climax 
 of creation, in space, as in time, can we point out any char- 
 acters belonging to him, which may tend to make it conceiv- 
 able that the Creator should thus distinguish him, and care for 
 him : should prepare his habitation if it be so, by ages of cha- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 131 
 
 otic and rudimentary life, and by accompanying orbs of brute 
 and barren matter. If Man be, thus, the head, the crowned 
 head of the creation, is he worthy to be thus elevated ? Has 
 he any qualities which make it conceivable that, with such an 
 array of preparation and accompaniment, he should be placed 
 upon the earth, his throne 1 Or rather, if he be thus the 
 chosen subject of God's care, has he any qualities, which 
 make it conceiveable that he should be thus selected ; taken 
 under such guardianship; admitted to such a dispensation; 
 graced with such favor. The question with which we began 
 again recurs : What is man that God should be thus mindful 
 of him 1 After the views which have been presented to us, 
 does any answer now occur to us ? 
 
 37. The answer which we have to give, is that which we 
 have already repeatedly stated. Man is an intellectual, moral, 
 religious, and spiritual creature. If we consider these attri- 
 butes, we shall see that they are such as to give him a special 
 relation to God, and as we conceive, and must conceive, God 
 to be ; and may therefore be, in God, the occasion of special 
 guardianship, special regard, a special dispensation towards 
 man. 
 
 38. As an intellectual creature, he has not only an intelli- 
 gence which he can apply to practical uses, to minister to the 
 needs of animal and social life ; but also an intellect by which 
 he can speculate about the relations of things, in their most 
 general fdrm ; for instance, the properties of space and time, 
 the relations of finite and infinite. He can discover truths, to 
 which all things, existing in space and time, must conform. 
 These are conditions of existence to which the creation con- 
 forms, that is, to which the Creator conforms ; and man, capa- 
 ble of seeing that such conditions are true and necessary, is 
 capable, so far, of understanding some of the conditions of 
 
132 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 the Creator's workmanship. In this way, the mind of man 
 has some community with the mind of God ; and however re- 
 mote and imperfect this community may be, it must be real. 
 Since, then, man has thus, in his intellect, an element of com- 
 munity with God, it is so far conceivable that he should be, 
 in a special manner, the object of God's care and favor. The 
 human mind, with its wonderful and perhaps illimitable 
 powers, is something of which we can believe God to be 
 " mindful." 
 
 ' 39. Again : man is a moral creature. He recognizes, he can- 
 not help recognizing, a distinction of right and wrong in his ac- 
 tions ; and in his internal movements which lead to action. 
 This distinction he recognizes as the reason, the highest and 
 ultimate reason, for doing or for not doing. And this law of 
 his own reason, he is, by reflection, led to recognize as a Law 
 of the Supreme Reason ; of the Supreme Mind which has made 
 him what he is. The Moral Law, he owns and feels as God's 
 Law. By the obligation which he feels to obey this Law, he 
 feels himself God's subject ; placed under his government ; 
 compelled to expect his judgment, his rewards, and punish- 
 ments. By being a moral creature, then, he is, in a special 
 manner, the subject of God ; and not only we can believe that, 
 in this capacity, God cares for him ; but we cannot believe 
 that he does not care for him. He cares for him, so as to ap- 
 prove of what he does right, and to condemn what he does 
 wrong. And he has given him, in his own breast, an assur- 
 ance that he will do this ; and thus, God cares for man, in a 
 peculiar and special manner. As a moral creature, we have 
 no difficulty in conceiving that God may think him worthy of 
 his regard and government. 
 
 40. The development of man's moral nature, as we have 
 just described it, leads to, and involves the development of 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY. 133 
 
 his religious nature. By looking within himself, and seeing 
 the Moral Law, he learns to look upwards to God, the Author 
 of the Law, and the Awarder of the rewards and penalties 
 which follow moral good and evil. But the belief of such a 
 dispensation carries us, or makes us long to be carried, beyond 
 the manifestations of this dispensation, as they appear in the 
 ordinary course of human life. By thinking on such things, 
 man is led to ascribe a wider range to the moral Government 
 of God : to believe in methods of reward and punishment, 
 which do not appear in the natural course of events : to accept 
 events, out of the order of nature, which announce that God 
 has provided such methods : to accept them, when duly au- 
 thenticated, as messages from God ; and thus, when God pro- 
 vides the means, to allow himself to be placed in intercourse 
 with God. Since man is capable of this ; since, as a religious 
 creature, this is his tendency, his need, the craving of his heart, 
 without which, when his religious nature is fully unfolded, he 
 can feel no comfort nor satisfaction ; we cannot be surprised 
 that God should deem him a proper object of a special fatherly 
 care ; a fit subject for a special dispensation of his purposes, 
 as to the consequences of human actions. Man being this, we 
 can believe that God is not only " mindful of him," but " vis- 
 its him." 
 
 41. As we have said, the soul of man, regarded as the sub- 
 ject of God's religious government, is especially termed his 
 Spirit: the course of human being which results from the in- 
 tercourse with God, which God permits, is a spiritual exist- 
 ence. Man is capable, in no small degree, of such an existence, 
 of such an intercourse with God ; and, as we are authorized to 
 term it, of such a life with God, and in God, even while he 
 continues in his present human existence. I say authorized, 
 because such expressions are used, though reverently, by the 
 
134 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 most religious men ; who are, at any rate, authority as to their 
 own sentiments ; which are the basis of our reasoning. What- 
 ever, then, may be the imperfection, in this life, of such a union 
 with God, yet since man can, when sufficiently assisted and fa- 
 vored by God, enter upon such a union, we cannot but think it 
 most credible and most natural, that he should be the object 
 of God's special care and regard, even of his love and pres- 
 ence. 
 
 42. That men are, only in a comparatively small number 
 of cases, intellectual, moral, religious, and spiritual, in the de- 
 gree which I have described, does not, by any means, deprive 
 our argument of its force. The capacity of man is, that he 
 may become this 5 and such a capacity may well make him a 
 special object in the eyes of Him under whose guidance and 
 by whose aid, such a development and elevation of his nature 
 is open to him. However imperfect and degraded, however 
 unintellectual, immoral, irreligious, and unspiritual, a great 
 part of mankind may be, still they all have the germs of such 
 an elevation of their nature; and a large portion of them 
 make, we cannot doubt, no small progress in this career of 
 advancement to a spiritual condition. And with such capaci- 
 ties, and such practical exercise of those capacities, we can 
 have no difficulty in believing, if the evidence directs us to 
 believe, that that part of the creation in which man has his 
 present appointed place, is the special field of God's care and 
 love ; by whatever wastes of space, and multitudes of material 
 bodies, it may be surrounded ; by whatever races it may have 
 been previously occupied, of brutes that perish, and that, com- 
 pared with man, can hardly be said to have lived. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NEBULJB. 
 
 1. I HAVE attempted to show that, even if we suppose the other 
 bodies of the universe to resemble the Earth, so far as to seem, 
 by their materials, forms, and motions, no less fitted than she 
 is to be the abodes of life ; yet that, knowing what we do of 
 man, we can believe that the Earth is tenanted by a race who 
 are the special objects of God's care. Even if the tendency of 
 the analogies of creation were, to incline us to suppose that the 
 other planets are as well suited as our globe, to have inhab- 
 itants, still it would require a great amount of evidence, to- 
 make us believe that they have such inhabitants as we are ; 
 while yet such evidence is altogether wanting. Even if we 
 knew that the stars were the centres of revolving systems, we 
 should have an immense difficulty in believing that an Earth, 
 with such a population as ours, revolves about any of them. 
 If astronomy made a plurality of words probable, we have 
 strong reasonings, drawn from other subjects, to think that the 
 other worlds are not like ours. 
 
 2. The admirers of astronomical triumphs may perhaps be 
 disposed to say, that when so much has been discovered, we 
 may be allowed to complete the scheme by the exercise of 
 fancy. I have attempted to show that we are not in such a 
 
136 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 state of ignorance, when we look at other relations of the earth 
 and of man, as to allow us to do this. But now we may go 
 a little onwards in our argument ; and may ask, whether As- 
 tronomy really does what is here claimed for her : whether 
 she carries us so securely to the bounds of the visible universe, 
 that our Fancy may take up the task, and people the space 
 thus explored : whether the bodies which Astronomy has ex- 
 amined, be really as fitted as our Earth, to sustain a population 
 of living things : whether the most distant objects in the uni- 
 verse do really seem to be systems, or the beginnings of sys- 
 tems : whether Astronomy herself may not incline in favor 
 of the condition of man, as being the sole creature of his 
 kind? 
 
 3. In making this inquiry, it will of course be understood, 
 that I do so with the highest admiration for the vast discover- 
 ies which Astronomy has really made ; and for the marvellous 
 skill and invention of the great men who have, in all ages of the 
 world, and not least, in our time, been the authors of such dis- 
 coveries. From the time when Galileo first discovered the 
 system of Jupiter's satellites, to the last scrutiny of the struc- 
 ture of a nebula by Lord Rosse's gigantic telescope, the his- 
 tory of the telescopic exploration of the sky, has been a his- 
 tory of genius felicitously employed in revealing wonders. In 
 this history, the noble labors of the first and the second Her- 
 schel relative to the distribution of the fixed stars, the forms 
 and classes of nebulce, and the phenomena of double stars, es- 
 pecially bear upon our present speculations ; to which we may 
 add, the examination of the aspect of each planet, by various 
 observers, as Schroeter, and of the ,moon by others, from 
 Huyghens to Madler and Beer. The achievements which 
 are most likely to occur to the reader's mind are those of the 
 Earl of Rosse ; as being the latest addition to our knowledge, 
 
THE NEBULAE. 137 
 
 and the result of the greatest instrumental powers. By the 
 energy and ingenuity of that eminent person, an eye is di- 
 rected to the heavens, having a pupil of six feet diameter, with 
 the most complete optical structure, and the power of ranging 
 about for its objects over a great extent of sky ; and thus the 
 quantity of light which the eye receives from any point of the 
 heavens is augmented, it may be, fifty thousand times. The 
 rising Moon is seen from the Observatory in Ireland with the 
 same increase of size and light, as if her solid globe, two thou- 
 sand miles in diameter, retaining all its illumination, really 
 rested upon the summits of the Alps, to be gazed at by the 
 naked eye. An object which appears to the naked eye a single 
 star, may, by this telescope, so far as its power of seeing is 
 concerned, be resolved into fifty thousand stars, each of the 
 same brightnes as the obvious star. What seems to the unas- 
 sisted vision a nebula, a patch of diluted light, in which no 
 distinct luminous point can be detected, may, by such an instru- 
 ment, be discriminated or resolved into a number of bright 
 dots ; as the stippled shades of an engraving are resolved into 
 dots by the application of a powerful magnifying glass. Sim- 
 ilar results of the application of great telescopic power had of 
 course been attained long previously ; but, as the nature of 
 scientific research is, each step adds something to our means of 
 knowledge ; and the last addition assumes, includes, and aug- 
 ments the knowledge which we possessed before. The dis- 
 cussions in which we are engaged, belong to the very boun- 
 dary region of science ; to the frontier where knowledge, at 
 least astronomical knowledge, ends, and ignorance begins. 
 Such discoveries, therefore, as those made by Lord Rosse's tele- 
 scope, require our special notice here. 
 
 4. We may begin, at what appears to us the outskirts of 
 creation, the Nebulas. At one time it was conceived by as- 
 
138 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 tronomers in general, that these patches of diffused light, which 
 are seen by them in such profusion in the sky, are not lumi- 
 nous bodies of regular terms and definite boundaries, appar- 
 ently solid, as the stars are supposed to be ; but really, as even 
 to good telescopes many of them seem, masses of luminous 
 cloud or vapor, loosely held together, as clouds and vapors 
 are, and not capable by any powers of vision of being resolved 
 into distinct visible elements. This opinion was for a tima 
 so confidentially entertained, that there was founded upon it an 
 hypothesis, that these were gaseous masses, out of which suns 
 and systems might afterwards be formed, by the concentration 
 of these luminous vapors into a solid central sun, more in- 
 tensely luminous ; while detached portions of the mass, flying 
 off, and cooling down so as to be no longer self-luminous, might 
 revolve round the central body, as planets and satellites. This 
 is the Nebular Hypothesis, suggested by the elder Herschel, 
 and adopted by the great mathematician Laplace. 
 
 5. But the result of the optical scrutiny of the nebulae by 
 more' modern observers, especially by Lord Rosse in Ireland, 
 and Mr. Bond in America, has been, that many celestial objects 
 which were regarded before as truly nebulous, have been re- 
 solved into stars ; and this resolution has been extended to so 
 many cases of nebulse, of such various kinds, as to have pro- 
 duced a strong suspicion in the minds of astronomers that all 
 the nebulse, however different in their appearance, may really 
 be resolved into stars, if they be attacked with optical powers 
 sufficiently great. 
 
 6. If this were to be assumed as done, and if each of the 
 separate points, into which the nebulae are thus resolved, were 
 conceived to be a star, which looks so small only because it is 
 so distant, and which really is as likely to have a system of 
 planets revolving about it, as is a star of the first magnitude : 
 
THE NEBULA. 139 
 
 we should then have a view of the immensity, of the visible 
 universe, such as I presented to the reader in the beginning of 
 this essay. All the distant nebulae appear as nebulas, only 
 because they are so distant ; if truly seen, they are groups of 
 stars, of which each may be as important as our sun, being, 
 like it, the centre of a planetary system. And thus, a patch 
 of the heavens, one hundredth or one thousandth part of the 
 visible breadth of our sun, may contain in it more life, not only 
 than exists in the solar system, but in as many such systems as 
 the unassisted eye can see stars in the heavens, on the clearest 
 winter night. 
 
 7. This is a stupendous view of the greatness of the crea- 
 tion ; and, to many persons, its very majesty, derived from 
 magnitude and number, will make it so striking and acceptable, 
 that, once apprehended, they will feel as if there were a kind 
 of irreverence in disturbing it. But if this view be really not 
 tenable when more closely examined, it is, after all, not wise 
 to connect our feelings of religious reverence with it, so that 
 they shall suffer a shock when we are obliged to reject it. I 
 may add, that we may entertain an undoubting trust that any 
 view of the creation which is found to be true, will also be 
 found to supply material for reverential contemplation. I 
 venture to hope that we may, by further examination, be led 
 to a reverence of a deeper and more solemn character than a 
 mere wonder at the immensity of space and number. 
 
 8. But whatever the result may be, let us consider the evi- 
 dence for this view. It assumes that all the Nebulae are re- 
 solvable into stars, and that they appear as nebulae only because 
 they are more distant than the region in which they can appear 
 as stars. Are there any facts, any phenomena in the heavens, 
 which may help us to determine whether this is a probable 
 opinion? 
 
140 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 9. It is most satisfactory for us, when we can, in such in- 
 quiries, know the thoughts which have suggested themselves to 
 the minds of those who have examined the phenomena with 
 the most complete knowledge, the greatest care, and the best 
 advantages ; and have speculated upon these phenomena in a 
 way both profound and unprejudiced. Some remarks of Sir 
 John Herschel, recommended by these precious characters, 
 seem to me to bear strongly upon the question which I have 
 just had to ask : Do all the nebulse owe their nebulous ap- 
 pearance to their being too distant to be seen as groups of dis- 
 tinct stars, though they really are such groups 1 
 
 10. Herschel, in the visit which he made to the Cape of 
 Good Hope, for the purpose of erecting to his father the most 
 splendid monument that son ever erected, the completed sur- 
 vey of the vault of heaven, had full opportunity of studying 
 a certain pair of remarkable bright spaces of the skies, filled 
 with a cloudy light, which lie near the southern pole ; and 
 which, having been unavoidably noticed by the first Antarctic 
 voyagers, are called the Magellanic Clouds. When the larger 
 of these two clouds is examined through powerful telescopes, 
 it presents, we are told, a constitution of uncommon complex- 
 ity : " large patches and tracts of nebulosity in every stage of 
 resolution, from light, irresolvable with eighteen inches of re- 
 flecting aperture, up to perfectly separated stars like the Milky 
 Way, and clustering groups sufficiently insulated and con- 
 densed to come under the designation of irregular, and in some 
 cases pretty rich clusters. But besides these, there are also 
 nebulae in abundance, both regular and irregular; globular 
 clusters in every stage of condensation, and objects of a nebu- 
 lous character quite peculiar, and which have no analogies in 
 any other region of the heavens."* He goes on to say, that 
 
 * Herschel, Outl. of Astr. Art. 893. 
 
THE NEBULAE. 141 
 
 these nebulae and clusters are far more crowded in this space 
 than they are in any other, even the most crowded parts, of 
 the nebulous heavens. This Nubecula Major, as it is termed, 
 is of a round or oval form, and its diameter is about six de- 
 grees, so that it is about twelve times the apparent diameter 
 of the moon. The Nubecula Minor is a smaller patch of the 
 same kind. If we suppose the space occupied by the various 
 objects which the nubecula major includes, to be, in a general 
 way, spherical, its nearest and most remote parts must (as 
 its angular size proves) differ in their distance from us by little 
 more than a tenth part of our distance from its centre. That 
 the two nubeculas are thus approximately spherical spaces, is 
 in the highest degree probable ; not only from the peculiarity 
 of their contents, which suggests the notion of a peculiar group 
 of objects, collected into a limited space ; but from the barren- 
 ness, as to such objects, of the sky in the neighborhood of these 
 Magellanic Clouds. To suppose (the only other possible sup- 
 position) that they are two columns of space, with their ends 
 turned towards us, and their lengths hundreds and thousands 
 of times their breadths, would be too fantastical a proceeding 
 to be tolerated ; and would, after all, not explain the facts 
 without further altogether arbitrary assumptions. 
 
 11. It appears, then, that, in these groups, there are stars 
 of various magnitudes, clusters of various forms, nebulae regu- 
 lar and irregular, nebulous tracts and patches of peculiar char- 
 acter ; and all so disposed, that the most distant of them, 
 whichever these may be, are not more than one-tenth more 
 distant than the nearest. If the nearest star in this space be 
 at nine times the distance of Sirius, the farthest nebulae, con- 
 tained in the same space, will not be at more than ten times 
 the distance of Sirius. Of course, the doctrine that nebuloe 
 are seen as nebulae, merely because they are so distant, re- 
 
142 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 quires us to assume all nebulas to be hundreds and thousands 
 of times more distant than the smallest stars. If stars of the 
 eighth magnitude (which are hardly visible to the naked eye) 
 be eight times as remote as Sirius, a nebula containing a thou- 
 sand stars, which is invisible to the naked eye, must be more 
 than eight thousand times as remote as Sirius. And thus if, 
 in the whole galaxy, we reckon only the stars as far as the 
 eighth magnitude, and suppose all the stars of the galaxy to 
 form a nebula, which is visible to the spectators in a- distant 
 nebula, only as their nebula is visible to us ; we must place 
 them at eight thousand times two hundred thousand times the 
 distance of the Sun ; and, even so, we are obviously vastly un- 
 derstating the calculation. These are the gigantic estimates 
 with which some astronomical speculators have been in the 
 habit of overwhelming the minds of their listeners ; and these 
 views have given a kind of majesty to the aspect of the neb- 
 ulas ; and have led some persons to speak of the discovery of 
 every new streak of nebulous light in the starry heavens, as a 
 discovery of new worlds, and still new worlds. But the Ma- 
 gellanic Clouds show us very clearly that all these calculations 
 are entirely baseless. In those regions of space, there coexists, 
 in a limited compass, and in indiscriminate position, stars, clus- 
 ters of stars, nebulas, regular and irregular, and nebulous streaks 
 and patches. These, then, are different kinds of things in 
 themselves, not merely different to us. There are such things 
 as nebulae side by side with stars, and with clusters of stars. 
 Nebulous matter resolvable occurs close to nebulous matter 
 irresolvable. The last and widest step by which the dimen- 
 sions of the universe have been expanded in the notions of 
 eager speculators, is checked by a completer knowledge and a 
 sager spirit of speculation. Whatever inference we may draw 
 from the resolvability of some of the nebulae, we may not 
 
THE NEBULAE. 143 
 
 draw this inference ; that they are more distant, and contain 
 a larger array of systems and of worlds, in proportion as they 
 are difficult to resolve. 
 
 12. But indeed, if we consider this process, of the resolution 
 of nebulas into luminous points, on its own ground, without 
 looking to such facts as I have just adduced, it will be difficult, 
 or impossible, to assign any reason why it should lead to such 
 inferences as have been drawn from it. Let us look at this 
 matter more clearly. An astronomer, armed with a powerful 
 telescope, resolves a nebula, discerns that a luminous cloud is 
 composed of shining dots : but what are these dots ? Into 
 what does he resolve the nebula ? Into Stars, it is commonly 
 said. Let us not wrangle about words. By all means let 
 these dots be Stars, if we know about what we are speaking : 
 if a Star merely mean a luminous dot in the sky. But that 
 these stars shall resemble, in their nature, stars of the first mag- 
 nitude, and that such stars shall resemble our Sun, are surely 
 very bold structures of assumption to build on such a basis. 
 Some nebulae are resolvable ; are resolvable into distinct 
 points ; certainly a very curious, probably an important dis- 
 covery. We may hereafter learn that all nebulae are resolv- 
 able into distinct points : that would be a still more curious 
 discovery. But what would it amount to ? What would be 
 the simple way of expressing it, without hypothesis, and with- 
 out assumption ? Plainly this : that the substance of all neb- 
 ulae is not continuous, but discrete ; separable, and separate 
 into distinct luminous elements ; nebulae are, it would then 
 seem, as it were, of a curdled or granulated texture ; they have 
 run into lumps of light, or have been formed originally of such 
 lumps. Highly curious. But what are these lumps ? How 
 large are they 1 At what distances *? Of what structure ? 
 Of what use ? It would seem that he must be a bold man 
 
144 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 who undertakes to answer these questions. Certainly he must 
 appear to ordinary thinkers to be very bold, who, in reply, says, 
 gravely and confidently, as if he had unquestionable authority 
 for his teaching : " These lumps, O man, are Suns ; they are 
 distant from each other as far as the Dog-star is from us ; 
 each has its system of Planets, which revolve around it ; and 
 each of these Planets is the seat of an animal and vegetable 
 creation. Among these Planets, some, we do not yet know how 
 many, are occupied by rational and responsible creatures, like 
 Man ; and the only matter which perplexes us, holding this be- 
 lief on astronomical grounds, is, that we do not quite see how 
 to put our theology into its due place and form in our system." 
 13. In discussing such matters as these, where our knowl- 
 edge and our ignorance are so curiously blended together, and 
 where ,it is so difficult to make men feel that so much igno- 
 rance can lie so close to so much knowledge ; to make them 
 believe that they have been allowed to discover so much, and 
 yet are not allowed to discover more : we may be permitted 
 to illustrate our meaning, by supposing a case of blended 
 knowledge and ignorance, of real and imaginary discovery. 
 Suppose that there were carried from a scientific to a more 
 ignorant nation, excellent maps of the world, finely engraved ; 
 the mountain-ranges shaded in the most delicate manner, and 
 the sheet crowded with information of all kinds, in writing 
 large, small, and microscopic. Suppose also, that when these 
 maps had been studied with the naked eye, so as to establish 
 a profound respect for the knowledge and skill of the author 
 of them, some of those who perused them should be fur- 
 nished with good microscopes, so as to carry their examina- 
 tion further than before. They might then find that, in 
 several parts, what before appeared to be merely crooked 
 lines, was really writing, stating, it may be, the amount of 
 
THE NEBULJE. 145 
 
 population of a province, or the date of foundation of a town. 
 To exhaust all the information thus contained on the maps, 
 might be a work of considerable time and labor. But sup- 
 pose that, when this was done, a body of resolute microscopists 
 should insist that the information which the map contained 
 was not exhausted : that they should continue peering perse- 
 veringly at the lines which formed the shading of the moun- 
 tains, maintaining that these lines also were writing, if only it 
 might be deciphered ; and should go on increasing, with im- 
 mense labor and ingenuity, the powers of their microscopes, 
 in order to discover the legend contained in these unmeaning 
 lines. We should, perhaps, have here an image of the em- 
 ployment of these astronomers, who now go on looking in 
 nebulas for worlds. And we may notice in passing, that seve- 
 ral of the arguments which are used by such astronomers, 
 might be used, and would be used, by our microscopists : 
 how improbable it was that a person so full of knowledge, and 
 so able to convey it, as the author of the maps was known to 
 be, should not have a design and purpose in every line that he 
 drew : what a waste of space it would be to leave any part of 
 the sheet blank of information ; and the like. To which the 
 reply is to us obvious ; that the design of shading the moun- 
 tains was design enough ; and that the information conveyed 
 was all that was necessary or convenient. Nor does this illus- 
 tration at all tend to show that such astronomical scrutiny, 
 directed intelligently, with a right selection of the points ex- 
 amined, may not be highly interesting and important. If the 
 microscopists had examined the map with a view to determine 
 the best way in which mountains can be indicated by shading, 
 they would have employed themselves upon a question which 
 has been the subject of multiplied and instructive discussion 
 in our own day. 
 
 7 
 
146 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 14. But to return to the subject of Nebulae, we may further 
 say, with tha most complete confidence, that whether or not 
 nebulous matter be generally resolvable into shining dots, it 
 cannot possibly be true that its being, or not being so resolv- 
 able by our telescopes, depends merely upon its smaller or 
 greater distance from the observer. For, in the first place, 
 that there is matter, to the best assisted eye not distinguish- 
 able from nebulous matter, which is not so resolvable, is 
 proved by several facts. The tails of Comets often resemble 
 nebulae ; so much so that there are several known nebulas, 
 which are, by the less experienced explorers of the sky, per- 
 petually mistaken for comets, till they are proved not to be 
 so, by their having no cometary motion. Such is the nebula 
 in Andromeda, which is visible to the naked eye.* But the 
 tails and nebulous appendages of comets, though they alter 
 their appearance very greatly, according to the power of the 
 telescope with which they are examined, have never been re- 
 solved into stars, or any kind of dots ; and seem, by all in- 
 vestigations, to be sheets or cylinders or cones of luminous 
 vapor, changing their form as they approach to or recede from 
 the sun, and perhaps by the influence of other causes. Yet 
 some of them approach very near the earth ; all of them 
 come within the limits of our system. Here, then, we have 
 (probably, at least,) nebulous matter, which when brought 
 close to the eye, compared with the stellar nebulas, still ap- 
 pears as nebulous. 
 
 15. Again, as another phenomenon, bearing upon the same 
 question, we have the Zodiacal Light. This is a faint cone of 
 lightf which, at certain seasons, may be seen extending from 
 the horizon obliquely upwards, and following the course of 
 
 * HerscheL Outl of Astr. Art. 874, and Plate 11, Fig. 3. 
 \ Ibid. Art. 897. 
 
THE NEBULAE. 147 
 
 the ecliptic, or rather, of the sun's equator. It appears to be 
 a lens-shaped envelope of the sun, extending beyond the orbits 
 of Mercury and Venus, and nearly attaining that of the earth ; 
 and in Sir John Herschel's view, may be regarded as placing 
 the sun in the list of nebulous stars. No one has ever thought 
 that this nebulous appearance was resolvable into luminous 
 points ; but if it were, probably not even the most sanguine 
 of speculators on the multitude of suns would call these points 
 suns. 
 
 16. But indeed the nebulae themselves, and especially the 
 most remote of the nebulae, or at least those which most 
 especially require the most powerful telescopes, offer far more 
 decisive proofs that their resolvability or non-resolvability, 
 their apparent constitution as diffused and vaporous masses, 
 does not depend upon their distance. A remarkable fact hi 
 the irregular, and in some of the regular nebulae* is, that they 
 consist of long patches and streaks, which stretch out in vari- 
 ous directions, and of which the formf and extent vary ac- 
 cording to the visual power which is applied to them. Many 
 of the nebulae and especially of the fainter ones, entirely 
 change their form with the optical power of the instrument by 
 which they are scrutinized ; so that, as seen in the mightier 
 telescopes of modern times, the astronomer scarcely recog- 
 nizes the figures in which the earlier observers have recorded 
 what they saw in the same place. Parts which, before, were 
 separate, are connected by thin bridges of light which are now 
 detected; and where the nebulous space appeared to be 
 bounded, it sends off long tails of faint light into the surround- 
 ing space. Now, no one can suppose that these newly-seen 
 portions of the nebula are immensely further off than the other 
 parts. However little we know of the nature of the object, 
 * Hersch. 874. f Ibid. 8818. 
 
148 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 we must suppose it to be one connected object, with all its 
 parts, as to sense, at the same distance from us. Whether 
 therefore it be resolvable or no, there must be some other rea- 
 son, besides the difference of distance, why the brighter parts 
 were seen, while the fainter parts were not. The obvious 
 reason is, that the latter were not seen because they were thin 
 films which required more light to see them. We are led, 
 irresistibly as it seems, to regard the whole mass of such a 
 nebula, as an aggregation of vaporous rolls and streaks, as- 
 suming such forms as thin volumes of smoke or vapor often 
 assume in our atmosphere, and assuming, like them, dif- 
 ferent shapes according to the quantity of light which comes 
 to us from them. IfJ as soon as one of these new filaments or 
 webs of a nebula comes into view, we should say, Here we 
 have a new array of suns and of worlds, we should judge as 
 fantastically, as any one who should com binethe like imag- 
 inations with the varying cloud-work of a summer-sky. To 
 suppose that all the varied streaks by which the patch of 
 nebulous light shades off into the surrounding darkness, and 
 which change their form and extent with every additional 
 polish which we can give to a reflecting or refracting sur- 
 face, disclose, with every new streak, new worlds, is a 
 wanton indulgence of fancy, to which astronomy gives us no 
 countenance.* 
 
 17. Undoubtedly all true astronomers, taught caution and 
 temperance of thought by the discipline of their magnificent 
 science, abstain from founding such assumptions upon their 
 
 * At the recent meeting of the British Association (Sept. 1853), 
 drawings were exhibited of the same nebulae, as seen through Lord 
 Rosse's large telescope, and through a telescope of three feet aperture. 
 With the smaller telescopic power, all the characteristic features were 
 lost The spiral structure (see next Article but one) has been almost 
 entirely brought to light by the large telescope. 
 
THE NEBULJE. 149 
 
 discoveries. They know how necessary it is to be upon their 
 guard against the tricks which fancy plays with the senses ; 
 and if they see appearances of which they cannot interpret the 
 meaning, they are content that they should have no meaning 
 for them, till the due explanation comes. We have innumer- 
 able examples of this wise and cautious temper, in all periods 
 of astronomy. One has occurred lately. Several careful 
 astronomers, observing the stars by day, had been surprised 
 to see globes of light gli'de across the field of view of their 
 telescopes, often in rapid succession and in great numbers. 
 They did not, as may be supposed, rush to the assumption 
 that these globes were celestial bodies of a new kind, before 
 unseen ; and that from the peculiarity of their appearance and 
 movement, they were probably inhabited by beings of a pe- 
 culiar kind. They proceeded very differently ; they altered 
 the focus of their telescopes, looked with other glasses, made 
 various changes and trials, and finally discovered that these 
 globes of light were the winged seeds of certain plants which 
 were wafted through the air ; and which, illuminated by the 
 sun, were made globular by being at distances unsuited to the 
 focus of the telescope.* 
 
 18. But perhaps something more may be founded on the 
 ramified and straggling form which belongs to many of the 
 nebulae. Under the powers of Lord Rosse's telescope, a con- 
 siderable number of them assume a shape consisting of several 
 spiral films diverging from one centre, and growing broader 
 and fainter as they diverge, so as to resemble a curled feather, 
 or whirlpool of light. f This form, though generally de- 
 
 * See monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dec. 13, 
 1850. 
 
 f The frontispiece to this volume represents two of these Spiral 
 Nebulae ; those denominated 51 Messier, and 99 Messier, as given by 
 
150 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 formed by irregularities, more or less, is traceable in so many 
 of the nebulae, that we cannot easily divest ourselves of the 
 persuasion hat there is some general reason for such a form ; 
 that something, in the mechanical causes which have pro- 
 duced the nebulas, has tended to give them this shape. Now, 
 when this thought has occurred to us, since mathematicians 
 have written a great deal concerning the mechanics of the 
 universe, it is natural to ask, whether any of the problems 
 which they have solved give a result like that thus presented 
 to our eyes. Do such spirals as we here see, occur in any of 
 the diagrams which illustrate the possible motions of 'celestial 
 bodies ? And to this, a person acquainted with mathematical 
 literature might reply, that in the second Book of Newton's 
 Principia, in the part which has especial reference to the 
 Vortices of Descartes, such spirals appear upon the page. 
 They represent the path which a body would describe if, 
 acted upon by a central force, it had to move in a medium of 
 which the resistance was considerable ; considerable, that is, 
 in comparison with the other forces which act ; as for example, 
 the forces which deflect the motion from a straight line. In- 
 deed, that in such a case a body would describe a spiral, of 
 which the general form would be more or less oval, is evi- 
 dent on a little consideration. And in this way, for instance, 
 Encke's comet, which, if the resistance to its motion were in- 
 sensible, would go on describing an ellipse about the sun, al- 
 ways returning upon the same path after every revolution ; 
 does really describe a path which, at each revolution, falls a 
 little within the preceding revolution, and thus gradually con- 
 verges to the centre. And if we suppose the comet to con- 
 sist of a luminous mass, or a string of masses, which should 
 
 Lord Rosse in tlie Phil. Trans, for 1850. The former of these two has 
 a lateral focus, besides the principal focus or pole. 
 
THE NEBULAE. 151 
 
 occupy a considerable arc of such an orbit, the orbit would be 
 marked by a track of light, as an oval spiral. Or if such a 
 comet were to separate into two portions, as we have, with 
 our own eyes, recently seen Biela's comet do ; or into a 
 greater number; then these portions would be distributed' 
 along such a spiral. And if we suppose a large mass of cometie 
 matter thus to move in a highly resisting medium, and to con- 
 sist of patches of different densities, then some would move 
 faster and some more slowly ; but all, in spirals such as have 
 been spoken of; and the general aspect produced would be, 
 that of the spiral nebulae which I have endeavored to describe. 
 The luminous matter would be more diffused In the outer, and 
 more condensed in the central parts, because to the centre of 
 attraction all the spirals converge. 
 
 19. This would be so, we say, if the luminous matter 
 moved in a greatly resisting medium. But what is the meas- 
 ure of great resistance 1 It is, as we have already said, that 
 the resistance which opposes the motion shall bear a consider- 
 able proportion to the force which deflects the motion. But 
 what is that force ? Upon the theory of the universal gravi- 
 tation of matter, on which theory we here proceed, the force 
 which deflects the motions of the parts of each system into 
 curves, is the mutual attraction of the parts of the system ; 
 leaving out of the account the action of other systems, as com- 
 paratively insignificent and insensible. The condition, then, 
 for the production of such spiral figures as I have spoken of, 
 amounts really to this ; that the mutual attraction of the parts 
 of the luminous matter is slight ; or, in other words, that the 
 matter itself is very thin and rare. In that case, indeed, we 
 can easily see that such a result would follow. A cloud of 
 dust, or of smoke, which was thin and light, would make but 
 a little way through the air, and would soon fall downwards ; 
 
152 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 while a metal bullet shot horizontally with the same velocity, 
 might fly for miles. Just so, a loose and vaporous mass of 
 cometic matter would be pulled rapidly inwards by the at- 
 traction to the centre ; and supposing it also drawn into a 
 long train, by the different density of its different parts, it 
 would trace, in lines of light, a circular or elliptical spiral con- 
 verging to the centre of attraction, and resembling one of the 
 branches of the spiral nebulae. And if several such cometic 
 masses thus travelled towards the centre, they would exhibit 
 the wheel-like figure with bent spokes, which is seen in the 
 spiral nebulae. And such a figure would all the more resem- 
 ble some of those nebulse, as seen through Lord Rosse's tele- 
 scope, if the spirals were accompanied by exterior branches of 
 thinner and fainter light, which nebulous matter of smaller 
 density might naturally form. Perhaps too, such matter, 
 when thin, may be supposed to cool down more rapidly from 
 its state of incandescence ; and thus to become less luminous. 
 If this were so, a great optical power would of course be re- 
 quired, to make the diverging branches visible at all. 
 
 20. There is one additional remark, which we may make, as 
 to the resemblance of cometary* and nebular matter. That 
 cometary matter is of very small density, we have many rea- 
 sons to believe : its transparency, which allows us to see 
 stars through it undimmed ; the absence of any mechanical 
 effect, weight, inertia, impulse, or attraction, in the nearest 
 
 * I am aware that some, astronomers do not consider it as proved 
 that cometary matter is entirely self-luminous. Arago found that the 
 light of a Comet contained a portion of polarized light, thus proving 
 that it had been reflected (Cosmos, L p. Ill, and ra. p. 566). But I 
 think the opinion that the greater part of the light is self-luminous, 
 like the nebulae, generally prevails. Any other supposition is scarcely 
 consistent with the rapid changes of brightness which occur in a comet 
 during its motion to and from the Sun. 
 
THE NEBULAE. 153 
 
 appulses of comets to planets and satellites : and the fact that, 
 in the recent remarkable event in the cometic history, the 
 separation of Biela's comet into two, the two parts did not ap- 
 pear to exert any perceptible attraction on each other, any 
 more than two volumes of dust or of smoke would do on 
 earth. Luminous cometary matter, then, is very light, that is, 
 has very little weight or inertia. And luminous nebulous 
 matter is also very light in this sense : if our account of the 
 cause of spiral nebulae has in it any truth. But yet, if we sup- 
 pose the nebulae to be governed by the law of universal gravi- 
 tation, the attractive force of the luminous matter upon itself, 
 must be sufficient to bend the spirals into their forms. How 
 are we to reconcile this ; that the matter is so loose that it 
 falls to the centre in rapid spirals, and yet that it attracts so 
 strongly that there is a centre, and an energetic central force 
 to curve the spirals thither ? To this, the reply which we 
 must make is, that the size of the nebular space is such, that 
 though its rarity is extreme, its whole mass is considerable. 
 One part does not perceptibly attract another, but the whole 
 does perceptibly attract every part. This indeed need the less 
 surprise us, since it is exactly the case with our earth. One 
 stone does not visibly attract another. It is much indeed for 
 man, if he can make perceptible the attraction of a mountain 
 upon a plumb-line ; or of a stratum of rock a thousand feet 
 thick upon the going of a pendulum ; or of large masses of ; 
 metal upon a delicate balance. By such experiments men of 
 science have endeavored to measure that minute thing, the at- 
 traction of one portion of terrestrial matter upon another ; 
 and thus, to weigh the whole mass of the earth. And equally 
 great, at least, may be the disproportion between the mutual 
 attraction of two parts of a nebulous system, and the total cen- 
 
 7* 
 
154 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 tral attraction ; and thus, though the former be insensible, the 
 latter may be important. 
 
 21. It has been shown by Newton, that if any mass of mat- 
 ter be distributed in a uniform sphere, or in uniform concentric 
 spherical shells, the total attraction on a point without the 
 sphere, will be the same as if the whole mass were collected 
 in that single point, the centre. Now, proceeding upon the 
 supposition of such a distribution of the matter in a nebula, 
 (which is a reasonable average supposition,) we may say, that 
 if our sun were expanded into a nebula reaching to the ex- 
 treme bounds of the known solar system, namely, to the 
 newly-discovered planet Neptune, or even hundreds of times 
 further ; the attraction on an external point would remain the 
 same, as it is, while the attraction on points within the sphere 
 of diffusion would be less than it is ; according to some law, 
 depending upon the degree of condensation of the nebular 
 matter towards the centre ; but still, in the outer regions of 
 the nebula, not differing much from the present solar attrac- 
 tion. If we could discover a mass of luminous matter, de- 
 scending in a spiral course towards the centre of such a nebula, 
 that is, towards the sun, we should have a sort of element of 
 the spiral nebulae which have now attracted so much of the 
 attention of astronomers. But, by an extraordinary coined 
 dence, recent discoveries have presented to us such an element. 
 Encke's comet, of which we have just spoken, appears to be 
 describing such a spiral curve towards the sun. It is found 
 that its period is, at every revolution, shorter and shorter ; the 
 amplitude of its sweep, at every return within the limits of 
 our observation, narrower and narrower; so that in the 
 course of revolutions and ages, however numerous, still, not 
 such as to shake the evidence of the fact, it will fall into the 
 sun. 
 
THE NEBULAE. 155 
 
 22. Here then we are irresistibly driven to calculate wh#t 
 degree of resemblance there is, between the comet of Encke, 
 and the luminous elements of the spiral nebulae, which have 
 recently been found to exist in other regions of the universe. 
 Can we compare its density with theirs ? Can we learn 
 whether the luminous matter in such nebulae is more diffused 
 or less diffused, than that of the comet of Encke 1 Can we 
 compare the mechanical power of getting through space, as 
 we may call it, that is, the ratio of the inertia to the resist- 
 ance, in the one case, and in the other 1 If we can, the com- 
 parison cannot fail, it would seem, to be very curious and in- 
 structive. In this comparison, as in most others to which cos- 
 mical relations conduct us, we must expect that the numbers 
 to which we are led, will be of very considerable amount. It is 
 not equality in the density of the two luminous masses which 
 we are to expect to find ; if we can mark their proportions by 
 thousands of times, we shall have made no small progress in 
 such speculations. 
 
 23. The comet of Encke describes a spiral, gradually con- 
 verging to the sun ; but at what rate converging ? In how 
 many revolutions will it reach the sun ? Of how many folds 
 will its spire consist, before it attains the end of its course 1 
 The answer is : Of very many. The retardation of Encke's 
 Comet is very small : so small, that it has tasked the highest 
 powers of modern calculation to detect it. Still, however, it 
 is there : detected, and generally acknowledged, and confirmed 
 by every revolution of the comet, which brings it under our 
 notice; that is, commonly, about every three years. And 
 having this fact, we must make what we can of it, in reasoning 
 on the condition of the universe. No accuracy of calculation 
 is necessary for our purpose : it is enough, if we bring into 
 
156 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 view the kind of scale of numbers to which calculation would 
 lead us. 
 
 24. Encke's comet revolves round the sun in 1,211 days. 
 The period diminishes at present, by about one-ninth of a day 
 every revolution. This amount of diminution will change, as 
 the orbit narrows ; but for our purpose, it will be enough to 
 consider it unchangeable. The orbit therefore will cease to ex- 
 ist in a number of periods expressed by 9 times 1,211 ; that is, 
 in something more that 10,000 revolutions; and of course 
 sooner than this, in consequence of its coming in contact with 
 the body of the sun. In 30,000 years then, it may be, this 
 comet will complete its spiral, and be absorbed by the central 
 mass. This long time, this long series of ten thousand revo- 
 lutions, are long, because the resistance is so small, compared 
 with the inertia of the moving mass. However thin, and rare, 
 and unsubstantial the comet may be, the medium which resists 
 it is much more so. 
 
 25. But this spiral, converging to its pole so slowly that it 
 reaches it only after 10,000 circuits, is very different indeed 
 from the spirals which we see in the nebulae of which we have 
 spoken. In the most conspicuous of those, there are only at 
 most three or four circular or oval sweeps, in each spiral, or 
 even the spiral reaches the centre before it has completed a 
 single revolution round it. Now, what are we to infer from 
 this ? How is it, that the comet has a spiral of so many rev- 
 olutions, and the nebulae of so few 1 What difference of the 
 mechanical conditions is indicated by this striking difference of 
 form ? Why, while the Comet thus lingers longer in the outer 
 space, and approaches the sun by almost imperceptible degrees, 
 does the Nebular Element rush, as it were, headlong to its cen- 
 tre, and show itself unable to circulate even for a few revolutions 1 
 
 26. Regarding the question as a mechanical problem, the 
 
THE NEBULAE. 157 
 
 answer must be this : It is so, because the nebula is so much 
 more rare than the matter of the comet, or the resisting me- 
 dium so much more dense ; or combining the two suppo- 
 sitions, because in the case of the comet, the luminous matter 
 has much more inertia, more mechanical reality and substance, 
 than the medium through which it moves ; but in the nebula 
 very little more. 
 
 27. The numbers of revolutions of the spiral, in the two 
 cases, may not exactly represent the difference of the propor- 
 tions ; but, as I have said, they may serve to show the scale of 
 them ; and thus we may say, that if Encke's comet, approach- 
 ing the centre by 10,000 revolutions, is 100,000 times as dense 
 as the surrounding medium, the elements of the nebula, which 
 reach the centre in a single revolution, are only ten times as 
 dense as the medium through which they have to move.* 
 
 28. Nor does this result (that the bright element of the neb- 
 ulas is so few timesdenser than the medium in which it moves) 
 offer anything which need surprise us : for, in truth, in a di 
 fused nebula, since we suppose that its parts have mechanical 
 properties, the nebula itself is a resisting medium. The rarer 
 parts, which may very naturally have cooled down in conse- 
 quence of their rarity, and so, become non-luminous, will re- 
 sist the motions of the more dense and still-luminous portions. 
 If we recur to the supposition, which we lately made, that the 
 Sun were expanded into a nebulous sphere, reaching the orbit 
 of Neptune, the diffused matter would offer a far greater re- 
 sistance to the motions of comets than they now experience. 
 In that case, Encke's comet might be brought to the centre af- 
 
 * "We assume here that the number of revolutions to the centre is 
 greater in proportion as the relative density of the resisting medium 
 is less ; which is by no means mechanically true ; but the calculation 
 may serve, as we have said, to show the scale of the numbers involved. 
 
158 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ter a few revolutions ; and if, while it were thus descending, it 
 were to be drawn out into a string of luminous masses, as 
 Biela's comet has begun to be, these comets, and any others, 
 would form separate luminous spiral tracks in the solar sys- 
 tem; and would convert it into a spiral nebula of many 
 branches, like those which are now the most recent objects of 
 astronomical wonder. 
 
 29. It seems allowable to regard it as one of those coinci- 
 dences, in the epochs of related yet seeming unconnected dis- 
 coveries, which have so often occurred in the history of science ; 
 that we should, nearly at the same time, have had brought to 
 our notice, the prevalence of spiral nebulae, and the circum- 
 stances, in. Biela's and in Encke's comets, which seem to ex- 
 plain them : the one by showing the origin of luminous broken 
 lines, one part drifting on faster than another, according to its 
 different density, as is usual in incoherent masses ;* and the 
 other by showing the origin of the spiral form of those lines, 
 arising from the motion being in a? resisting medium. 
 
 30. But though I have made suppositions by which our Solar 
 System might become a spiral nebula, undoubtedly it is at 
 present something very different; -and the leading points of 
 difference are very important for us to consider. And the 
 main point is, that which has already been cursorily noticed : 
 that instead of consisting of matter all nearly of the same 
 density, and a great deal of it luminous, our Solar System con- 
 sists of kinds of matter immensely different in density, and of 
 large and regular portions which are not luminous. Instead 
 of a diffused nebula with vaporous comets trailing spiral tracks 
 
 * Humboldt, whom nothing relative to the history of science es- 
 capes, quotes from Seneca a passage in which mention is made of a 
 Comet which divided into two parts ; and from the Chinese Annals, 
 a notice of three " coupled Comets," which in the year 896 appeared, 
 and described their paths together. Cosmos, in. p. 5*7 0, and the notes. 
 
THE NEBULAE. '~~ 159 
 
 through a medium little rarer than themselves ; we have a 
 central sun, and the dark globes of the solid planets rolling 
 round him, in a medium so rare, that in thousands of revolu- 
 tions not a vestige of retardation can be discovered by the 
 most subtle and persevering researches of astronomers. In 
 the solar system, the luminous matter is collected into the body 
 of the sun ; the non-luminous matter, into the planets. And 
 the comets and the resisting medium, which offer a small ex- 
 ception to this account, bear a proportion to the rest which the 
 power of numbers scarce suffices to express. 
 
 31. Thus with regard to the density of matter in the solar 
 system ; we have supposed, as a mode of expression, that the 
 density of a comet, Ericke's comet for instance, is 100,QOO 
 times that of the resisting medium. Probably this is greatly 
 understated ; and probably also we greatly understate the 
 matter, when we suppose that the tail of a comet is 100,000 
 times rarer than the matter of the sun.* And thus the re- 
 sisting medium would be, at a very low calculation, 10,000 
 millions of times more rare than the substance of the sun. 
 
 32. And thus we are not, I think, going too far, when we 
 say, that our Solar System, compared with spiral nebulous 
 systems, is a system completed and finished, while they are 
 mere confused, indiscriminate, incoherent masses. In the Neb- 
 ulae, we have loose matter of a thin and vaporous constitution, 
 differing as more or less rare, more or less luminous, in a 
 small degree ; diffused over enormous spaces, in straggling and 
 irregular forms ; moving in devious and brief curves, with no 
 vestige of order or system, or even of separation of different 
 
 * Laplace has proved that the masses of comets are very small. He 
 reckons their mean mass as very much less than l-100000th of the 
 Earth's mass. And hence, considering their great size, we see how rare 
 they must be. See Expos, du Syst. du Monde. 
 
160 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 kinds of bodies. In the Solar System, we have the luminous 
 separated from the non-luminous, the hot from the cold, the 
 dense from the rare ; and all, luminous and non-luminous, 
 formed into globes, impressed with regular and orderly mo- 
 tions, which continue the same for innumerable revolutions and 
 cycles.* The spiral nebulae, compared with the solar system, 
 cannot be considered as other than a kind of chaos ; and not 
 even a chaos, in the sense of a state preceding an orderly and 
 stable system ; for there is no indication, in those objects, of 
 any tendency towards such a system. If we were to say that 
 they appear mere shapeless masses, flung off in the work of 
 creating solar systems, we might perhaps disturb those who are 
 resolved to find everywhere worlds like ours ; but it seems 
 difficult to suggest any other reason for not saying so. 
 
 33. The same may be said of the other very irregular neb- 
 ulae, which spread out patches and paths of various degrees of 
 brightness ; and shoot out, into surrounding space, faint 
 branches which are of different form and extent, according to 
 the optical power with which they are seen. These irregular 
 forms are incapable of being permanent according to the laws 
 of mechanics. They are not figures of equilibrium ; and, 
 therefore, must change by the attraction of the matter upon 
 itself. But if the tenuity of the matter is extreme, and the 
 resistance of the medium in which it floats considerable, this 
 tendency to change and to condensation may be almost nulli- 
 fied; and the bright specks may long keep their straggling 
 forms, as the most fantastically shaped clouds of a summer-sky 
 often do. It is true, it may be said that the reason why we 
 see no change in the form of such nebulae, is that our obser- 
 
 * Humboldt repeatedly expresses his conviction that our Solar Sys- 
 tem contains a greater variety of forms than other systems. (Cosmos, 
 in. 373 and 687.) 
 
THE NEBULAE. 161 
 
 vations have not endured long enough ; all visible changes in 
 the stars requiring an immense time, according to the gigantic 
 scale of celestial mechanism. But even this hypothesis (it is 
 no more) tends to establish the extreme tenuity of the neb- 
 ulee ; for more solid systems, like our solar system, require, 
 for the preservation of their form, motions which are percept- 
 ible, and indeed conspicuous, in the course of a month ; namely, 
 the motions of the planets. All, therefore, concurs to prove 
 the extreme tenuity of the substance of irregular nebulse. 
 
 34. Nebulce which assume a regular, for instance, a circular 
 or oval shape, with whatever variation of luminous density 
 from the inner to the outer parts, may have a form of equili- 
 brium, if their parts have a proper gyratory motion. Still, we 
 see no reason for supposing that these differ so much from 
 irregular nebulae, as to be denser bodies, kept in their forms 
 by rapid motions. We are rather led to believe that, though 
 perhaps denser than the spiral nebulas, they are still of ex- 
 tremely thin and vaporous character. It would seem very un- 
 likely that these vast clouds of luminous vapor should be as 
 dense as the tail of a comet ; since a portion of luminous mat- 
 ter so small as such a tail is, must have cooled down from its 
 most luminous condition ; and must require to be more dense 
 than nebular matter in order to be visible at all by its own 
 light. 
 
 35. Thus we appear to have good reason to believe that 
 nebulas are vast masses of incoherent or gaseous matter, of 
 immense tenuity, diffused in forms more or less irregular, but 
 all of them destitute of any regular system of solid moving 
 bodies. We seem, therefore, to have made it certain that 
 these celestial objects at least are not inhabited. No specula- 
 tors have been bold enough to place inhabitants in a comet ; 
 except, indeed, some persons who have imagined that such a 
 
162 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 habitation, carrying its inmates alternately into the close 
 vicinity of the sun's surface, and far beyond the orbit of 
 Uranus, and thus exposing them to the fierce extremes of heat 
 and cold, might be the seat of penal inflictions on those who 
 had deserved punishment by acts done in their life on one of 
 the planets. But even to give coherence to this wild imagina- 
 tion, we must further suppose that the tenants of such prison- 
 houses, though still sensible to human suffering from extreme 
 heat and cold, have bodies of the same vaporous and unsub- 
 stantial character as the vehicle in which they are thus carried 
 about the system ; for no frame of solid structure could be 
 sustained by the incoherent and varying volume of a comet. 
 And probably, to people the nebulae with such thin and fiery 
 forms, is a mode of providing them with population, that the 
 most ardent advocates of the plurality of worlds are not pre- 
 pared to adopt. 
 
 36. So far then as the Nebulae are concerned, the improb- 
 ability of their being inhabited, appears to mount to the high- 
 est point that can be conceived. We may, by the indulgence 
 of fancy, people the summer-clouds, or the beams of the aurora 
 borealis, with living beings, of the same kind of substance as 
 those bright appearances themselves ; and in doing so, we 
 are not making any bolder assumption than we are, when we 
 stock the Nebulae with inhabitants, and call them in that sense, 
 " distant worlds." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FIXED STAES. 
 
 1. WE appear, in the last chapter, to have cleared away 
 the supposed inhabitants of the outskirts of creation, so far 
 as the Nebulae are the outskirts of creation. We must now 
 approach a little nearer, in appearance at least, to our own 
 system. We must consider the Fixed Stars ; and examine 
 any evidence which we may be able to discover, as to the 
 probability of their containing, in themselves or in accom- 
 panying bodies, as planets, inhabitants of any kind. Any spe- 
 cial evidence which we can discern on this subject, either way, 
 is indeed slight. On the one side we have the asserted anal- 
 ogy of the parts of the universe ; of which point we have 
 spoken, and may have more to say hereafter. Each Fixed 
 Star is conceived to be of the nature of our Sun ; and there- 
 fore, like him, the centre of a planetary system. On the other 
 side, it is extremely difficult to find any special facts relative 
 to the nature of the fixed stars, which may enable us in any 
 degree to judge how far they really are of a like nature with 
 the Sun, and how far this resemblance goes. We may, how- 
 ever, notice a few features in the starry heavens, with which, 
 in the absence of any stronger grounds, we may be allowed to 
 connect our speculations on such questions. The assiduous 
 
164 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 scrutiny of the stars which has been pursued by the most 
 eminent astronomers, and the reflections which their researches 
 have suggested to them, may have a new interest, when dis- 
 cussed under this point of view. 
 
 2. Next after the Nebulae, the cases which may most natu- 
 rally engage our attention, are Clusters of stars. The cases, 
 indeed, in which these clusters are the closest, and the stars 
 the smallest, and in which, therefore, it is only by the aid of 
 a good telescope that they are resolved into stars, do not dif- 
 fer from the resolvable nebulae, except in the degree of optical 
 power which is required to resolve them. We may, therefore, 
 it would seem, apply to such clusters, what we have said of 
 resolvable nebulae : that when they are thus, by the application 
 of telescopic power, resolved into bright points, it seems to 
 be a very bold assumption to assume, without further proof^ 
 that these bright points are suns, distant from each other as 
 far as we are from the nearest stars. The boldness of such an 
 assumption appears to be felt by our wisest astronomers.* 
 That several of the clusters which are visible, some of them 
 appearing as if the component stars were gathered together in 
 a nearly spherical form, are systems bound together by some 
 special force, or some common origin, we may regard, with 
 those astronomers, as in the highest degree probable. With 
 respect to the stability of the form of such a system, a curious 
 remark has been made by Sir John Herschel,f that if we sup- 
 pose a globular space filled with equal stars, uniformly dis- 
 persed through it, the particular stars might go on forever, 
 describing ellipses about the centre of the globe, in all direc- 
 tions, and of all sizes ; and all completing their revolutions in 
 the same time. This follows, because, as Newton has shown, 
 in such a case, the compound force which tends to the centre 
 * Herschel, 866. f Ibid. 866. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 165 
 
 of the sphere would be everywhere proportional to the dis- 
 tance from the centre ; and under the action of such a force, 
 ellipses about the centre would be described, all the periods 
 being of the same amount. This kind of symmetrical and 
 simple systematic motion, presented by Newton as a mere 
 exemplification of the results of his mechanical principles, is 
 perhaps realized, approximately at least, in some of the globu- 
 lar clusters. The motions will be swift or slow, according to 
 the total mass of the groups. If, for instance, our Sun were 
 thus broken into fragments, so as to fill the sphere girdled by 
 the earth's orbit, all the fragments would revolve round the 
 centre in a year. Now, there is no symptom, in any cluster, 
 of its parts moving nearly so fast . as this ; and therefore we 
 have, it would seem, evidence that the groups are much less 
 dense than would be the space so filled with fragments of the 
 sun. The slowness of the motions, in this case, as in the neb- 
 ulse, is evidence of the weakness of the forces, and therefore, 
 of the rarity of the mass ; and till we have some gyratory 
 motion discovered in these groups, we have nothing to limit 
 our supposition of the extreme tenuity of their total substance. 
 3. Let us then go on to the cases in which we have proof 
 of such gyratory motions in the stars ; for such are not want- 
 ing. Fifty years ago, Herschel the father, had already ascer- 
 tained that there are certain pairs of stars, very near each 
 other (so near, indeed, that to the unassisted eye they are 
 seen as single stars only,) and which revolve about each other. 
 These Binary Sidereal Systems have since been examined with 
 immense diligence and profound skill by Herschel the son, 
 and others ; and the number of such binary systems has been 
 found, by such observers, to be very considerable. The pe- 
 riods of their revolutions are of various lengths, from 30 or 
 40 years to several hundreds of years. Some of those pairs 
 
166 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 which have the shortest periods, have already, since the nature 
 of their movements was discovered, performed more than a 
 complete revolution ;* thus leaving no room for doubting that 
 their motions are really of this gyratory kind. Not only the 
 fact, but the law of this orbital motion, has been investigated ; 
 and the investigations, which naturally were commenced on 
 the hypothesis that these distant bodies were governed by that 
 Law of universal Gravitation, which prevails throughout the 
 solar system, and so completely explains the minutest features 
 of its motions, have ended in establishing the reality of that 
 Law, for several Binary Systems, with as complete evidence 
 as that which carries its operations to the orbits of Uranus 
 and Neptune. 
 
 4. Being able thus to discern, in distant regions of the uni- 
 verse, bodies revolving about each other, we have the means 
 of determining, as we do in our own solar system, the masses 
 of the bodies so revolving. But for this purpose, we must 
 know their distance from each other ; which is, to our vision, 
 exceedingly small, requiring, as we have said, high magnify- 
 ing powers to make it visible at all. And again, to know what 
 linear distance this small visible distance represents, we must 
 know the distance of the stars from us, which is, for every 
 star, as we know, immensely great ; and for most, we are 
 destitute of all means of determining how great it is. There 
 are, however, some of these binary systems, in which astron- 
 omers conceive that they have sufficiently ascertained the value 
 of both these elements, (the distance of the two stars from 
 each other, and from us,) to enable them to proceed with the 
 calculation of which I have spoken ; the determination of the 
 masses of the revolving bodies. In the case of the star Alpha 
 Centaurij the first star in the constellation of the Centaur, the 
 * Herschel, 846. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 167 
 
 period is reckoned to be 77 years ; and as, by the same calcu- 
 lator, the apparent semi-axis of the orbit described is stated 
 at 15 seconds of space, while the annual parallax of each star 
 is about one second, it is evident that the orbit must have a 
 radius about 15 times the radius of the earth's orbit; that is, 
 an orbit greater than that of Saturn, and approaching to that 
 of Uranus. In the solar system, a revolution in such an orbit 
 would occupy a time greater than that of Saturn, which is 30 
 years, and less than that of Uranus, which is about 80 years : 
 it would, in fact, be about 58 years. And since, in the binary 
 star, the period is greater than this, namely 77 years, the at- 
 traction which holds together its two elements must be less 
 than that which holds together the Sun and a planet at the 
 same distance ; and therefore the masses of the two stars to- 
 gether are considerably less than the mass of our sun. 
 
 5. A like conclusion is derived from another of these con- 
 spicuous double stars, namely, the one termed by astronomers 
 61 Cygni; of which the annual parallax has lately been ascer- 
 tained to be one-third of a second of space, while the distance 
 of the two stars is 15 seconds. Here therefore we have an 
 orbit 45 times the size of the Earth's orbit ; larger than that 
 of the newly-discovered planet Neptune, whose orbit is 30 
 times as large as the earth's, and his period nearly 165 years. 
 The period of 61 Cygni is however, it appears, probably not 
 short of 500 years ; and hence it is calculated that the sum of 
 the masses of the two stars which make up this pair is about 
 one-third of the mass of our Sim.* 
 
 6. These results give some countenance to the opinion, that 
 the quantity of luminous matter, in other systems, does not 
 differ very considerably from the mass of our Sun. It differs 
 in these cases as 1 to 3, or thereabouts. In what degree of 
 
 * Herschel, 848. 
 
168 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 condensation, however, the matter of these binary systems is, 
 compared with that of our solar system, we have no means 
 whatever of knowing. Each of the two stars may have its 
 luminous matter diffused through a globe as large as the earth's 
 />rbit ; and in that case, would probably not be more dense 
 than the tail of a comet.* It is observed by astronomers, that 
 in the pairs of binary stars which we have mentioned, the two 
 stars of each pair are of different colors ; the stars being of a 
 high yellow, approaching to orange color, f but the smaller in- 
 dividual being in each case of a deeper tint. This might sug- 
 gest to us the conjecture that the smaller mass had cooled 
 further below the point of high luminosity than the larger ; 
 but that both these degrees of light belong to a condition still 
 progressive, and probably still gaseous. Without attaching 
 any great value to such conjectures, they appear to be at least 
 as well authorized as the supposition that each of these stars, 
 thus different, is nevertheless precisely in the condition of our 
 sun. 
 
 7. But, even granting that each of the individuals of this pair 
 were a sun like ours, in the nature of its material and its state 
 of condensation, is it probable that it resembles our Sun also 
 in having planets revolving about it 1 A system of planets re- 
 volving around or among a pair of suns, which are, at the same 
 time, revolving about one another, is so complex a scheme, so 
 impossible to arrange in a stable manner, that the assumption 
 of the existence of such schemes, without a vestige of evidence, 
 can hardly require confutation. No doubt, if we were really 
 required to provide such a binary system of suns with attend- 
 
 * That these systems have not condensed to one centre, appears to 
 imply a less complete degree of condensation than exists in those sys- 
 tems which have done so. 
 
 f Herschel, 850. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 169 
 
 ant planets, this would be best done by putting the planets so 
 near to one sun, that they should not be sensibly affected by 
 the other ; and this is accordingly what has been proposed.* 
 For, as has been well said of the supposed planets, in making 
 this proposal, " Unless closely nestled under the protecting 
 wing of their immediate superior, the sweep of the other sun 
 in his perihelion passage round their own, might carry them off, 
 or whirl them into orbits utterly inconsistent with the existence 
 of their inhabitants." To assume the existence of the inhabit- 
 ants, in spite of such dangers, and to provide against the dan- 
 gers by placing them so close to one sun as to be out of the 
 reach of the other, though the whole distance of the two may 
 not, and as we have seen, in some cases does not, exceed the 
 dimensions of our solar system, is showing them all the favor 
 which is possible. But in making this provision, it is over- 
 looked that it may not be possible to keep them in permanent 
 orbits so near to the selected centre : their sun may be a vast 
 sphere of luminous vapor ; and the planets, plunged into this 
 atmosphere, may, instead of describing regular orbits, plough 
 their way in spiral paths through the nebulous abyss to its cen- 
 tral nucleus. 
 
 8. Clustered stars, then, and double stars, appear to give us 
 but little promise of inhabitants. We must next turn our at- 
 tention to the single stars, as the most hopeful cases. Indeed, 
 it is certain that no one would have thought of regarding the 
 individual stars of clusters, or of pairs, as the centres of plan- 
 etary systems, if the view of insulated stars, as the centres of 
 such systems, had not already become familiar, and, we may 
 say, established. What, then, is the probability of that view 1 
 Is there good evidence that the Fixed Stars, or some of them, 
 
 * Herschel, 847. 
 8 
 
170 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 really have planets revolving round them ? What is the kind 
 of proof which we have of this ? 
 
 9. To this we must reply, that the only proof that the fixed 
 stars are the centres of planetary systems, resides in the as- 
 sumption that those stars are like the Sun ; resemble him in 
 their qualities and nature, and therefore, it is inferred, must 
 have the same offices, and the same appendages. They are, 
 as the Sun is, independent sources of light, and thehce, prob- 
 ably, of heat ; and therefore they must have attendant planets, 
 to which they can impart their light and heat ; and these plan- 
 ets must have inhabitants, who live under and enjoy those in- 
 fluences. This is, probably, the kind of reasoning on which 
 those rely, who regard the fixed stars as so many worlds, or 
 centres of families of worlds. 
 
 10. Everything in this argument, therefore, depends upon 
 this : that the Stars are like the Sun ; and we must consider, 
 what evidence we have of the exactness of this likeness. 
 
 11. The Stars are like the Sun in this, that they shine with 
 an independent light, not with a borrowed light, as the planets 
 shine. In this, however, the stars resemble, not only the Sun, 
 but the nebulous patches in the sky, and the t&fes of comets ; 
 for these also, in all probability, shine with an original light. 
 Probably it will hardly be urged that we see, by the very ap 
 pearance of the stars, that they are of the nature of the Sun : 
 for the appearance of luminaries in the sky is so far from en- 
 abling us to discriminate the nature of their light, that to a 
 common ey6j a planet and a fixed star appear alike as stars. 
 There is no obvious distinction between the original light of 
 the stars and the reflected light of the planets. The stars, 
 then, being like the sun in being luminous, does it follow that 
 they are, like the sun, definite dense masses ?* Or are they, 
 
 * The density of the sun is about as great as the density of water. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 171 
 
 or many of them, luminous masses in a far more diffused 
 state ; visually contracted to points, by the immense distance 
 from us at which they are ? 
 
 12. We have seen that some of those stars, which we have 
 the best means of examining, are, in mass, one third, or less, 
 of our Sun. If such a mass, at the distance of the fixed stars, 
 were diffused through a sphere equal in radius to the earth's 
 orbit, it would still appear to us as a point ; as is evident by 
 this, that the fixed stars, for the most part, have no discover- 
 able annual parallax ; that is, the earth's orbit appears to them 
 a point. If one of the fixed stars, Sirius, for instance, be in 
 this diffused condition, such a circumstance will not, mechan- 
 ically speaking, prevent his having planets revolving round 
 him; for, as we have said, the attraction of his whole mass, in 
 whatever state of spherical diffusion, will be the same as if it 
 were collected at the centre. But such a state of diffusion will 
 make him so unlike our Sun, as much to break the force of the 
 presumption that he must have planets because our Sun has. 
 If the luminous matter of the stars gradually cools, grows 
 dark, and solidifies, such diffusion would imply that the time of 
 solidification is not yet begun ; and therefore that the solid 
 planets which accompany the luminous central body are not 
 yet brought into being. If there be any truth in this hypo- 
 thetical account of the changes, through which the matter of 
 the stars successively passes ; and if, by such changes, plane- 
 tary systems are formed ; how many of the fixed stars may 
 never yet have reached the planetary state ! how many, for 
 want of some necessary mechanical condition, may never give 
 rise to permanent orbits at all ! 
 
 13. And that the matter of the stars does go through 
 changes, we have evidence, in many such changes which have 
 
172 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 
 
 actually been observed ;* and perhaps in the different colors of 
 different stars ; which may, not improbably, arise from their 
 being at different stages of their progress. That planetary 
 systems, once formed, go through mighty changes, we have 
 evidence in the view which geology gives us of the history of 
 this earth ; and in that view, we see also, how unique, and how 
 far elevated in its purpose, the last period of this history may 
 be, compared with the preceding periods ; and, up to the pres- 
 ent time at least, how comparatively brief in its duration. If, 
 therefore, stellar globes can become planetary systems in the 
 progress of ages, it will not be at all inconsistent with what 
 we know of the order of nature, that only a few, or even that 
 only one, should have yet reached that condition. All the 
 others, but the one, may be systems yet unformed, or frag- 
 ments struck off in the forming of the one. If any one is not 
 satisfied with this account of the degree of resemblance be- 
 tween the fixed stars and the sun, but would make the likeness 
 greater than this ; we have only to say, that the proof that it 
 is so lies upon him. Such a resemblance as we have supposed, 
 is all that the facts suggest. That the stars are independent lu- 
 minaries, we see ; but whether they are as dense as the sun, or 
 globes a hundred or a thousand times as rare, we have no 
 means whatever of knowing. And, to assume that besides 
 these luminous bodies which we see, there are dark bodies 
 which we do not see, revolving round the others in permanent 
 orbits, which require special mechanical conditions ; and to 
 suppose this, in order that we may build upon this assumption 
 a still larger one, that of living inhabitants of these dark 
 bodies ; is a hypothetical procedure, which it seems strange 
 that we should have to combat, at the present stage of the 
 history of science, and in dealing with those whose minds have 
 * Herschel, 827 832. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 173 
 
 been disciplined by the previous events in the progress of as- 
 tronomy. 
 
 14. Let us consider, however, further, how far astronomy 
 authorizes us to regard the Fixed Stars as being, tike our Sun, 
 the centres of systems of Planets. Those who hold this, con- 
 sider them as having a permanent condition of brightness, as 
 our Sun has had for an indefinite period, so far as we have any 
 knowledge on the subject. Yet, as we have said, no small 
 number of the stars undergo changes of brightness ; and some 
 of them undergo such changes, in a manner which is not dis- 
 cernibly periodical ; and which must therefore be regarded as 
 progressive. This phenomenon countenances the opinion of 
 such a progress from one material condition to another ; which, 
 we have seen, is suggested by the analogy of the probable for- 
 mation of our own solar system. The very star which is so 
 often taken as the probable centre of a system, Sirius, has, in 
 the course of the last 2,000 years, changed its light from red 
 to white. Ptolemy notes it as a red star : in Tycho's time it 
 was already, as it is now, a white one.* The star Eta Argus 
 changes both its degree of light and its color ; ranging, in 
 seemingly irregular intervals of time, from the fourth to the 
 first magnitude,! and from yellow to red. Several other ex- 
 amples of the like kind have been observed. Mr. HindJ gives 
 an example in which he has, quite recently, observed in two 
 years a star change its color from very red to bluish. These 
 variable unperiodical stars are probably very numerous. 
 Also, some stars, observed of old, are now become invisible. 
 " The lost Pleiad," by the loss of which the cluster, called the 
 Seven Stars, offers now only six to the naked eye, is an ex- 
 
 * Cosmos, ra. 169, 205, and 641. 
 
 f Ibid., ra. 172 and 252. 
 
 i Astron. Soc. Notices, Dec. 13, 1850. 
 
174 THE PLUEALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ample of a change of this kind already noted in ancient times. 
 There are several others, of which the extinction is recognized 
 by astronomers as proved.* In other cases, new stars have 
 appeared, and have then seemed to die away and vanish. The 
 appearance of a new star in the time of the Greek astronomer 
 Hipparchus, induced him to construct his famous Catalogue of 
 the Stars. Others are recorded to have appeared in the 
 middle ages. The first which was observed by modern as- 
 tronomers was the celebrated star seen by Tycho Brahe in 
 1572. It appeared suddenly in the constellation Cassiopeia, 
 was fixed in its place like the neighboring stars, had no nebula 
 or tail, exceeded in splendor all other stars, being as bright as 
 Venus when she is nearest the earth. It soon began to dimm- 
 ish in brightness, and passing through various diminishing 
 degrees of magnitude, vanished altogether after seventeen 
 months. This star also passed through various colors ; being 
 first white, then yellow, then red. In like manner, in 1604, a 
 new star of great magnitude blazed forth in the constellation 
 Serpentarius ; and was seen by Kepler. And this also, like 
 that of 1572, after a. few months, declined and vanished. 
 
 15. These appearances led Tycho to frame an hypothesis 
 like that which Sir William Herschel afterwards proposed, 
 that the stars are formed by the condensation of luminous 
 nebulous matter. Nor is it easy to think of such phenomena 
 (of which several others have been observed, though none so 
 conspicuous as these), without regarding them as showing that 
 the matter of the fixed stars, occasionally at least, passes 
 through changes of consistence as great as would be the con- 
 densation and extinction of a luminous vapor. And if such 
 changes have been but few within the recorded period of man's 
 observation of the stars, we must recollect how small that pe- 
 * See Grant'3 Hist, of Physical Astronomy > p. 538. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 175 
 
 riod is, compared with the period during which the stars have 
 existed. The stars themselves give us testimony of their hav- 
 ing been in being for millions of years. For according to the 
 best estimates we can form of their distances, the time which 
 light would employ in reaching us from the most remote of 
 them, would be millions of years ; and, therefore, we now see 
 those remote stars by means of the light emitted from them 
 millions of years ago. And if, in the 2,000 years during which 
 such observations are recorded, only 200 stars have under- 
 gone such changes in a degree visible to the earth's inhab- 
 itants ; in a million of years, change going on at the same rate, 
 100,000 stars would exhibit visible progressive change, show- 
 ing that they had not yet reached a permanent condition. 
 And how much of change may go on in any star without its 
 being in any degree perceptible to the most exact astronomi- 
 cal scrutiny ! 
 
 16. The tendency of these considerations is, to lead us to 
 think that the fixed stars are not generally in that permanent 
 condition in which our sun is ; and which appears to be alone 
 consistent with the existence of a system such as the solar sys- 
 tem.* These views, therefore, fall in with that which we have 
 been led to by this consideration of the Nebulae : that the 
 Solar System is in a more complete and advanced state, as a 
 system, than many at least of the stellar systems can be ; it 
 may be, than any other. 
 
 17. It has been alleged, as a proof of the likeness of the 
 Fixed Stars to our Sun, that like him, they revolve upon their 
 axes.f This has been supposed to be proved with regard 
 
 * I am aware of certain speculations, and especially of some recent 
 ones, tending to show that even our Sun is wasting away by the 
 emission of light and heat ; but these opinions, even if established, do 
 not much affect our argument, one way or the other. 
 
 f Chambers' Astron. Disc. p. 39. 
 
176 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 to many of them, by their having periodical recurrences of 
 fainter and brighter lustre ; as if they were revolving orbs, 
 with one side darkened by spots. Such facts are not very 
 numerous or definite in the heavens. Omicron* in the con- 
 stellation Cetus, is the longest known of them ; and is held to 
 revolve in 831 days. From the curious phenomena now 
 spoken of, it has been called Mira Ceti.\ Algol, the second 
 star (Beta) of Perseus, called also Caput Medusce, is another, 
 with a period of 2 days 21 hours ; and in this case, the obscu- 
 ration of the light, and the restoration of it, are so sudden, 
 that from the time when it was first remarked, (by Goodricke, 
 in 1782,) it suggested the hypothesis of an opaque body re- 
 volving round the star. The star Delta, in the constellation 
 Cephus, is another, with a period of 5 days 9 hours. The star Beta 
 in the Lyre, has a period of 6 days 10 hours, or perhaps 12 days 
 21 hours, one revolution having been taken for two. Another such 
 star is Eta Aquilce, with a period of 7 days 4 hours. These five 
 are all the periodical stars of which astronomers can speak 
 with precision.^ But about thirty more are supposed to be 
 subject to such change, though their periods, epochs, and 
 phases of brightness, cannot at present be given exactly. 
 
 18. That these periodical changes in certain of the fixed 
 stars are a curious and interesting astronomical fact, is indis- 
 putable. Nothing can be more probable also, than that it in- 
 dicates, in tne stellar masses, a revolution on their axes ; which 
 
 * Hersch. 820. 
 
 f The periodical character of this star was discovered by David 
 Fabricius, a parish priest in East Friesland, the father of John Fabri- 
 cius, who discovered the solar spots. (Cosmos, in. 234.) 
 
 \ Hersch. 825. In Humboldt's Cosmos, ra. 243, Argelander, who 
 has most carefully observed and studied these periodical stars, has 
 given a catalogue containing 24, with the most recent determinations 
 of their periods. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 177 
 
 cannot surprise us, seeing that revolution upon an axis is, so 
 far as we know, a universal law of all the large compact masses 
 of matter which exist in the universe ; and may be conceived 
 to be a result derived from their origin, and a condition of any 
 permanent or nearly permanent figure. But this can prove 
 little or nothing as to their being like the sun, in any way 
 which implies their having inhabitants, in themselves or in ac- 
 companying planets. The rotation o/ our Sun is not, in any 
 intelligible way, connected with its having near it the inhabited 
 Earth. 
 
 19. If we were to suppose some of the stars to be centres 
 of planetary systems, we can hardly suppose it likely that 
 these alone rotate, and that the others stand still. Probably 
 all the stars rotate, more or less regularly, according as they 
 are permanent or variable in form ; but the most regular may 
 still have no planets ; and if they have, those planets may be 
 as blank of inhabitants as our moon will be proved to be. 
 
 20. The revolution o*f Algol seems to approach the nearest 
 to a fact in favor of a star being the centre of a revolving 
 system ; and from the first, as we have said, the periodical 
 change, and the sudden darkening and brightening of this lu- 
 minary, suggested the supposition of an opaque body revolving 
 about it. But this body cannot be a planet. The planets 
 which revolve about our Sun are not, any of them, nor all of 
 them together, large enough to produce a perceptible obscura- 
 tion of his light, to a spectator outside the system. But in 
 Algol, the phenomena are very different from this.* The star 
 
 * Ilorsch. 821. Humboldt (Cosmos, in. 238 and 24ft,) gives the pe- 
 riod as (58 hours 49 minutes, and says that it is 7 or 8 hours in its less 
 bright state. If we could suppose the times of the warning, and of 
 the greatest eclipse, given by Herschel, to be exactly determined, as 
 8j and i, that is, in the proportion of 14 to 1, the darkening body 
 must have its effective breadth jf of that of the star. But this is on 
 
178 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 is usually visible as a star of the second magnitude ; but dur- 
 ing each period of 2 days 21 hours, (or 69 hours,) it suffers a 
 kind of eclipse, which reduces it to a star of the fourth mag- 
 nitude. During this eclipse, the star diminishes in splendor 
 for 3 hours ; is at its lowest brightness for a quarter of an 
 hour ; and then, in 3|- hours more, is restored to its original 
 splendor. According to these numbers, if the obscuration be 
 produced by a dark body % revolving round a central luminary, 
 and describing a circular orbit, as the regular recurrence of the 
 obscuration implies, the space of the orbit during which' the 
 eclipsing body is interposed must be about one-ninth of the 
 circumference ; for the obscuration occupies 7^ hours out of 
 69. And therefore the space during which the eclipsing body 
 obscures the central one, must be about one sixth of the 
 diameter of its orbit. Bnt in order that the revolving body 
 may, through this space, obscure the central one, the latter 
 must extend over this space, namely, one sixth of the diameter 
 of the orbit. But we may remark tha\ there is no proof, in 
 the phenomena, that the darkening body is detached from the 
 bright mass. The effect would be the same if the dark mass 
 were a part of the revolving star itself. It may be that the 
 star has not yet assumed a spherical form, but is an oblong 
 nebular mass with one part (perhaps from being thinner in 
 texture) cooled down and become opaque. And the amount 
 of obscuration, reducing the star from the second to the fourth 
 magnitude, implies that the obscuring mass is large (perhaps 
 one half the diameter, or much more) compared with the lu- 
 minous mass. If this be a probable hypothesis to account for 
 the phenomena, they are much more against than for the sup- 
 
 the supposition that the orbit of the darkening body has the spec- 
 tator's eye in its plane ; if this be not so, the darkening body may be 
 much larger. 
 
THE FIXED STAES. 179 
 
 position of the star being the centre of seats of habitation. 
 And even if we have a planet nearly as large as its sun, re- 
 volving at the distance of only six of the sun's radii, how 
 unlike is this to the solar system ! 
 
 21. In fact, all these periodical stars, in so far as they are 
 periodical, are proved, not to be like, but to be unlike our 
 sun. It is true that the sun has spots, by means of which his 
 rotation has beeu determined by astronomers. But these spots, 
 besides being so small that they produce no perceptible alter- 
 ation in his brightness, and are never, or very rarely, visible 
 to the naked eye, are not permanent. A star with a perma- 
 nent dark side would be very unlike our sun. The largest 
 known of these stars, Mira, as the old astronomers called it, 
 becomes invisible to the naked eye for 5 months during a pe- 
 riod of 1 1 months. It must, therefore, have nearly one half 
 its surface quite dark. This is very unlike the condition of 
 the sun ; and is a condition, it would seem, very little fitted to 
 make this star the centre of a planetary system like ours. 
 
 22. But there are other remarkable phenomena respecting 
 these periodical stars, which have a bearing on our subject. 
 Their periods are not quite regular, but are subject to certain 
 variations. Thus it has been supposed that the period of 
 Mira is subject to a cyclical fluctuation, embracing 88 of its 
 periods ; that is, about 80 years. But this notion of a cycle 
 of so long a duration, requires confirmation ; the fact of fluc- 
 tuation in the period is alone certain. In like manner, Algol's 
 periods are not quite uniform. All these facts agree with our 
 suggestion, that the periodical stars are bodies of luminous 
 matter which have not yet assumed a permanent form ; and 
 which, therefore, as they revolve about their axes, and turn to 
 us their darker and their brighter parts, do so at intervals, and 
 in an order somewhat variable. And this suggestion appears 
 
180 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 to be remarkably confirmed, by a result which recent observa- 
 tions have discovered relative to this star, Algol ; namely, 
 that its periods become shorter and shorter. For if the lumin- 
 ous matter, which is thus revolving, be gradually gathering 
 into a -more condensed form ; becoming less rare, or more 
 compact ; as, for instance, it would do, if it were collecting 
 itself from an irregular, or elongated, into a more spherical 
 form ; such a shortening of the period of revolution would 
 take place ; for a mass which contracts while it is revolving, 
 accelerates its rate of revolution, by mechanical principles. 
 And thus we do appear to have, in this observed acceleration 
 of the periods of Algol, an evidence that that luminous mass 
 has not yet reached its final and permanent condition. 
 
 23. It is true, it has been conjectured, by high authority,* 
 that this accelerated rapidity of the periods of Algol will not 
 continue ; but will gradually relax, and then be changed to an 
 increase ; like many other cyclical combinations in astronomy. 
 But this conjecture seems to have little to support it. The 
 cases in which an acceleration of motion is retarded, checked, 
 and restored, all belong to our Solar System ; and to assume 
 that Algol, like the solar system, has assumed a permanent and 
 balanced condition, is to take for granted precisely the point 
 in question. We know of no such cycles among the fixed 
 stars, at least with any certainty ; for the cycle proposed for 
 Mira must be considered as greatly needing confirmation ; 
 considering how long is the cycle, and how recent the sugges- 
 tion of its existence. 
 
 24. And even in the solar system, we have accelerated mo- 
 tions, in which no mathematician or astronomer looks for a 
 
 * Hersch. Outl. Astr. 821. Another explanation of the variable 
 period of Algol, is that the star is moving towards us, and therefore 
 the light occupies less and less time to reach us. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 181 
 
 check or regress of the acceleration. No one expects that 
 Encke's comet will cease to be accelerated, and to revolve in 
 periods continually shorter ; though all the other motions hith- 
 erto observed in the system are cyclical. In the case of- a fixed 
 star, we have much less reason to look for such a cycle, than 
 we have in Encke's comet. But further : with regard to the 
 existence of such a cycle of faster and slower motion in the 
 case of Algol, the most recent observed facts are strongly 
 against it ; for it has been observed by Argelander, that not 
 only there is a diminution of the period, but that this diminu- 
 tion proceeds with accelerated rapidity ; a course of events 
 which, in no instance, in the whole of the cosmical movements, 
 ends in a regression, retardation, and restoration of the former 
 rate. We are led to .believe, therefore, that this remarkable 
 luminary will go on revolving faster and faster, till its extreme 
 point of condensation is attained. And in the meantime, we 
 have very strong reasons to believe that this mutable body is 
 not, like the sun, a permanent centre of a permanent system ; 
 and that any argument drawn from its supposed likeness to the 
 sun, in favor of the supposition that the regions which are near 
 it are the seats of habitation, is quite baseless. 
 
 25. There are other phenomena of the Fixed Stars, and other 
 conjectures of astronomers respecting them, which I need not 
 notice, as they do not appear to have any bearing upon our 
 subject. Such are the " proper motions" of the stars, and the 
 explanation which has been suggested of some of them ; that 
 they arise from the stars revolving round other stars which are 
 dark, and therefore invisible. Such again is the attempt to 
 show that the Sun, carrying with it the whole Solar System, 
 is in motion ; and the further attempt to show the direction 
 of this motion ; and again, the hypothesis that the Sun itself 
 revolves round some distant body in space. These minute in- 
 
THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 quiries and bold conjectures, as to the movements of the masses 
 of matter which occupy the universe, do not throw any light 
 on the question whether any part besides the earth is inhab- 
 ited ; ajiy more than the investigation of the movements of the 
 ocean, and of their laws, could prove or disprove the existence 
 of marine plants and animals. They do not on that account 
 cease to be important and interesting subjects of speculation ; 
 but they do not belong to our subject. 
 
 26. In Fontenelle's Dialogues on the Plurality of Worlds, 
 a work which may be considered as having given this subject 
 a place in popular literature, he illustrates his argument by a 
 comparison, which it may be worth while to look at for a 
 moment. The speaker who asserts that the moon, the planets, 
 and the stars, are the seats of habitation., describes the person, 
 who denies this, as resembling a citizen of Paris, who, seeing 
 from the towers of Notre Dame the town of Saint Denis, 
 (it being supposed that no communication between the two 
 places had ever occurred,) denies that it is inhabited, because 
 he cannot see the inhabitants. Of course the conclusion is 
 easy, if we may thus take for granted that what he sees is a 
 town. But we may modify this image, so as to represent 
 our argument more fairly. Let it be supposed that we 
 inhabit an island, from which innumerable other islands are 
 visible ; but the art of navigation being quite unknown, we are 
 ignorant whether any of them are inhabited. In some of these 
 islands, are seen masses more or less resembling churches ; and 
 some of our neighbors assert that these are churches ; that 
 churches must be surrounded by houses ; and that houses 
 must have inhabitants. Others hold that the seeming churches 
 are only peculiar forms of rocks. In this state of the debate, 
 everything depends upon the degree of resemblance to churches 
 which the forms exhibit. But suppose that telescopes are in- 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 183 
 
 vented, and employed with diligence upon the questionable 
 shapes. In a long course of careful and skilful examination, 
 no house is seen, and the rocks do not at all become more like 
 churches, rather the contrary. So far, it would seem, the prob- 
 ability of inhabitants in the islands is lessened. But there are 
 other reasons brought into view. Our island is a long extinct 
 volcano, with a tranquil and fertile soil ; but the other islands 
 are apparently somewhat diiferent. ' Some of them are active 
 volcanoes, the volcanic operations covering, so far as we can 
 discern, the whole island; others undergo changes, such as 
 weather or earthquakes may produce ; but in none of them can 
 we discover such changes as show the hand of man. For these 
 islands, it would seem the probability of inhabitants is further 
 lessened. And so long as we have no better materials than 
 these for forming a judgment, it would, surely, be accounted 
 rash, to assert that the islands in general are inhabited ; and 
 unreasonable, to blame those who deny or doubt it. Nor 
 would such blame be justified by adducing theological or a 
 priori arguments ; as, that the analogy of island with island 
 makes the assumption allowable; or that ibis inconsistent with 
 the plan of the Creator of islands to leave them uninhabited. 
 For we know that many islands are, or were long, uninhabited. 
 And if ours were an island occupied by a numerous, well-gov- 
 erned, moral, and religious race, of which the history was 
 known, and of which the relation to the Creator was connected 
 with its history ; the assumption of a history, more or less 
 similar to ours, for the inhabitants of the other islands, whose 
 existence was utterly unproved, would, probably, be generally 
 deemed a fitter field for the romance-writer than for the phi- 
 losopher. It could not, at best, rise above the region of vague 
 conjecture. 
 
 27. Fontenelle, in the agreeable book just referred to, 
 
184 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 says, very truly, that the formula by which his view is urged 
 on adversaries is, Pourquoi non ? which he holds to be a pow- 
 erful figure of logic. It is, however, a figure which has this 
 peculiarity, that it may, in most cases, be used with equal force 
 on either side. When we are asked Why the Moon, Mercury, 
 Saturn, the system of Sirius, should not be inhabited by intelli- 
 gent beings ; we may ask, Why the earth in the ages previous 
 to man might not be so inhabited ? The answer would be, that 
 we have proof how it was inhabited. And as to the fact in 
 the other case, I shall shortly attempt to give proof that the 
 Moon is certainly not, and Mercury and Saturn probably not 
 inhabited. With regard to the Fixed Stars, it is more difficult' 
 to reason ; because we have the means of knowing so little of 
 their structure. But in this' case also, we might easily ask on 
 our side, Pourquoi non ? Why should not the Solar System 
 be the chief and most complete system in the universe, and the 
 Earth the principal planet in that System ? So far as we yet 
 know, the Sun is the largest Sun among the stars ; and we 
 shall attempt to show, that the Earth is the largest solid 
 opaque globe in the solar system. Some System must be the 
 largest and most finished of all ; why not ours ? Some planet 
 must be the largest planet ; why not the Earth ? 
 
 28. It should be recollected that there must be some system 
 which is the most complete of all systems, some planet which is 
 the largest of all planets. And if that largest planet, in the 
 most complete system, be, after being for ages tenanted by ir- 
 rational creatures, at last, and alone of all, occupied by a ra- 
 tional race, that race must necessarily have the power of ask- 
 ing such questions as these : Why they should be alone ra- 
 tional 1 Why their planet should be alone thus favored ? If 
 the case be ours, we may hope to be then able to answer these 
 questions, when we can explain the most certain fact which they 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 185 
 
 involve ; Why the Earth was occupied so long by irrational 
 creatures, before the rational race was placed upon it 1 The 
 mere power of asking such questions can prove or 'disaprove 
 nothing ; for it is a power which must equally subsist, whether 
 the human inhabitants of the earth be or be not the only ra- 
 tional population which the universe contains. If there be a 
 race thus favored by the Creator, they must, at that stage of 
 their knowledge in which man now is, be able to doubt, as man 
 does, of the extent and greatness of the privilege which they 
 enjoy. 
 
 29. The argument that the Fixed Stars are like the Sun, and 
 therefore the centres of inhabited systems as the Sun is, is 
 sometimes called an argument from Analogy ; and this word 
 Analogy is urged, as giving great force to the reasoning. 
 But it must be recollected, that precisely the point in question 
 is, whether there is an analogy. The stars, it is said, are like 
 the Sun. In what respects 1 We know of none, except in 
 being self-luminous ; and this they have in common with 'the 
 nebulas, which, as we have seen, are not centres of inhabited 
 systems. Nor does this quality of being self-luminous at all 
 determine the degree of condensation of a star. Sirius may 
 be less than a hundredth or a thousandth of the density of the 
 Sun. But the Stars, it may be further urged, are like the Sun 
 in turning on their axes. To this we reply, that we know this 
 only of those stars in which, the very phenomenon which proves 
 their revolution, proves also that they are unlike the Sun, in 
 having one side darker than the other. Add to which, their 
 revolution is not connected with the existence of planets, still 
 less of inhabitants of planets, in any intelligible manner. The 
 resemblance, therefore,, so far as it bears upon the question, is 
 confined to one single point, in the highest degree ambiguous 
 and inconclusive ; and any argument drawn from this one 
 
186 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 point of resemblance, has little claim to be termed an argu- 
 ment from analogy.* 
 
 30. On* a subject on which we know so little, it is difficult 
 to present any view which deserves to be regarded as an an- 
 alogy. We see, among the stars, nebulae more or less con- 
 densed, which are possibly, in some cases, stages of a connected 
 progress towards a definite star ; and it may be, to a star with 
 planets in permanent orbits. We see, in our planet, evidence 
 of successive stages of a connected series of brute animals, 
 preceded perhaps by various stages of lifeless chaos. If the 
 histories of the Sun, and of all the stars, are governed by a 
 common analogy, the nebulous condensation, and the stages of 
 animal life, may be parts of the same continued series of events ; 
 and different stars may be at different points of that series. 
 But even on this supposition, but a few of the stars may be 
 the seats of conscious life, and none, of intelligence. For 
 among the stars which have condensed to a permanent form, 
 how many have failed in throwing off a permanent planet ! 
 How many may be in some stage of lifeless chaos ! We must 
 needs suppose a vast number of stages between a nebular chaos 
 and the lowest forms of conscious life. Perhaps as many 
 as there are fixed stars ; and far more than there are of stars 
 which become fertile of life : so that no two systems may be 
 at the same stage of the planetary progress. And if this be 
 so, our system being so complicated, that we must suppose 
 
 * Humboldt, very justly, regards the force of analogy as tending in 
 the opposite direction. " After all," he asks, (Cosmos, m. 373,) " is the 
 assumption of satellites to the Fixed Stars so absolutely necessary ? 
 If we were to begin from the outer planets, Jupiter, <fec., analogy 
 might seem to require that all planets have satellites. But yet this is 
 not true for Mars, Venus, Mercury." To which we may further add the 
 twenty-three Planetoids. In this case there is a much greater number 
 of bodies \phich hare not satellites, than which have them. 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 187 
 
 it peculiarly developed, having the largest Sun that we know 
 of, and our Earth being (as we shall hereafter attempt to prove) 
 the largest solid planet that we know of, this Earth may be 
 the sole seat of the highest stage of planetary development. 
 
 31. The assumption that there is anything of the nature of 
 a regular law or order of progress from nebular matter to con- 
 scious life, a law which extends to all the stars, or to many 
 of them, is in the highest degree precarious and unsupported ; 
 but since it is sometimes employed in such speculations as we 
 are pursuing, we may make a remark or two connected with 
 it. If we suppose, on the planets of other systems, a progress 
 in some degree analogous to that which geology shows to have 
 occurred on the Earth, there may be, in those planets, creatures 
 in some way analogous to our vegetables and animals ; but an- 
 alogy also requires that they should differ far more from the 
 terrestrial vegetables and animals of any epoch, than those of 
 one epoch do from those of another ; since they belong to a dif- 
 ferent stellar system, and probably exist under very different 
 comlitions from any that ever prevailed on the Earth. We are 
 forbidden, therefore, by analogy, to suppose that on any other 
 planet there was such an anatomical progression towards the 
 form of man, as we can discern (according to some eminent phys- 
 iologists) among the tribes which have occupied the Earth. 
 Are we to conceive that the creatures on the planets of other 
 systems are, like the most perfect terrestrial animals, sym- 
 metrical as to right and left, vertebrate, with fore limbs and 
 hind limbs, heads, organs of sense in their heads, and the like 1 
 Every one can see how rash and fanciful it would be to make 
 such suppositions. Those who have, in the play of their inven- 
 tion, imagined inhabitants of other planets, have tried to avoid 
 this servile imitation of terrestrial forms. Here is Sir Hum- 
 phry Davy's account of the inhabitants of Saturn. " I saw 
 
188 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 moving on the surface below me, immense masses, the forms 
 of which I find it impossible to describe. They had systems 
 for locomotion similar to that of the morse or sea-horse, but I 
 saw with great surprise that they moved from place to place 
 by six extremely thin membranes, which they used as wings. 
 I saw numerous convolutions of tubes, more analogous to the 
 trunk of the elephant, than to anything else I can imagine, 
 occupying what I supposed to be the upper parts of the body."* 
 The attendant Genius informs the narrator, that though these 
 creatures look like zoophytes, they have a sphere of sensibility 
 and intellectual enjoyment far superior to that of the inhabit- 
 ants of the Earth. If we were to reason upon a work of fancy 
 like this, we might say, that it was just as easy to ascribe su- 
 perior sensibility and intelligence to zoophyte-formed creatures 
 upon the Earth, as in Saturn. Even fancy cannot aid us in. 
 giving consistent form to the inhabitants of other planets. 
 
 32. But even if we could assent to the opinion, as probable, 
 that there may occur, on some other planet, progressions of 
 organized forms analogous in some way to that series of ani- 
 mal forms which has appeared upon the earth, we should still 
 have no ground to assume that this series must terminate in a 
 rational and intelligent creature like man. For the introduc- 
 tion of reason and intelligence upon the Earth is no part nor 
 consequence of the series of animal forms. It is a fact of an 
 entirely new kind. The transition from brute to man does not 
 come within the analogy of the transition from brute to brute. 
 The thread of analogy, even if it could lead us so far, would 
 break here. We may conceive analogues to other animals, 
 but we could have no analogue to man, except man. Man is 
 not merely a higher kind of animal ; he is a creature of a su- 
 perior order, participating in the attributes of a higher nature ; 
 * Consolations in Travel. DiaL 1. 
 
THE FIXED STARS, 189 
 
 as we have already said, and as we hope hereafter further to 
 show. Even, therefore, if we were to assume the general an- 
 alogy of the Stars and of the Sun, and were to join to that the 
 information which geology gives us of the history of our own 
 planet ; though we might, on this precarious path, be led to 
 think cf other planets as peopled with unimagined monsters ; 
 we should still find a chasm in our reasoning, if we tried, in 
 this way, to find intelligent and rational creatures in planets 
 which may revolve round Sirius or Arcturus. 
 
 33. The reasonable view of the matter appears to be this. 
 The assumption that the Fixed Stars are of exactly the same 
 nature as the Sun, was, at the first, when their vast distance 
 and probable great size were newly ascertained, a bold guess ; . 
 to be confirmed or refuted by subsequent observations and 
 discoveries. Any appearances, tending in any degree to con- 
 firm this guess, would have deserved the most considerate at- 
 tention. But there has not been a vestige of any such con- 
 firmatory fact. No planet, nor anything which can fairly be 
 regarded as indicating the existence of a planet, revolving 
 about a star, has anywhere been discerned. The discovery of 
 nebulae, of binary systems, of clusters of stars, of periodical 
 stars, of varying and accelerated periods of such stars, all 
 seem to point the other way. And if all these facts be held 
 to be but small in amount, as to the information which they 
 convey, about the larger, and perhaps nearer stars ; still they 
 leave the original assumption a mere guess, unsupported by 
 all that three centuries of most diligent, and in other respects 
 successful research, has been able to bring to light. That 
 Copernicus, that Galileo, that Kepler, should believe the stars 
 to be Suns, in every sense of the term, was a natural result 
 of the expansion of thought which their great discoveries pro- 
 duced, in them and in their contemporaries. Nor are we yet 
 
190 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 called upon to withdraw from them our sympathy ; or entitled 
 to contradict their conjecture. But all the knowledge that the 
 succeeding times have given us ; the extreme tenuity of much 
 of the luminous matter in the skies ; the existence of gyratory 
 motion among the stars, quite different from planetary sys- 
 tems ; the absence of any observed motions at all resembling 
 such systems ; the appearance of changes in stars, quite incon- 
 sistent with such permanent systems ; the disclosure of the 
 history of our own planet, as one in which changes have con- 
 stantly been going on ; the certainty that by far the greater 
 part of the duration of its existence, it has been tenanted by 
 creatures entirely different from those which give an interest, 
 and thence, a persuasiveness, to the belief of inhabitants in 
 worlds appended to each star; the impossibility, which ap- 
 pears, on the gravest consideration, of transferring to other 
 worlds such interests as belong to our own race in this world ; 
 all these considerations should, it would seem, have prevented 
 that old and arbitrary conjecture from growing up, among a 
 generation professing philosophical caution, and scientific dis- 
 cipline, into a settled belief. 
 
 34. Some of the moral and theological views which tend to 
 encourage and uphold this belief, may be taken under our 
 more special consideration hereafter : but here, where we are 
 reasoning principally upon astronomical grounds, we may con- 
 clude what we have to remark about the Fixed Stars, as the 
 centres of inhabited systems of worlds, by saying ; that it will 
 be time enough to speculate about the inhabitants of the planets 
 which belong to such systems, when we have ascertained that 
 there are such planets, or one such planet. When that is done, 
 we can then apply to them any reasons which may exist, for 
 believing that all, or many planets, are the seats of habitation 
 of living things. What reasons of this kind can be adduced, 
 
THE FIXED STARS. 191 
 
 and what is their force with regard to our own solar system, 
 we must now proceed to discuss.* 
 
 * "What is said in Art. 15, that in consequence of the time employed 
 in the transmission of visual impressions, our seeing a star is evidence, 
 not that it exists now, but that it existed, it may be, many thousands 
 of years ago ; may seem, to some readers, to throw doubts upon rea- 
 sonings \vhich we have employed. It may be said that a star which 
 was a mere chaos, when the light, by which we see it, set out from it, 
 may, in the thousands of years which have since elapsed, have grown 
 into an orderly world. To which bare possibility, we may oppose 
 another supposition at least equally possible : that the distant stars 
 were sparks or fragments struck off in the formation of the Solar Sys- 
 tem, which are really long since extinct ; and survive in appearance, 
 only by the light which they at first emitted. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PLANETS. 
 
 1. WHEN it was discovered, by Copernicus and Galileo, that 
 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, which had hitherto 
 been regarded only as " wandering fires, that move in mystic 
 dance," were really, in many circumstances, bodies resem- 
 bling the Earth ; that they and the Earth alike, were opaque 
 globes, revolving about the Sun in orbits nearly circular, re- 
 volving also about their own axes, and some of them accom- 
 panied by their Satellites, as the Earth is by the Moon ; it 
 was inevitable that the conjecture should arise, that they too 
 had inhabitants, as the Earth has. Each of these bodies were 
 seemingly coherent and solid ; furnished with an arrangement 
 for producing day and night, summer and winter ; and might 
 therefore, it was naturally conceived, have inhabitants moving 
 upon its solid surface, and reckoning their lives and their 
 employment by days, and months, and years. This was an 
 unavoidable guess. It was far less bold and sweeping than 
 the guess that there are inhabitants in the region of the Fixed 
 Stars, but still, like that, it was, for the time at least, only a 
 guess ; and like that, it must depend upon future explorations 
 of these bodies and their conditions, whether the guess was 
 confirmed or discredited. The conjecture could not, by any 
 
THE. PLANETS. 193 
 
 moderately cautious man, be regarded as so overwhelmingly 
 probable, that it had no need of further proof. Its final ac- 
 ceptance or rejection must depend on the subsequent progress 
 of astronomy, and of science in general. 
 
 2. We have to consider then how far subsequent discoveries 
 have given additional value to this conjecture. And, as, in 
 the first place, important among such discoveries, we must 
 note the addition of several new planets to our system. It 
 was found, by the elder Herschel, (in 1781,) that, far beyond 
 Saturn, there was another planet, which, for a time, was called 
 by the name of its sagacious discoverer ; but more recently, 
 in order to conform the nomenclature of the planets to the 
 mythology with which they had been so long connected, has 
 been termed Uranus. This was a vast extension of the limits 
 of the solar system. The Earth is, as we have already said, 
 nearly a hundred millions of miles from the Sun. Jupiter is 
 at more than five times, and Saturn nearly at ten times this 
 distance : but Uranus, it was found, describes an orbit of which 
 the radius is about nineteen times as great as that of the 
 Earth. But this did not terminate the extension of the solar ' 
 system whiph the progress of astronomy revealed. In 1846, 
 a new planet, still more remote, was discovered : its existence 
 having been divined, before it was seen, by two mathe- 
 maticians, Mr. Adams, of Cambridge, and M. Leverrier, of 
 Paris, from the effects of its force upon Uranus. This new 
 planet was termed Neptune : its distance from the Sun is about 
 thirty times the Earth's distance. Besides these discoveries 
 of large planets, a great number of small planets were de- 
 tected in the region of the solar system which' lies between 
 the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This series of discoveries be- 
 gan on the first day of 1801, when Ceres was detected by 
 Piazzi at Palermo ; and has gone on up to the present time, 
 
 9 
 
194 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 when twenty-three of these small bodies have been brought to 
 light ; and probably the group is not yet exhausted. 
 3. Now if we have to discuss the probability that all these 
 bodies are inhabited, we may begin with the outermost of 
 them at present known, namely Neptune. How far is it 
 likely that this globe is occupied by living creatures which en- 
 joy, like the creatures on the Earth, the light and heat of the 
 Sun, about which the planet revolves 1 It is plain, in the 
 first place, that this light and heat must be very feeble. Since 
 Neptune is thirty times as far from the sun as the earth is, the 
 diameter of the sun as seen from Neptune will only be one- 
 thirteenth as large as it is, seen from the earth. It will, in 
 fact, be reduced to a mere star. It will be about the dia- 
 meter under which Jupiter appears when he is nearest to us. 
 Of course its brightness will be much greater than that of 
 Jupiter ; nearly as much indeed, as the sun is brighter than 
 the moon, both being nearly of the same size : but still, with 
 our full-moonlight reduced to the amount of illumination which 
 we receive from a full Jupiter, and our sun-light reduced in 
 nearly the same proportion, we should have but a dark, and 
 also a cold world. In fact, the light and the heat which reach 
 Neptune, so far as they depend on the distance of the sun, will 
 each be about nine hundred times smaller than they are on 
 the earth. Now are we to conceive animals, with their vital 
 powers unfolded, and their vital enjoyments cherished, by this 
 amount of light and heat 1 Of course, we cannot say, with 
 certainty, that any feebleness of light and heat are inconsist- 
 ent with the existence of animal life : and if we had good rea- 
 son to believe that Neptune is inhabited by animals, we might 
 try to conceive in what manner their vital scheme is accom- 
 modated to this scanty supply of heat and light. If it were 
 certain that they were there, we might inquire how they could 
 
THE PLANETS. 195 
 
 live there, and what manner of creatures they could be. If 
 there were any general grounds for assuming inhabitants, 
 we might consider what modifications of life their particular 
 conditions would require. 
 
 4. But is there any such general ground V. Such a ground 
 we should have, if we could venture to assume that all the 
 bodies of the Solar System are inhabited; if we could pro- 
 ceed upon such a principle, we might reject or postpone the 
 difficulties of particular cases. 
 
 5. But is such an assumption true 1 Is such a principle 
 well founded ? The best chance which we have of learning 
 whether it is so, is to endeavor to ascertain the fact, in the 
 body which is nearest to us ; and thus, the best placed for 
 our closer scrutiny. This is, of course, the Moon ; and with 
 regard to the Moon, we have, again, this advantage in begin- 
 ning the inquiry with her : that she, at least, is in circum- 
 stances, as to light and heat, so far as the Sun's distance affects 
 them, which we know to be quite consistent with animal and 
 vegetable life. For her distance from the Sun is not appreci- 
 ably different from that of the Earth ; her revolutions round 
 the earth do not make nearly so great a difference, in her dis- 
 tance from the sun, as does the earth's different distances from 
 the sun in summer and in winter : the fact also being, that the 
 earth is considerably nearer to the sun in the whiter of this 
 our northern hemisphere, than in the summer. The moon's 
 distance from the sun then, adapts her for habitation : is she 
 inhabited ? 
 
 6. The answer to this question, so far as we can answer it, 
 may involve something more than those mere astronomical 
 conditions, her distance from the sun, and the nature of her 
 motions. But still, if we are compelled to answer it in the 
 negative ; if it appear, by strong evidence, that the Moon is 
 
196 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 not inhabited ; then is there an end of the general principle, 
 that, all the bodies of the solar system are inhabited, and that 
 we must begin our speculations about each, with this assump- 
 tion. If the Moon be not inhabited, then, it would seem, the 
 belief that each special body in the system is inhabited, must 
 depend upon reasons specially belonging to that body ; and 
 cannot be taken for granted without such reasons. Of the 
 two bodies of the solar system which alone we can examine 
 closely, so as to know anything about them, the Earth and the 
 Moon, if the one be inhabited, and the other blank of inhabi- 
 tants, we have no right to assume at once, that any other body 
 in the. solar system belongs to the former of these classes 
 rather than to the latter. If, even under terrestrial conditions 
 of light and heat, we have a total absence of the phenomenon 
 of life, known to us only as a terrestrial phenomenon ; we are 
 surely not entitled to assume that when these conditions fail, 
 we have still the phenomenon, life. We are not entitled to 
 assume it ; however it may be capable of being afterwards 
 proved, in any special case, by special reasons ; a question 
 afterwards to be discussed. 
 
 7. Is, then, the Moon inhabited ? From the moon's prox- 
 imity to us, (she is distant only thirty diameters of the earth, 
 less than ten times the earth's circumference ; a railroad car- 
 riage, at its ordinary rate of travelling, would reach her in a 
 month,) she can be examined by the astronomer with peculiar 
 advantages. The present powers of the telescope enable him 
 to examine her mountains as distinctly as he could the Alps 
 at a few hundred miles distance, with the naked eye ; with the 
 additional advantage that her mountains are much more bril- 
 liantly illuminated by the Sun, and much more favorably 
 placed for examination, than the Alps are. He can map and 
 model the inequalities of her surface, as faithfully and exactly 
 
THE PLANETS. 197 
 
 as he can those of the surface of Switzerland. He can trace' 
 the streams that seem to have flowed from eruptive orifices 
 over her plains, as he can the streams of lava from the craters 
 of Etna or Hecla. 
 
 8. Now, this minute examination of the Moon's surface 
 being possible, and having been made, by many careful and 
 skilful astronomers, what is the conviction which has been 
 conveyed to their minds, with regard to the fact of her being 
 the seat of vegetable or animal life 1 Without exception, it 
 would seem, they have all been led to the belief, that the Moon 
 is not inhabited ; that she is, so far as life and organization 
 are concerned, waste and barren, like the streams of lava or of 
 volcanic ashes on the earth, before any vestige of vegetation 
 has been impressed upon them : or like the sands of Africa, 
 where no blade of grass finds root. It is held, by such ob- 
 servers, that they can discern and examine portions of the 
 moon's surface as small as a square mile ;* yet, in their 
 examination, they have never perceived any alteration, such 
 as the cycle of vegetable changes through the revolutions of 
 seasons would produce. Sir William Herschel did not doubt 
 that if a change had taken place on the visible part of the Moon, 
 as great as the growth or the destruction of a great city, as 
 great, for instance, as the destruction of London* by the great 
 fire of 1666, it would have been perceptible to his powers of 
 observation. Yet nothing of the kind has ever been observed. 
 If there were lunar astronomers, as well provided as terrestrial 
 ones are, with artificial helps of vision, they would undoubt- 
 edly be able to perceive the differences which the progress of 
 
 * More recently, at the meeting of the British Association in Sep- 
 tember, 1853, Professor Phillips has declared, that astronomers can 
 discern the shape of a spot on the Moon's surface, which is a few hun- 
 dred feet in breadth. 
 
198 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 generations brings about on the surface, of our globe ; the 
 clearing of the forests of Germany or North America ; the 
 embankment of Holland ; the change of the modes of culture 
 which alter the color of the ground in Europe ; the establish- 
 ment of great nests of manufactures which, shroud portions of 
 the land in smoke, as those which have their centres at Bir- 
 mingham or at Manchester. However obscurely they might 
 discern the nature of those changes, they would still see that 
 change was going on. And so should we, if the like changes 
 were going on upon t the face of the Moon. Yet no such 
 changes have ever been noticed. Nor even have such changes 
 been remarked, as might occur in a mere brute mass without 
 life ; the formation of new streams of lava, new craters, new 
 crevices, new elevations. The Moon exhibits strong evidences, 
 which strike all telescopic observers, of an action resembling, 
 in many respects, volcanic action, by which its present surface 
 has been formed.* But, if it have been produced by such in- 
 ternal fires, the fires seem to be extinguished ; the volcanoes 
 to be burned out. It is a mere cinder ; a collection of sheets 
 of rigid slag, and inactive craters. And if the Moon and the 
 Earth were both, at first in a condition in which igneous erup- 
 tions from their interior "produced the ridges and cones which 
 roughen theh\surfaces ; the Earth has had this state succeeded 
 by a series of states of life in innumerable forms, till at last it 
 has become the dwelling-place of man ; while the Moon, 
 smaller in dimensions, has at an earlier period completely 
 cooled down, as to its exterior at least, without ever being 
 judged fit or worthy by its Creator of being the seat of life ; 
 and remains, hung in the sky, as an object on which man may 
 
 * A person visiting the Eifel, a region of extinct volcanoes, west of 
 the Rhine, can hardly fail to be struck with the resemblance of the 
 craters there, to those seen in the inoon through a telescope. 
 
THE PLANETS. 199 
 
 gaze, and perhaps, from which he may learn something of the 
 constitution of the universe ; and among other lessons this ; 
 that he must not take for granted, that all the other globes of 
 the solar system are tenanted, like that on which he has his 
 appointed place. 
 
 9. It is true, that in coming to this conclusion, the astron- 
 omers of whom I speak, have been governed by other reasons, 
 besides those which I have mentioned, the absence of any 
 changes, either rapid or slow, discoverable in the Moon's face. 
 They have seen reason to believe that water and air, elements 
 so essential to terrestrial life, do not exist in the Moon. The 
 dark spaces on her disk, which were called seas by those who 
 first depicted them, have an appearance inconsistent with their 
 being oceans of water. They are not level and smooth, as 
 water would be ; nor uniform in their color, but marked with 
 permanent streaks and shades, implying a rigid form. And 
 the absence of an atmosphere of transparent vapor and air, sur- 
 rounding the moon, as our atmosphere surrounds the earth, is 
 still more clearly proved, by the absence of all the optical 
 effects of such an atmosphere, when stars pass behind the 
 moon's disk, and by the phenomena which are seen in solar 
 eclipses, when her solid mass is masked by the Sun.* This 
 absence of moisture and air in the Moon, of course, entirely 
 confirms our previous conclusion, of the absence of vegetable 
 and animal life ; and leaves us, as we have said, to examine 
 the question for the other bodies, on their special grounds, 
 without any previous presumption that such life exists. Un- 
 
 -* Bessel has discussed and refuted (it was hardly necessary) the con- 
 jecture of some persons (he describes them as " the feeling hearts who 
 would find sympathy even in the Moon") that there may be in the 
 Moon's valleys air enough to support life, though it does not rise above 
 the hills. Populdre Vorlesungen, p. 78. 
 
200 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 doubtedly the aspect of the case will be different in one fea- 
 ture, when we see reason to believe that other bodies have an 
 atmosphere ; and if there be in any planet sufficient light and 
 heat, and clouds and winds, and a due adjustment of the power 
 of gravity, and the strength of the materials of which organ- 
 ized frames consist, there may be, so far as we can judge, life 
 of some kind or other. But yet, even in those cases, we should 
 be led to judge also, by analogy, that the life which they sus- 
 tain is more different from the terrestrial life of the present 
 period of the earth, than that is from the terrestrial life of any 
 former geological period, in proportion as the conditions of 
 light and heat, and attraction and density, are more different 
 on any other planet, than they can have been on the earth, at 
 any period of its history. 
 
 10. Let us then consider the state of these elements of being 
 in the other planets. I have mentioned, among them, the 
 force 'of gravity, and the density of materials ; because these 
 are important elements in the question. It may seem strange, 
 that we are able, not only to measure the planets, but to weigh 
 them ; yet so it is. The wonderful discovery of universal 
 gravitation, so firmly established, as the law which embraces 
 every particle of matter in the solar system, enables us to do 
 this, with the most perfect confidence. The revolutions of the 
 satellites round their primary planets, give us a measure of 
 the force by which the planets retain them in their orbits ; and 
 in this way, a measure of the quantity of matter of which each 
 planet consists. And other effects of the same universal law, 
 enable us to measure, though less easily and less exactly, the 
 masses, even of those planets which have no satellites. And 
 thus we can, as it were, put the Earth, and Jupiter or Saturn, 
 in the balance against each other ; and tell the proportionate 
 number of pounds which they would weigh, if so poised. And 
 
THE PLANETS. 201 
 
 again, by another kind of experiment, we can, as we have said, 
 weigh the earth against a known mountain ; or even against a 
 small sphere of lead duly adjusted for the purpose. And this 
 has been done ; and the results are extremely curious ; and 
 very important in our speculations relative to the constitution 
 of the universe. 
 
 11. And in the first place, we may remark that the Earth is 
 really much less heavy than we should expect, from what we 
 know of the materials of which it consists. For, measuring 
 the density, or specific gravity, of materials, (that is their com- j 
 parative weight in the same bulk,) by their proportion to water, 
 which is the usual way, the density of iron is 8, that of lead 
 11, that of gold 19 : the ordinary rocks at the Earth's surface 
 have a density of 3 or 4. Moreover, all the substances with 
 which we are acquainted, contract into a smaller space, and 
 have their density increased, by being subjected to pressure. 
 Air does this, in an obvious manner ; and hence it is, that the ; 
 lower parts of our atmosphere are denser than the upper parts ; 
 being pressed by a greater superincumbent weight, the weight 
 of the superior parts of the atmosphere itself. Air is thus ob- / 
 viously and eminently elastic. But all substances, though less 
 obviously and eminently, are still, really, and in some degree, . 
 elastic. They all contract by compression. Water for in. 
 stance, if pressed by a column of water 100000 feet high, 
 would be reduced to a bulk one-tenth less than before. In the 
 same manner iron, compressed by a column of iron 90000 feet 
 high, loses one-tenth of its bulk, and of course gains so much 
 in density. And the like takes place, in different amounts, 
 with all material whatever. This is the rate at which com- 
 pression produces its effect of increasing the density, in bodies 
 which are in the condition of those which lie around us. But 
 if this law were to go on at the same rate, when the compress- 
 
 9* 
 
202 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 ^ ion is greatly increased, the density of bodies deep down to- 
 wards the centre of the Earth must be immense. The Earth's 
 radius is above 20 million feet. At a million feet depth we 
 should have matter subjected to the pressure of a column of a 
 million feet of superincumbent matter, heavier than water ; 
 and hence we should have a compression of water 10 times as 
 great as we have mentioned ; and, therefore, the bulk of the 
 water would be reduced almost to nothing,'its density increased 
 almost indefinitely : and the same would be the case with other 
 materials, as metals and stones. If, therefore, this law of com- 
 pression were to hold for these great pressures, all materials 
 whatever, contained in the depths of the Earth's mass, must 
 be immensely denser, and immensely specifically heavier, than 
 they are at the surface. And thus, the Earth consisting of 
 these far denser materials towards the centre, but. nearer the 
 surface, of lighter materials, such as rock, and metals, in their 
 ordinary state, must, we should expect, be, on the whole, much 
 heavier than if it consisted of the heaviest ordinary materials ; 
 heavier than iron, or than lead ; hundreds of times perhaps 
 heavier than stone. 
 
 12. This, however, is not found to be so. The expectation 
 of the great density of the Earth, which we might have derived 
 from the known laws of condensation of terrestrial substances, 
 is not confirmed. The mass of the Earth being weighed, by 
 means of such processes as we have already referred to, is 
 found to be only five times heavier than so much water : less 
 heavy than if it were made of iron : less than twice as heavy 
 as if it were made of ordinary rock. This, of course, shows 
 us that the condensation of the interior parts of the Earth's 
 mass, is by 110 means so great as we should have expected it 
 to be> from what we know of the laws of condensation here ; 
 and from considering the enormous pressure of superincum- 
 
THE PLANETS. 203 
 
 bent materials to which those interior parts are subjected. The 
 laws of condensation, it would seem, do not go on operating for 
 these enormous pressures, by the same progression as for 
 smaller pressure. If a mass of a material is com pressed into 
 nine-tenths its bulk by the weight of a column of 100000 feet 
 high, it does not follow that it will be again compressed into 
 nine-tenths of its condensed bulk, by another column of 100000 
 feet high. The compression and condensation reach, or tend 
 to, a limit ; and probably, before they have gone very far. It 
 may be possible to compress a piece of iron by one-thousandth 
 part, even by such forces as we can use ; and yet it may not 
 be possible to compress the same piece of iron into one half 
 its bulk, even by the weight of the whole Earth, if made to 
 bear upon it. This appears to be probable : and this will ex- 
 plain, how it is, that the materials of the Earth are not so vio- 
 lently condensed as we should have supposed ; and thus, why 
 the Earth is so light. 
 
 13. We must avoid drawing inferences too boldly, on a sub- 
 ject where our means of knowledge are so obscure as they are 
 with regard to the interior of the Earth ; but yet, perhaps, we ( 
 may be allowed to say, that the result which we have just 
 stated, that the Earth is so light, suggests to us the belief that 
 the interior consists of the same materials as the exterior, 
 slightly condensed by pressure.* We find no encouragement 
 to believe that there is a nucleus within, of some material, dif- 
 ferent from what we have on the outside ; some metal, for in- 
 stance, heavier than lead. If the earth were of granite, or of 
 
 * The doctrine that the interior nucleus of the Earth is fluid, 
 whether accepted or rejected, does not materially affect this argument. 
 It appears, that in some cases, at least, the melting of substances is 
 prevented, by their being subjected to extreme pressure ; but the den- 
 sity the element from which we reason, is measured by methods quite 
 independent of such questions. 
 
204 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 lava, to the centre, it would, so far as we can judge, have much 
 the same weight which it now has. Such a central mass, cov- 
 ered with the various layers of stone, which form the upper 
 crust of the Earth, would naturally make this globe of at least 
 the weight which it really has. And therefore, if we were to 
 learn that a planet was much lighter than this, as to its mate- 
 rials, much less dense, taking the whole mass together, we 
 should be compelled to infer that it was, throughout, or nearly 
 so, formed of less compact matter than metal and stone ; or 
 else, that it had internal cavities, or some other complex struc- 
 ture, which it would be absurd to assume, without positive 
 reasons. 
 
 14. Now having decided these views from an examination 
 of the Earth, let us apply them to other planets, as bearing 
 upon the question of their being inhabited ; and in the first 
 place, to Jupiter. We can, as we have said, easily compare 
 the mass of Jupiter and of the Earth ; for both of them have 
 Satellites. It is ascertained, by this means, that the mass of 
 weight of Jupiter is about 333 times the weight of the earth ; 
 .but as his diameter is also 11 times that of the earth, his bulk 
 is 1331 times that of the earth: (the cube of 11 is 1331); and, 
 therefore, the density of Jupiter is to that of the earth, only 
 as 333 to 1331, or about 1 to 4. Thus the density of Jupiter, 
 taken as a whole, is about a quarter of the earth's density ; 
 less than that of any of the stones which form the crust of the 
 earth ; and not much greater than the density of water. In- 
 deed, it is tolerably certain, that the density of Jupiter is not 
 greater than it would be, if his entire globe were composed of 
 water ; making allowance for the compression which the inte- 
 rior parts would suffer by the pressure of those parts superin- 
 cumbent. We might, therefore, offer it as a conjecture not 
 quite arbitrary, that Jupiter is a mere sphere of water. 
 
THE PLANETS. 205 
 
 15. But is there anything further in the appearance of 
 Jupiter, which may serve to contradict, or to confirm, this con- 
 jecture 7 There is one circumstance in Jupiter's form, which 
 is, to say the least, perfectly consistent with the supposition, 
 that he is a fluid mass. ; namely, that he is not an exact sphere, 
 but oblate, like an orange. Such a form is produced, in a 
 fluid sphere, by a rotation upon its axis. It is produced, even 
 in a sphere which is (at present at least,) partly solid and 
 partly fluid ; and the oblateness of the earth is accounted for 
 in this way. But Jupiter, who, while he is much larger than 
 the earth, revolves much more rapidly, is much more oblate 
 than the earth. His polar and equatorial diameters are in the 
 proportion of 13 to 14. Now it is a remarkable circumstance, 
 that this is the amount of oblateness, which, on mechanical 
 principles, would result from his time of revolution, if he were 
 entirely fluid, and of the same density throughout.* So far, 
 then, we have some confirmation at least, of his being com- 
 posed entirely of some fluid which in its density agrees with 
 water. 
 
 16. But there are other circumstances in the appearances 
 of Jupiter, which still further confirm this conjecture of his 
 watery constitution. His belts, certain bands of darker and 
 lighter color, which run parallel to his equator, and which, in 
 some degree, change their form, and breadth, and place, from 
 time to time, have been conjectured, by almost all astronom- 
 ers, to arise from lines of cloud, alternating with tracts com- 
 paratively clear, and having their direction determined by 
 currents analogous to our trade- winds, but of a much more 
 steady and decided character, in consequence of the great 
 
 * Herschel, 512. Bessel, however, holds that the oblateness of 
 Jupiter proves that his interior is somewhat denser than his exterior. 
 Pop. Varies, p. 91. 
 
206 THE PLUEALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 rotatory velocity.* Now vapors, supplying the materials of 
 such masses of cloud, would naturally be raised from such a 
 watery sphere as we have supposed, by the action of the Sun ; 
 would form such lines ; and would change their form from 
 slight causes of irregularity, as the belts are seen to do. 
 The existence of these lines of cloud does of itself show that 
 there is much water on Jupiter's surface, and is quite consist- 
 ent with our conjecture, that his whole mass is water. f 
 
 17. Perhaps some persons may be disposed to doubt 
 whether, if Jupiter be, as we suppose, merely or principally 
 a mass of water and of vapor, we are entitled to extend to 
 him the law of universal gravitation, which is the basis of our 
 speculations. But this doubt may be easily dismissed. We 
 
 *Herschel, 513.~ 
 
 f A difficulty may be raised, founded on what we may suppose to 
 be the fact, as to the extreme cold of those regions of the Solar Sys- 
 tem. It may be supposed that water under such a temperature could 
 exist in no other form than ice. And that the cold must there be in- 
 tense, according to our, notion, there is strong reason to believe. Even 
 in the outer regions of our atmosphere, the cold is probably very 
 many degrees below freezing, and in the blank and airless void be- 
 yond, it may be colder still. It has been calculated by physical phi- 
 losophers, on grounds which seem to be solid, that the cold of the 
 space beyond our atmosphere is 100 below zero. The space near to 
 Jupiter, if an absolute vacuum, in which there is no matter to receive 
 and retain heat emitted from the Sun, may, perhaps, be no colder 
 than it is nearer the Sun. And as to the effect the great cold would 
 produce on Jupiter's watery material, we may remark, that if there 
 be a free surface, there will be vapor produced by the Sun's heat ; and 
 if there be air, there will be clouds. "We may add, that so far as we 
 have reason to believe, below the freezing point, no accession of cold 
 produces any material change in ice. Even in the expeditions of our 
 Arctic navigators, a cold of 40 below zero was experienced, and ice 
 was still but ice, and there were vapors and clouds as in our climate. 
 It is quite an arbitrary assumption, to suppose that any cold which 
 may exist in Jupiter would prevent the state of things which we sup- 
 pose. 
 
THE PLANETS. 207 
 
 know that the waters of the earth are affected by gravitation ; 
 not only towards the earth, as shown by their weight, but to- 
 wards those distant bodies, the Sun and the Moon ; for this 
 gravitation produces the tides of the ocean. And our atmos- 
 phere also has weight, as we know ; and probably has also 
 solar and lunar tides, though these are marked by many other 
 causes of diurnal change. We have, then, the same reason 
 for supposing that air and water, in other parts of the system, 
 are governed by universal gravitation, and exercise them- 
 selves the attractive force of gravitation, which we have for 
 making the like suppositions with regard to the most solid 
 bodies. Whatever argument proves universal gravitation, 
 proves it for all matter alike ; and Newton, in the course of 
 his magnificent generalization of the law, took care to de- 
 monstrate, by experiment, as well as by reasoning, that it 
 might be so generalized. 
 
 18. As bearing upon the question of life in Jupiter, there is 
 another point which requires to be considered ; the force of 
 gravity at his surface. Though, equal bulk for equal bulk, he 
 is lighter than the earth, yet his bulk is so great that, as we 
 have seen, he is altogether much heavier than the earth. This, 
 his greater mass, makes bodies, at equal distances from the 
 centres, ponderate proportionally more to him than they 
 would do to the earth. And though his surface is 11 times 
 further from his centre than the earth's is, and therefore the 
 gravity at the surface is thereby diminished, yet, even after 
 this deduction, gravity at the surface of Jupiter is nearly two 
 and a half times that on the earth.* And thus a man trans- 
 ferred to the surface of Jupiter would feel a stone, carried in 
 his hands, and would feel his own limbs also, (for his muscular 
 power would not be altered by the transfer,) become J times 
 * Herschel, 508. 
 
208 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 as heavy, as difficult to raise, as they were before. Under 
 such circumstances animals of large dimensions would be op- 
 pressed with their own weight. In the smaller creatures on 
 the earth, as in insects, the muscular power bears a great pro- 
 portion to the weight, and they might continue to run and to 
 leap, even if gravity were tripled or quadrupled. But an 
 elephant could not trot with two or three elephants placed 
 upon his back. A lion or tiger could not spring, with twice 
 or thrice his own weight hung about his neck. Such an in- 
 crease of gravity would be inconsistent then, with the present 
 constitution and life of the largest terrestrial animals ; and if 
 we are to suppose planets inhabited, in which gravity is much 
 more energetic than it is upon the earth, we must suppose 
 classes of animals which are adapted to such a different me- 
 chanical condition. 
 
 19. Taking into account then, these circumstances in 
 Jupiter's state ; his (probably) bottomless waters ; his light, 
 if any, solid materials ; the strong hand with which gravity 
 presses down such materials as there are ; the small amount 
 of light and heat which reaches him, at 5 times the earth's 
 distance from the sun ; what kind of inhabitants shall we be 
 led to assign to him ? Can they have skeletons, where no 
 substance so dense as bone is found, at least in large masses 1 
 It would seem not probable.* And it would seem they must 
 be dwellers in the waters, for against the existence there of 
 solid land, we have much evidence. They must, with so little 
 of light and heat, have a low degree of vitality. They must 
 
 * It may be thought fanciful to suppose that because there is little 
 or no solid matter (of any kind known to us) in Jupiter, his animals 
 are not likely to have solid skeletons. The analogy is not very strong ; 
 but also, the weight assigned to it in the argument is small. Valeat 
 
THE PLANETS. 209 
 
 then, it would seem, be cartilaginous and glutinous masses ; 
 peopling the waters with minute forms : perhaps also with 
 larger monsters ; for tfre weight of a bulky creature, floating 
 in the fluid, would be much more easily sustained than on 
 solid ground. If we are resolved to have such a population, 
 and that they shall live by food, we must suppose that the 
 waters contain at least so much solid matter as is requisite for 
 the sustenance of the lowest classes ; for the higher classes of 
 animals will probably find their food in consuming the lower. 
 I do not know whether the advocates of peopled worlds will 
 think such a population as this worth contending for : but I 
 think the only doubt can be, between such a population, and 
 none. If Jupiter be a mere mass of water, with perhaps a few 
 cinders at the centre, and an envelope of clouds around it, it 
 seems very possible that he may not be the seat of life at all. 
 But if life be there, it does not seem in any way likely, that 
 the living things can be anything higher in the scale of being, 
 than such boneless, watery, pulpy creatures as I have im- 
 agined. 
 
 20. Perhaps it may occur to some one to ask, if this planet, 
 which presents so glorious an aspect to our eyes, be thus the 
 abode only of such imperfect and embryotic lumps of vitality 
 as I have described ; to what purpose was all that gorgeous 
 array of satellites appended to him, which would present, to 
 intelligent spectators on his surface, a spectacle far more splen- 
 did than any that our skies offer to us : four moons, some as 
 great, and others hardly less, than our moon, performing their 
 regular revolutions in the vault of heaven. To which it will 
 suffice, at present, to reply, that the use of those moons, under 
 such a supposition, would be precisely the same, as the use 
 of our moon, during the myriads of years which elapsed while 
 the earth was tenanted by corals and madrepores, shell-fish 
 
210 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 and belemnites, the cartilaginous fishes of the Old Red Sand- 
 stone, or the Saurian monsters of the Lias ; and in short, 
 through all the countless ages which elapsed, before the last 
 few thousand years : before man was placed upon the earth 
 " to eye the blue vault and bless the useful light :' to reckon 
 by it his months and years : to discover by means of it, the 
 structure of the universe, and perhaps, the special care of his 
 Creator for him alone of all his creatures. The moons of 
 Jupiter, may in this way be of use, as our own moon is. 
 Indeed we know that they hav^e been turned to most impor- 
 tant purposes, in astronomy and navigation. And knowing 
 this, we may be content not to know how, either the satellites 
 of Jupiter, or the satellite of the Earth, tend to the advantage 
 of the brute inhabitants of the waters. 
 
 21. There is another point, connected with this doctrine of 
 the watery nature of Jupiter, which I may notice, though we 
 have little means of knowledge on the subject. Jupiter being 
 thus covered with water, is the water ever converted into 
 ice ? The planet is more than 5 times as far from the sun 
 as the earth is : the heat which he receives is, on that account, 
 25 times less than ours. The veil of clouds which covers a 
 large part of his surface, must diminish the heat still further. 
 What effect the absence of land produces, on the freezing of 
 the ocean, it is not easy to say. "We cannot, therefore, pro- 
 nounce with any confidence whether his waters are ever frozen 
 or not. In the next considerable planet, Mars, astronomers 
 conceive that they do trace the effects of frost ; but in Mars 
 we have also appearances of land. In Jupiter, we are left to 
 mere conjecture ; whether continents and floating islands of 
 ice still further chill the fluids of the slimy tribes whom we 
 have been led to regard as the only possible inhabitants ; or 
 whether the watery globe is converted into a globe of ice ; 
 
THE PLANETS. 211 
 
 retaining on its surface, of course, as much fluid as is requi- 
 site, under the evaporating power of the sun, to supply the 
 currents of vapor which form the belts. In this case, perhaps, 
 we may think it most likely that there are no inhabitants of 
 these shallow pools in a planet of ice : at any rate, it is not 
 worth while to provide any new speculations for such a hy- 
 pothesis. 
 
 22. We may turn our consideration from Jupiter to Saturn ; 
 for in many respects the two planets are very similar. But in 
 almost every point, which is of force against the hypothesis of 
 inhabitants, the case is much stronger in Saturn than it is in 
 Jupiter. Light and heat, at his distance, are only one nine- 
 tieth of those at the Earth. None but a very low degree of 
 vitality can be sustained under such sluggish influences. The 
 density of his mass is hardly greater than that of cork ; much 
 less than that of water : so that, it does not appear what sup- 
 position is left for us, except that a large portion of the globe, 
 which we see as his, is vapor. That the outer part of the 
 globe is vapor, is proved, in Saturn as in Jupiter, by the ex- 
 istence of several cloudy streaks or belts running round him 
 parallel to his equator. Yet his mass, taken altogether, is 
 considerable, on account of his great size ; and gravity would 
 be greater, at his outer surface, than it is at the earth's. For 
 such reasons, then, as were urged in the case of Jupiter, we 
 must either suppose that he has no inhabitants ; or that they 
 are aqueous, gelatinous creatures ; too sluggish, almost to be 
 deemed alive, floating on their ice-cold waters, shrouded for- 
 ever by their humid skies. 
 
 23. Whether they have eyes or no, we cannot tell ; but 
 probably if they had, they would never see the Sun ; and 
 therefore we need not commiserate their lot in not seeing the 
 host of Saturnian satellites ; and the Ring, which to an intelli- 
 
212 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 gent Saturnian spectator, would be so splendid a celestial ob- 
 ject. The Ring is a glorious object for man's view, and his 
 contemplation; and therefore is not altogether without its 
 use. Still less need we (as some appear to do) regard as a 
 serious misfortune to the inhabitants of certain regions of the 
 planet, a solar eclipse of fifteen years' duration, to which they 
 are liable by the interposition of the Ring between them and 
 the Sun.* 
 
 24. The cases of Uranus and Neptune are similar to that of 
 Saturn, but of course stronger, in proportion to their smaller 
 light and heat. For Uranus, this is only 1 -360th, for Neptune, 
 as we have already said, 1 -900th of the light and heat at the 
 earth. Moreover, these two new planets agree with Jupiter 
 and with Saturn, in being of very large size and of very small 
 density ; and also we may remark, one of them, probably both, 
 in revolving with great rapidity, and in nearly the same period, 
 namely, about 10 hours : at least, this has been the opinion 
 of astronomers with regard to Uranus. The arguments against 
 the hypothesis of these two planets being inhabited, are of 
 course of the same kind as in the case of Jupiter and Saturn, 
 but much increased in strength ; and the supposition of the 
 probably watery nature and low vitality of their inhabitants 
 must be commended to the consideration of those who contend 
 for inhabitants in those remote regions of the solar system. 
 
 25. We may now return towards the Sun, and direct our 
 attention to the planet Mars. Here we have some approxima- 
 tion to the condition of the Earth, in circumstances, as in po- 
 sition. It is true, his light and heat, so far as distance from 
 the Sun affects them, are less than half those at the Earth. 
 His density appears to be nearly equal to that of the Earth, 
 but his mass is so much smaller, that gravity at his surface is 
 
 * Herschel, 522. 
 
THE PLANETS. 213 
 
 only one-half of what it is here. Then, as to his physical con- 
 dition, so far as we can determine it, astronomers discern in 
 his face* the outlines of continents and seas. The ruddy color 
 by which he is distinguished, the red and fiery aspect which he 
 presents, arise, they think, from the color of the land, while 
 the seas appear greenish. Clouds often seem to intercept the 
 astronomer's view of the globe, which with its continents and 
 oceans thus revolves under his eye ; and that there is an at- 
 mosphere on which such clouds may float, appears to be fur- 
 ther proved, by brilliant white spots at the poles of the planet, 
 which are conjectured to be snow ; for they disappear when 
 they have been long exposed to the sun, and are greatest when 
 just emerging from the long night of their polar winter ; the 
 snow-line then extending to about six degrees (reckoned upon 
 the meridian of the planet) from the pole. Moreover, Mars 
 agrees with the earth, in the period of his rotation ; which is 
 about 2T4 hours ; and in having his axis inclined to his orbit, 
 so as to produce a cycle of long and short days and nights, a 
 return of summer and winter, in every revolution of the planet. 
 26. We have here a number of circumstances which speak 
 far more persuasively for a similarity of condition, in this planet 
 and the Earth, than in any of the cases previously discussed. 
 It is true, Mars is much smaller than the earth, and has not 
 been judged worthy of the attendance of a satellite, although 
 further from the Sun ; but still, he may have been judged 
 worthy of inhabitants by his Creator. Perhaps we are not 
 quite certain about the existence of an atmosphere ; and with- 
 out such an appendage, we can hardly accord him tenants. But 
 if he have inhabitants, let us consider of what kind they must 
 be conceived to be, according to any judgment which we can 
 form. The force of his gravity is so small, that we may al- 
 * Herschel, 510. 
 
214 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 low his animals to be large, without fearing that they will break 
 down by their own weight. In a planet so dense, they may 
 very likely have solid skeletons. The ice about his poles will 
 cumber the seas, cold even for the want of solar heat, as it 
 does in our arctic and antarctic oceans ; and we may easily 
 imagine that these seas are tenanted, like those, by huge crea- 
 tures of the nature of whales and seals, and by other creatures 
 which the existence of these requires and implies. Or rather, 
 since, as we have said, we must suppose the population of other 
 planets to be more different from our existing population, than 
 the population of other ages of our own planet, we may sup- 
 pose the population of the seas and of the land of Mars, (if 
 there be any, and if we are not carrying it too high in the scale 
 of vital activity,) to differ from any terrestrial animals, in some- 
 thing of the same way in which the great land and sea saurians, 
 or the iguanodon and dinotherium, differed from the animals 
 which now live on the earth. 
 
 27. That we need not discuss the question, whether there are 
 intelligent beings living on the surface of Mars, perhaps the 
 reader will allow, till we have some better evidence that there 
 are living things there at all ; if he calls to mind the immense 
 proportion which, on the earth, far better fitted for the habi- 
 tation of the only intelligent creature which we know or can 
 conceive, the duration of unintelligent life has borne to that of 
 intelligent. Here, on this Earth, a few thousand years ago, 
 began the life of a creature who can speculate ab'out the past 
 and the future, the near and the absent, the Universe and its 
 Maker, duty and immortality. This began a few thousand 
 years ago, after ages and myriads of ages, after immense va- 
 rieties of lives and generations, of corals and mollusks, sauri- 
 ans, iguanodons, and dinotheriums. No doubt the Creator 
 might place an intelligent creature upon a planet, without all 
 
THE PLANETS. 215 
 
 this preparation, all this preliminary life. He has not chosen 
 to do so on the earth, as we know ; and that is by much the best 
 evidence attainable by us, of what His purposes are. It is also 
 possible that He should, on another planet, have established 
 creatures of the nature of corals and mollusks, saurians and 
 iguanodons, without having yet arrived at the period of intelli- 
 gent creatures : especially if that other planet have longer 
 years, a colder climate, a smaller mass, and perhaps no atmos- 
 phere. It is also possible that He should have put that smaller 
 planet near the Earth, resembling it in some respects, as the 
 Moon does, but without any inhabitants, as she has none ; and 
 that Mars may be such a planet. The probability against such 
 a belief can hardly be considered as strong, if the arguments 
 already offered be regarded as effective against the opinion of 
 inhabitants in the other planets, and in the Moon. 
 
 28. The numerous tribe of small bodies, which revolve be- 
 tween Jupiter and Mars, do not admit of much of the kind of 
 reasoning, which we have applied to the larger planets. They 
 have, with perhaps one exception (Vesta) no disk of visible 
 magnitude ; they are mere dots, and we do not even know that 
 their form is spherical. The near coincidence of their orbits 
 has suggested, to astronomers, the conjecture that they have 
 resulted from the explosion of a larger body, and from its frac- 
 ture into fragments. Perhaps the general phenomena of the 
 universe suggest rather the notion of a collapse of portions of 
 sidereal matter, than of a sudden disruption and dispersion of 
 any portion of it ; and these small bodies may be the results 
 of some imperfectly effected concentration of the elements of 
 our system ; which, if it had gone on more completely and 
 regularly, might have produced another planet, like Mars or 
 Venus. Perhaps they are only the larger masses, among a 
 great number of smaller ones, resulting from such a process : 
 
216 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 and it is very conceivable, that the meteoric stones which, from 
 time to time, have fallen upon the earth's surface, are other 
 results of the like process : bits of planets which have failed 
 in the making, and lost their way, till arrested by the resist- 
 ance of the earth's atmosphere. A remarkable circumstance 
 in these bodies is, that though thus coming apparently from 
 some remote part of the system, they contain no elements but 
 such as had already been found to exist in the mass of the 
 earth ; although some substances, as nickel and chrome, which 
 are somewhat rare in the earth's materials, are common parts 
 of the composition of meteoric stones. Also they are of crys- 
 talline structure, and exhibit some peculiarities in their crystalli- 
 zation. Such as these strange visitors are, they seem to show 
 that the other parts of the solar system contain the same ele- 
 mentary substances, and are subject to the same laws of chem- 
 ical synthesis and crystalline force, which obtain in the terres- 
 trial region. The smallness of these specimens is a necessary 
 condition of their reaching us ; for if they had been more 
 massive, they would have followed out the path of their orbits 
 round the sun, however eccentric these might be. The great 
 eccentricity of the smaller planets, their great deviation from 
 the zodiacal path, which is the highway of the large planets, 
 their great number, probably by no means yet exhausted by 
 the discoveries of astronomers ; all fall in with the supposition 
 that there are, in the solar system, a vast multitude of such 
 abnormal planetoidal lumps. As I have said, we do not even 
 know that they are approximately spherical ; and if they are 
 of the nature of meteoric stones, they are mere crude and ir- 
 regularly crystallized masses of metal and earth. It will there- 
 fore, probably, be deemed unnecessary to give other reasons 
 why these planetoids are not inhabited. But if it be granted 
 that they are not, we have here, in addition to the moon, a 
 
THE PLANETS. , 217 
 
 large array of examples, to prove how baseless is the assump- 
 tion, that all the bodies of the solar system are the seats of life. 
 29. We have thus performed our journey from the extremest 
 verge of the Universe, so far as wft have any knowledge of it, 
 to the orbit of our own planet ; and have found, till we came 
 into our own most immediate vicinity, strong reasons for re- 
 jecting the assumption of inhabited worlds like our own ; and 
 indeed, of the habitation of worlds in any sense. And even if 
 Mars, in his present condition, may be some image of the 
 Earth, in some of its remote geological periods, it is at least 
 equally possible that he may be an image of the Earth, in the 
 still remoter geological period before life began. Of peculiar 
 fitnesses which make the earth suited to the sustentation of 
 life, as we know that -it is, we shall speak hereafter ; and at 
 present pass on to the other planets, Venus and Mercury. 
 But of these, there is, in our point of view, very little to say. 
 Venus, which, when nearest to us, fills a larger angle than any 
 other celestial body, except the Sun and the Moon, might be 
 expected to be the one of which we know most. Yet she is 
 really one of the most difficult to scrutinize with 'our telescopes. 
 Astronomers cannot discover in her, as in Mars, any traces of 
 continents and seas, mountains and valleys ; at least with any 
 certainty.* Her illuminated part shines with an intense lustre 
 which dazzles the sight ;f yet she is of herself perfectly dark ; 
 and it was the discovery, that she presented the phases of the 
 Moon, made by the telescope of Galileo, which gave the first 
 impulse to planetary research. She is almost as large as the 
 earth ; almost as heavy. The light and heat which she re- 
 
 * According to Bessel, Schroeter once saw one bright point on the 
 dark ground, near the boundary of light in Venus. This was taken 
 as proving a mountain, estimated at 60,000 feet high. Pop. Varies. 
 p. 86. 
 
 f Herschel, 509. 
 
 10 
 
218 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 ceives from the Sun must be about double those which come 
 to the earth. We discern no traces of a gaseous or watery 
 atmosphere surrounding her. Perhaps if we could see her 
 better, we might find that she had a surface like th$ moon ; or 
 perhaps, in the nearer neighborhood of the sun, she may have 
 cooled more slowly and quietly, like a glass which is annealed 
 in the fire ; and hence, may have a smooth surface, instead of 
 the furrowed and pimpled visage which the Moon presents to 
 us. With this ignorance of her conditions, it is hard to say 
 what kind of animals we could place in her, if we were disposed 
 to people her surface ; except perhaps the microscopic crea- 
 tures, with siliceous coverings, which, as modern explorers as- 
 sert, are almost indestructible by heat. To believe that she 
 has a surface like the earth, and tribes *f animals, like terres- 
 trial animals, and like man, is an exercise of imagination, 
 which not only is quite gratuitous, but contrary to all the in- 
 formation which the telescope gives us ; and with this remark, 
 we may dismiss the hypothesis. 
 
 30. Of Mercury we know still less. He receives seven 
 times as much light and faeat as the Earth ; is much smaller 
 than the earth, but perhaps more dense ; and has not, so far 
 as we can tell, any of the conditions which make animal exist- 
 ence conceivable. If it is so difficult to find suitable inhabit- 
 ants for Venus, the difficulty for Mercury is immensely greater. 
 
 31. So far then, we have traversed the Solar System, and 
 have found even here, the strongest grounds that there can be no 
 animal existence, like that which alone we can conceive as ani- 
 mal existence, except in the planet next beyond the earth, 
 Mars ; and there, not without great modifications. But we 
 may make some further remarks on the condition of the* sev- 
 eral planets, with regard to what appears to us to be the ne- 
 cessary elements of animal life. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 1. WE have given our views respecting the various planets 
 which constitute the Solar System ; views established, it 
 would seem, by all that we know, of the laws of heat and 
 moisture, density and attraction, organization and life. We 
 have examined and reasoned upon the cases of the different 
 planets separately. But it may serve to confirm this view, 
 and to establish it in the reader's mind, if we give a description 
 of the system which shall combine and connect the views 
 which we have presented, of the constitution and peculiarities, 
 as to physical circumstances, of each of the planets. It will 
 help us in our speculations, if we can regard the planets not 
 only as a collection, but as a scheme ; if we can give, not an 
 enumeration only, but a theory. Now such a scheme, such a 
 theory, appears to offer itself to us. 
 
 2. The planets exterior to Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn espe- 
 cially, as the best known of them, appear, by the best judg- 
 ment which we can form, to be spheres of water, and of aque- 
 ous vapor, combined, it may be, with atmospheric air, in 
 which their cloudy belts float over their deep oceans. Mars 
 seems to have some portion at least of aqueous atmosphere ; 
 the earth, we know, has a considerable atmosphere of air, and 
 
220 THE PLURALITY OF WO ELDS. 
 
 of vapor ; but the Moon, so near to her mistress, has none. 
 On Venus and Mercury, we see nothing of a gaseous or aque- 
 ous atmosphere ; and they, and Mars, do not differ much in 
 their density from the Earth. Now, does not this look as if 
 the water and the vapor, which belong to the solar system, 
 were driven off into the outer regions of its vast circuit ; while 
 the solid masses which are nearest to the focus of heat, are all 
 approximately of the same nature ? And if this be so, what 
 is the peculiar physical condition which we are led to ascribe to 
 the Earth ? Plainly this : that she is situated just in that re- 
 gion of the system, where the existence of matter, both in a 
 solid, a fluid, and a gaseous condition, is possible. Outside 
 the Earth's orbit, or at least outside Mars and the small 
 Planetoids, there is, in the planets, apparently, no solid mat- 
 ter ; or rather, if there be, there is a vast preponderance of 
 watery and vaporous matter. Inside the Earth's orbit, we 
 see, in the planets, no traces of water or vapor, or gas ; but 
 solid matter, about the density of terrestrial matter/ The 
 Earth, alone, is placed at the border where the conditions of 
 life are combined ; ground to stand upon ; air to breathe ; 
 water to nourish vegetables, and thus, animals; and solid 
 matter to supply the materials for their more solid parts ; 
 and with this, a due supply of light and heat, a due energy of 
 the force of weight. All these conditions are, in our concep- 
 tion, requisite for life : that all these conditions meet, elsewhere 
 than in the neighborhood of the Earth's orbit, we see strong 
 reasons to disbelieve. The Earth, then, it would seem, is the 
 abode of life, not because all the globes which revolve round 
 the Sun may be assumed to be the abodes of life ; but because 
 the Earth is fitted to be so, by a curious and complex combi- 
 nation of properties and relations, which do not at all apply to 
 the others. That the Earth is inhabited, is not a reason for 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 221 
 
 believing that the other Planets are so, but for believing that 
 they are not so. 
 
 3. Can we see any physical reason, for the fact which ap- 
 pears to us so probable, that all the water and vapor of the 
 system is gathered in its outward parts 1 It would seem that 
 we can. Water and aqueous vapor are driven from the Sun 
 to the outer parts of the solar system, or are allowed to be 
 permanent there only, as they are driven off and retained at 
 a distance by any other source of heat ; to use a homely il- 
 lustration, as they are driven from wet objects placed near the 
 kitchen-fire : as they are driven from the hot sands of Egypt 
 into the upper air : as they are driven from the tropics to the 
 poles. In this latter case, and generally, in all cases, in which 
 vapor is thus driven from a hotter region, when it comes into 
 a colder, it may again be condensed in water, and fall in rain. 
 So the cold of the air in the temperate zone condenses the 
 aqueous vapors which flow from the tropics ; and so, we have 
 our clouds and our showers. And as there is this rainy region, 
 indistinctly defined, between the torrid and the frigid zones on 
 the earth ; so is there a region of clouds and rain, of air and 
 water, much more precisely defined, in the solar system, be- 
 tween the central torrid zone and the external frigid zone which 
 surrounds the Sun at a greater distance. 
 
 4. The Earth's Orbit is the Temperate Zone of the Solar 
 System. In that Zone only is the play of Hot and Cold, of 
 Moist and Dry, possible. The Torrid Zone of the Earth is 
 not free from moisture ; it has its rains, for* it has its upper 
 colder atmosphere. But how much hotter are Venus and Mer- 
 cury than the Torrid Zone ? There, no vapors can linger ; they 
 are expelled by the fierce solar energy ; and there is no cool 
 stratum to catch them and return them. If they were there, 
 they must fly to the outer regions ; to the cold abodes of Ju- 
 
222 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 piter and Saturn, if on their way, the Earth did not with cold 
 and airy finger outstretched afar, catch a few drops of their 
 treasures, for the use of plant, and beast, and man. The solid 
 stone only, and the metallic ore which can be fused and solid- 
 ified with little loss of substance, can bear the continual force 
 of the near solar fire, and be the material of permanent solid 
 planets in that region. But the lava pavement of the Inner 
 Planets bears no superstructure of life ; for all life would be 
 scorched away along with water, its first element. On the 
 Earth first, can this superstructure be raised ; and there, 
 through we know not what graduation of forms, the waters 
 were* made to bring forth abundantly things that had life ; 
 plants, and animals nourished by plants, and conspiring with 
 them, to feed on their respective appointed elements, in the air 
 which surrounded them. And so, nourished by the influences 
 of air and water, plants and animals lived and died, and were 
 entombed in the scourings of the land, which the descending 
 streams carried to the bottom of the waters. And then, these 
 beds of dead generations were raised into mountain ranges ; 
 perhaps by the yet unextinguished forces of subterraneous fires. 
 And then a new creation of plants and animals succeeded ; still 
 living under the fostering influence of the united pair, Air and 
 Water, which never ceased to brood over the World of Life, 
 their Nurseling ; and then, perhaps, a new change of the lim- 
 its of land and water, and a new creation again : till at last, 
 Man was placed upon the Earth ; with far higher powers, and 
 far different purposes, from any of the preceding tribes of crea- 
 tures : and with this, for one of his offices ; that there might 
 be an intelligent being to learn how wonderfully the scheme of . 
 creation had been carried on, and to admire, and to worship the 
 Creator. 
 
 5. But we have a few more remarks to make on the strue- 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 223 
 
 ture of the Solar System, in this point of view. When we say 
 that the water and vapor of the System were driven to the 
 outer parts, or retained there, by the central heat of the Sun, 
 perhaps it might be supposed to be most simple and natural, 
 that the aqueous vapor, and the water, should assume its place 
 in a distinct circle, or rather a spherical shell, of which the Sun 
 was the centre ; thus making an elemental sphere about the 
 centre, such as the ancients imagined in their schemes of the 
 Universe. Nor will we venture to say that such an arrange- 
 ment of elements might not be ; though perhaps it might be 
 shown that no stable equilibrium of the system would be, in 
 this way, mechanically possible. But this at least we may say ; 
 that a rotatory motion of all the parts of the universe appeara 
 to be a universal law prevalent in it, so far as our observation 
 can reach : and that, by such rotation of the separate masses, 
 the whole is put in a condition w r hich is everywhere one of 
 stable equilibrium. It was, then, agreeable to the general 
 scheme, that the excess of water and vapor, which must neces- 
 sarily be carried away, or stored up, in the outer regions of , 
 the System, should be put into shapes in which it should have 
 a permanent place and form. And thus, it is suitable to the 
 general economy of creation, that this water and vapor should 
 be packed into rotating masses, such as are Jupiter and Saturn, 
 Uranus and Neptune. When once collected in such rotating 
 masses, the attraction of its parts would gather it into sphe- 
 roidal forms ; oblate by the effect of rotation, as Jupiter, or 
 perhaps into annular forms, like the Ring of Saturn ;* for such 
 also is a mechanically possible form of equilibrium, for a fluid 
 mass. And these spheroids once formed, the water would form 
 a central nucleus, over which would hang a cover of vapor, 
 
 * Other speculators also have regarded Saturn's Ring as a ring of 
 61oud or water. See Cosmos, m 527 and 553. 
 
224 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 raised by the evaporating power of the Sun, and forming 
 clouds, where the rarity of the upper strata of vapor allowed 
 the cold of the external space to act ; and these clouds, spun 
 into belts by the rotation of the sphere. And thus, the vapor, 
 which would otherwise have wandered loose about the atmos- 
 phere, was neatly wound into balls ; which, again, were kept 
 in their due place, by being made to revolve in nearly circular 
 orbits about the Sun. 
 
 6. And thus, according to our view, water and gases, clouds 
 and vapors, form mainly the planets in the outer part of the 
 solar system ; while masses such as result from the fusion of 
 the most solid materials, lie nearer the sun, and are found 
 principally within the orbit of Jupiter.* To conceive plane- 
 tary systems as formed by the gradual contraction of a nebu- 
 lar mass, and by the solidification of some of its parts, is a 
 favorite notion of several speculators. If we adopt this notion, 
 we shall, I think, find additional proofs in favor of our view of 
 the system. For, in the first place, we have the zodiacal light, 
 ^a nebulous appendage to the Sun, as Herschel conceives, ex- 
 tending beyond the orbits of Mercury and Venus. These plan- 
 ets, then, have not yet fully emerged from the atmosphere in 
 which they had their origin : the mother-light and mother-fire, 
 in which they began to crystallize, as crystals do in their 
 mother-water. Though they are already opaque, they are still 
 immersed in luminous vapor : and bearing such traces of their 
 chaotic state being not yet ended, we need not wonder, if we 
 find no evidence of their having inhabitants, and some evidence 
 to the contrary. They are within a nebular region, which may 
 
 * Humboldt has already remarked (Cosmos, L 95, and in. 427), that 
 the inner planets as far as Mars, and the outer ones beginning with Ju- 
 piter, form two groups having different properties. Also Encke. (See 
 Humboldt's Note.) 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 225 
 
 easily be conceived to be uninhabitable. And where this neb 
 ular region, marked by the zodiacal light, terminates, the world 
 of life begins, namely at the Earth. 
 
 7. But further, outside this region of the Earth, what dc 
 we find in the solar system 1 Of solid matter, if our views 
 are right, we find nothing but an immense number of small 
 bodies ; namely, first, Mars, who, as we have said, is only 
 about one-eighth the earth in mass : the twenty-six small pla- 
 netoids, (or whatever number may have been discovered when 
 these pages meet the reader's eye,*) between Mar.s and Jupi- 
 ter ; the four satellites of Jupiter ; the eight satellites of 
 Saturn; the six (if that be the true number,) satellites of 
 Uranus ; and the one satellite of Neptune, already detected. 
 It is very remarkable, that all this array of small bodies be- 
 gins to be found just outside the Earth's orbit. Supposing, as 
 we have found so much reason to suppose, that Jupiter, and 
 the other exterior planets, are not solid bodies, but masses- of 
 water and of vapor ; the existence of great solid planetary 
 masses, such as exist in the region of the Earth's orbit, is suc- 
 ceeded externally by the existence of a vast number of smaller 
 bodies. The real quantity of matter in these smaller bodies 
 we cannot in general determine. Perhaps the largest of them, 
 (after Mars,) may be Jupiter's third satellite; whichf is 
 reckoned, by Laplace, to have a mass less than 1-1 0,000th 
 of that of Jupiter himself; and thus, since Jupiter, as we 
 have seen, has a jnass 333 times that of the Earth, the satel- 
 lite would be above l-30th of the Earth's mass.J That none 
 but masses of this size, and many far below this, are found 
 
 * Printed Oct. 19, 1853. 
 
 f Herschel, 640. 
 
 % It is probable, from the small density of Jupiter's satellites, that 
 they also consist in a great measure of water and vapor. Only one 
 of them is denser than Jupiter himself. Cosmos. 
 
 10* 
 
226 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 outside of Mars, appears to indicate, that the planet-making 
 powers which were efficacious to this distance from the sun, 
 and which produced the great globe of the Earth, were, be- 
 yond this point, feebler ; so that they could only give birth 
 to smaller masses ; to planetoids, to satellites, and to meteoric 
 stones. Perhaps we may describe this want of energy in the 
 planet-making power, by saying, that at so great a distance 
 from the central fire, there was not heat enough to melt to- 
 gether these smaller fragments into a larger globe ;* or rather, 
 when they existed in a nebular, perhaps in a gaseous state, 
 that there was not heat enough to keep them in that state, till 
 the attraction of the parts of all of them had drawn them into 
 one mass, which might afterwards solidify into a single globe. 
 The tendency of nebular matter to separate into distinct por- 
 tions, which may afterwards be more and more detached from 
 each other, so as to break the nebulous light into patches and 
 specks, appears to be seen in the structure of the resolvable 
 nebulae, as we have already had occasion to notice. And ac- 
 cording to the view we are now taking, we may conceive such 
 patches, by farther cooling and concentration, to remain lumi- 
 nous as comets, and perhaps shooting stars ; or to become 
 opaque as planets, planetoids, satellites, or meteoric stones. 
 And here we may call to mind what we have already said, 
 that the meteoric stones consist of the same elements as those 
 of the earth, combined by the same laws ; and thus appear to 
 bring us a message from the other solid planets, that they 
 also have the same elements and the same chemical forces as 
 the earth has. ; . 
 
 * It has, in our own day, even in the present year, been regarded 
 as a great achievement of man to direct the fiery influences which he 
 can command, so as to cast a colossal statue in a single piece, instead 
 of casting it in several portions. 
 
THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 227 
 
 8. It has already been supposed, by many astronomers, that 
 shooting stars, and meteoric stones, are bodies of connected 
 nature and origin ; and that they are cosmical, not terrestrial 
 bodies ; parts of the solar system, not merely appendages to 
 the earth. It has been conceived, that the luminous masses, 
 which appear as shooting stars, when they are without the 
 sphere of terrestrial influences, may, when they reach our at- 
 mosphere, collapse into such solid lumps as have from time to 
 time fallen upon the earth's surface : many of them, with such 
 sudden manifestations of light and heat, as implied some rapid 
 change taking place in their chemical constitution and con- 
 sistence. If shooting stars are of this nature, then, in those 
 cases in which a great number of them appear in close succes- 
 sion, we have evidence that there is a region in which there is 
 a large collection of matter of a nebulous kind, collected al- 
 ready into small clouds, and ready, by any additional touch 
 of the powers that hover round the earth, to be farther con- 
 solidated into planetary matter. That the earth's orbit carries 
 her through such regions, in her annual course, we have evi- 
 dence, in the curious fact, now so repeatedly observed, of 
 showers of shooting stars, seen at particular seasons of every 
 year ; especially about the 13th of November, and the 10th 
 of August. This phenomenon has been held, most reasonably, 
 to imply that at those periods of the year, the earth passes 
 through a crowd of such meteor-planets, which form a ring 
 round the sun ; and revolving round him, like the other planets, 
 retain their place in the system from year to year.* It may 
 be that the orbits of these meteor-planets are very elliptical. 
 That they are to a certain extent elliptical, appears to be 
 shown, by our falling in with them only once a year, not every 
 half year, as we should do, if their orbit, being nearly circular, 
 * Herschel, 900905. 
 
228 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 met the earth's orbit in two opposite points. That the shoot- 
 ing stars, thus seen in great numbers when the earth is at cer- 
 tain points of her orbit, are really planetoidal bodies, appears 
 to be further proved by this ; that they all seem to move 
 nearly in the same direction.* They are, each, of them, visi- 
 ble for a short time only, (indeed commonly only for a few 
 seconds), while they are nearest the earth ; much in the same 
 way in which a comet is visible only for a small portion of its 
 path : and this portion is described in a short time, because 
 they move near the earth. They are so small that a little 
 change of distance removes them beyond our vision. 
 
 9. Perhaps these revolving specks of nebulae are the out- 
 riders of the zodiacal light ; portions of it, which, being ex- 
 ternal to the permanently nebulous central mass, have broken 
 into patches, and are seen as stars for the moment that we are 
 near to them. And if this be true, we have to correct, in a 
 certain way, what we have previously said of the zodiacal 
 light ; that no one had thought of resolving it into stars : for 
 it would thus appear, that in its outer region, it resolves itself 
 into stars, visible, though but for a moment, to the naked eye. 
 
 10. And thus, all these phenomena concur in making it ap- 
 pear probable, that the Earth is placed in that region of the 
 solar system in which the planet-forming powers are most vig- 
 orous and potent ; between the region of permanent neb- 
 ulous vapor, and the region of mere shreds and specks of 
 planetary matter, such as are the satellites and the planetoidal 
 group. And from these views, finally it follows, that the 
 Earth is really the largest planetary body in the Solar Sys- 
 tem. The vast globes of Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Nep- 
 tune, which roll far above her, are still only huge masses of 
 cloud and vapor, water and air ; which, from their enormous 
 
 * Herschel, 901. 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 229 
 
 size, are ponderous enough to retain round them a body of 
 small satellites, perhaps, in some degree at least, solid ; and 
 which have perhaps a small lump, or a few similar lumps, of 
 planetary matter at the centre of their watery globe. The 
 Earth is really the domestic hearth of this Solar System ; 
 adjusted between the hot and fiery haze on one side, the cold 
 and watery vapor on the other. This region only is fit to be 
 a domestic hearth, a seat of habitation ; and in this region is 
 placed the largest solid globe of our system ; and on this globe, 
 by a series of creative operations, entirely different from any 
 of those which separated the solid from the vaporous, the cold 
 from the hot, the moist from the dry, have been established, in 
 succession, plants, and animals, and man. So that the habita- 
 tion has been occupied-; the domestic hearth has been sur- 
 rounded by its family ; the fitnesses so wonderfully combined 
 have been employed ; and the Earth alone, of all the parts 
 of the frame which revolves round the Sun, has become a 
 World. 
 
 11. Perhaps it may tend still further to illustrate, and to 
 fix in the reader's mind, the view of the constitution of the so- 
 lar system here given, if we remark an analogy which exists, 
 in this respect, between the Earth in particular, and the Solar 
 System in general. The earth, like the central parts of the 
 system, is warmed by the sun ; and hence, drives off watery 
 vapors into the circumambient space, where they are condensed 
 by the cold. The upper regions of the atmosphere, like the 
 outer regions of the solar system, form the vapors thus raised 
 into clouds, which are really only water in minute drops ; 
 while in the solar system, the cold of the outer regions, and 
 the rotation of the masses themselves, maintain the water, and 
 the vapor, in immense spheres. But Jupiter and Saturn may 
 be regarded as, hi many respects, immense clouds ; the con- 
 
230 THE PLUEALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 tinuous water being collected at their centres, while the more 
 airy and looser parts circulate above. They are the permanent 
 receptacles of the superfluous water and air of the system. 
 What is not wanted on the Earth, is stored up there, and 
 hangs above us, far removed from our atmosphere ; but yet, 
 like the clouds in our atmosphere, an example, what glorious 
 objects accumulations of vapor and water, illuminated by the 
 rays of the sun, may become in our eyes. 
 
 12. These views are so different from those hitherto gener- 
 ally entertained, and considered as having a sort of religious 
 dignity belonging to them, that we may fear, at first at least, 
 they will appear to many, rash and fanciful, and almost, as we 
 have said, irreverent. On the question of reverence we may 
 hereafter say a few words ; but as to the rashness of these 
 views, we would beg the reader, calmly and dispassionately, to 
 consider the very extraordinary number of points in the solar 
 system, hitherto unexplained, which they account for, or, at 
 least reduce into consistency and connection, in a manner 
 which seems wonderful. The Theory, as we may perhaps 
 venture to call it, brings together all these known phenomena ; 
 the great size and small density of the exterior planets ; 
 their belts and streaks ; Saturn's ring ; Jupiter's oblateness ; 
 the great number of satellites of the exterior planets ; the 
 numerous group of planetoid bodies between Jupiter and 
 Mars ; the appearance of definite shapes of land and water on 
 Mars j the showers of shooting stars which appear at certain 
 periods of the year ; the Zodiacal Light ; the appearance of 
 Venus as different from Mars ; and finally, the material 
 composition of meteoric stones. 
 
 13. Perhaps there are other phenomena which more readily 
 find an explanation in this theory, than in any other : for in- 
 stance, the recent discovery of a dim half-transparent ring, as 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 231 
 
 an appendage to the luminous ring of Saturn, which has 
 hitherto alone been observed. Perhaps this is the ring of 
 vapor which may naturally be expected to accompany the 
 ring of water. It is the annular atmosphere of the aqueous 
 annul us. But, the discovery of this faint ring being so new, 
 and hitherto not fully unfolded, we shall not further press the 
 argument, which, hereafter, perhaps, may be more confidently 
 derived from its existence. 
 
 14. There are some other facts in the Solar System, which, 
 we can hardly doubt, must have a bearing upon the views 
 which we have urged ; though we cannot yet undertake to ex- 
 plain that bearing fully. Not only do all the planetary bodies 
 of the solar system, as well as the Sun himself, revolve upon 
 their axes ; but there is a very curious fact relative to these 
 revolutions, which appears to point out a further connection 
 among them. So far as has yet been ascertained, all those 
 which we, in our theory, regard as solid bodies, Mercury, 
 Venus, the Earth, and Mars, revolve in very nearly the same 
 time : namely, in about twenty -four hours. All those larger 
 masses, on the other hand, which we, in our theory, hold to be 
 watery planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, revolve, not in a 
 longer time, as would perhaps have been expected, from their 
 greater size, but in a shorter time ; in less than half the time ; 
 in about ten hours. The near agreement of the times of re- 
 volution in each of these two groups, is an extremely curious 
 fact ; and cannot fail to lead our thoughts to the probability 
 of some common original cause of these motions. But no 
 such common cause has been suggested, by any speculator on 
 these subjects. If, in this blank, even of hypotheses, one 
 might be admitted, as at least a mode of connecting the facts, 
 we might say, that the compound collection of solid materials, 
 water, and air, of which the solar system consists, and of 
 
232 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 our earth alone, perhaps, retains the combination, being, 
 by whatever means, set a spinning round an axis, at the rate 
 of one revolution in 24 hours, the solid masses which were de- 
 tached from it, not being liable to much contraction, retained 
 their rate of revolution ; while the vaporous masses which 
 were detached from the fluid and airy part, contracting much, 
 when they came into a colder region, increased their rate of 
 revolution on account of their contraction. That such an ac- 
 celeration of the rate of revolution would be the result of 
 contraction, is known from mechanical principles ; and indeed, 
 is evident : for the contraction of a circular ring of such 
 matter into a narrower compass, would not diminish the 
 linear velocity of its elements, while it would give them a 
 smaller path to describe in their revolutions. Such an hypo- 
 thesis would account, therefore, both for the nearly equal 
 times of revolution of all the solid planets, and for the smaller 
 period of rotation, which the larger planets show. 
 
 15. In what manner, however, portions are to be detached 
 from such a rotating mass, so as to form solid planets on the 
 one side, and watery planets on the other, and how these 
 planets, so detached, are to be made to revolve round the Sun, 
 in orbits nearly circular, we have no hypothesis ready to ex- 
 plain. And perhaps we may say, that no satisfactory, or even 
 plausible, hypothesis to explain these facts, has been proposed : 
 for the Nebular Hypothesis, the only one which is likely to be 
 considered as worthy any notice on this subject, is too imper- 
 fectly worked out, as yet, to enable us to know, what it will 
 or will not account for. According to that hypothesis, the 
 nebular matter of a system, having originally a rotatory mo- 
 tion, gradually contracts ; and separating, at various distances 
 from the centre, forms rings ; which again, breaking at some 
 point of their circumference, are, by the mutual attraction of 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 233 
 
 their parts, gathered up into one mass ; which, when cooled 
 down, so as to be opaque, becomes a planet ; still revolving 
 round the luminous mass which remains at the centre. That 
 such a process, if we suppose the consistency, and other prop- 
 erties, of the nebulous matter to be such as to render it possi- 
 ble, would produce planetary masses revolving round a sun in 
 nearly circular orbits, and rotating about their own axes, seems 
 most likely ; though it does not appear that it has been very 
 clearly shown.* But no successful attempt has been made 
 to deduce any laws of the distances from the centre, times of 
 rotation, or other properties of such planets ; and therefore, 
 
 * Besides the curious relation of the times of rotation of the plan- 
 ets, just noticed, there is another curious relation, of their distance 
 from the Sun, which any one, wishing to frame an hypothesis on the 
 origin of our Solar System, ought by all means to try to account for. 
 
 The distances from the Sun, of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, 
 Mars, the Planetoids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, are nearly as the num- 
 
 4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100, 196: 
 now the excesses of each of these numbers above the first are, 
 
 3, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96: 
 
 a series in which each term (after the first,) is double of the preced- 
 ing one. Hence, the distances of the planets conform to a series fol- 
 lowing this law, (Bode's law, as it is termed.) And though the law is 
 by no means exact, yet it was so far considered a probable expression 
 of a general fact, that the deviation from this law, in the interval be- 
 tween Mars and Jupiter, was the principal cause which led first to 
 the suspicion of a planet interposed in the seemingly vacant space ; 
 and thus led to the discovery of the planetoids, which really occupy 
 that region. It is true, that the law is found not to hold, in the case 
 of the newly-discovered planet Neptune ; for his distance from the 
 Sun, which according to this law, should be 388, is really only 300, 
 30 times the Earth's distance, instead of 39 times. Still, Bode's law 
 has a comprehensive approximate reality in the Solar System, suffici- 
 ent to make it a strong recommendation of any hypothesis of the 
 origi n of the system, that it shall account for this law. This, how- 
 however, the nebular hypothesis does not. 
 
234 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 we cannot say that the nebular hypothesis is yet in any de- 
 gree confirmed. 
 
 16. The Theory which we have ventured to propbse, of the 
 Solar System, agrees with the Nebular Hypothesis, so far as 
 that hypothesis goes ; if we suppose that there is, at the centre 
 of the exterior planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, 
 a solid nucleus, probably small, of the same nature as the 
 other planets. Such an addition to our theory is, perhaps, on 
 all accounts, probable : for that Circumstance would seem to 
 determine, to particular points, the accumulation of water and 
 vapors, to which we hold that those planets owe the greater 
 part of their bulk. Those planets then, Jupiter, Saturn, and 
 the others, are really small solid planets, with enormous 
 oceans and atmospheres. The Nebular Hypothesis, in that 
 case, is that part of our Hypothesis, which relates to the con- 
 densation of luminous nebular matter ; while we consider, fur- 
 ther, the causes which, scorching the inner planets, and driving 
 the vapors to the outer orbs, would make the region of the 
 earth the only habitable part of the system. 
 
 17. The belief that other planets, as well as our own, are 
 the seats of habitation of living things, has been entertained, in 
 general, not in consequence of physical reasons, but in spite 
 of physical reasons ; and because there were conceived to be 
 other reasons, of another kind, theological or philosophical, 
 for such a belief. It was held that Venus, or that Saturn, was 
 inhabited, not because any one could devise, with any degree 
 of probability, any organized structure which would be suit- 
 able to animal existence on the surfaces of those planets ; but 
 because it was conceived that the greatness or goodness of the 
 Creator, or His wisdom, or some other of His attributes, 
 would be manifestly imperfect, if these planets were not 
 tenanted by living creatures. The evidences of design, of. 
 
THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 235 
 
 which we can trace so many, and such striking examples, in 
 our own sphere, the sphere of life, must, it was assumed, exist, 
 in the like form, in every other part of the universe. The 
 disposition to regard the Universe in this point of view, is very 
 general ; the disinclination to accept any change in our belief 
 which seems, for a time, to interfere with this view, is very 
 strong; and the attempt to establish the necessity of new 
 views discrepant from these has, in many eyes, an appearance 
 as if it were unfriendly to the best established doctrines of 
 Natural Theology. All these apprehensions will, we trust, be 
 shown, in the sequel, to be utterly unfounded : and in order 
 that any such repugnance to the doctrines here urged, may 
 not linger in the reader's mind, we shall next proceed to con- 
 template the phenomena of the universe in their bearing upon 
 such speculations. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 
 
 1. THERE is no more worthy or suitable employment of the 
 human mind, than to trace the evidences of Design and Pur- 
 pose in the Creator, which are visible in many parts of the Cre- 
 ation. The conviction Jthus obtained, that man was formed by 
 the wisdom, and is governed by the providence, of an intelli- 
 gent and benevolent Being, is the basis of Natural Religion, 
 and thus, of all Religion. We trust that some new lights will 
 be thrown upon the traces of Design which the Universe offers, 
 even in the work now before the reader ; and as our views, re- 
 garding the plan of such Design, are different, in some respects, 
 and especially as relates to the Planets and Stars, from those 
 which have of late been generally entertained, it will be proper 
 to make some general remarks, mainly tending to show, that 
 the argument remains undisturbed, though the physical theory 
 is changed. 
 
 2. It cannot surprise any one who has attended to the history 
 of science, to find that the views, even of the most philosoph- 
 ical minds, with regard to the plan of the universe, alter, as 
 man advances from falsehood to truth : or rather, from very 
 imperfect truth to truth less imperfect. But yet such a one 
 will not be disposed to look, with any other feeling than pro- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 237 
 
 found respect, upon the reasonings by which the wisest men of 
 former times ascended from their erroneous views of nature to 
 the truth of Natural Religion. It cannot seem strange to us 
 that man at any point, and perhaps at every point, of his in- 
 tellectual progress, should have an imperfect insight into the 
 plan of the Universe ; but, in the most imperfect condition of 
 such knowledge, he has light enough from it, to see vestiges of 
 the Wisdom and Benevolence of the Creating Deity ; and at 
 the highest point of his scientific progress, he can probably 
 discover little more, by the light which physical science sup- 
 plies. We can hardly hope, therefore, that any new truths 
 with regard to the material universe, which may now be at- 
 tainable, will add very much to the evidence of creative design ; 
 but we may be confident, also, that they will not, when rightly 
 understood, shake or weaken such evidence. It has indeed hap- 
 pened, in the history of mankind, that new views of the con- 
 stitution of the universe, brought to the light by scientific re- 
 searches, and' established beyond doubt, in the conviction of 
 impartial persons, have disturbed the thoughts of religious 
 men ; because they did not fall in with the view then enter- 
 tained, of the mode in which God effects his purpose in the 
 universe. But in these cases, it soon came to be seen, after a ; 
 season of controversy, reproach, and alarm, that the old argu- 
 ment for design was capable of being translated into the lan- 
 guage of the new theory, with no loss of force ; and the minds ( 
 of men were gradually tranquillized and pacified. It may be 
 hoped that the world is now so much wiser than it was two or 
 three centuries ago, that if any modification of the current ar- 
 guments for the Divine Attributes, drawn from the aspect of 
 the universe, become necessary, in consequence of the rectifica- 
 tion of received errors, it will take place without producing } 
 
238 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 I pain, fear, or anger. To promote this purpose, we proceed to 
 make a few remarks. 
 
 3. The proof of Design, as shown in the works of Creation, 
 is seen most clearly, not in mere physical arrangement, but in 
 the structure of organized things ; in the constitution of plants 
 and animals. In those parts of nature, the evidences of intelli- 
 gent purpose, of wise adaptation, of skilful selection of means 
 to ends, of provident contrivance, are, in many instances, of 
 the most striking kind. Such, for example, are the structure 
 of the human eye, so curiously adapted for its office of see- 
 ing ; the muscles, cords, and pullies by which the limbs of an- 
 imals are moved, exceeding far the mechanical ingenuity shown 
 in human inventions ; the provisions which exist, before the 
 birth of offspring, for its sustenance and well-being when it 
 shall have been born ; these are lucid and convincing proofs 
 of an intelligent Creator, to which no ordinary mind can refuse 
 its conviction. Nor is the evidence, which we here recognize, 
 deprived of its force, when we see that many parts of the struc- 
 ture of animals, though adapted for particular purposes, are 
 yet framed as a portion of a system which does not seem, in 
 its general form, to have any bearing on such purposes.* The 
 beautiful contrivances which exist in the skeleton of man, and 
 the contrivances, possessing the same kind of beauty, in the 
 skeleton of a sparrow, do not appear to any reasonable person 
 less beautiful, because the skeleton of a man, and of a sparrow, 
 have an agreement, bone for bone, for which we see no reason, 
 and which appears to us to answer no purpose. The way in 
 which the human hand and arm are made capable of their in- 
 
 * The greatest anatomists, and especially Mr. Owen, have recently 
 expressed their conviction, that researches on the structure of animals 
 must be guide" d by the principle of unity of composition as well as the 
 principle of final causes. See Owen On the Nature of Limbs. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 239 
 
 finite variety of use, by the play of the radius and ulna, the 
 bones of the wrist and the fingers, is not the less admirable, 
 because we can trace the representatives and rudiments of each 
 of these bones, in cases where they answer no such ends ; in 
 the foreleg of the pig, the ox, the horse, or the seal. The pro- 
 vision for feeding the young creature, which is made, with 
 such bounteous liberality, and such opportune punctuality, by 
 the breasts of the mother, has not any doubt thrown upon its 
 reality, by the teats of male animals and the paps of man, 
 which answer no such purpose. That in these cases there is 
 manifested a wider plan, which does not show any reference to 
 the needs of particular cases ; as well as peculiar contrivances 
 for the particular cases, does not disturb our impression of de- 
 sign in each case. Why should so large a portion of the ani- 
 mal kingdom, intended, as it seems, for such different fields of 
 life and modes of living ; beasts, birds, fishes ; still have a 
 skeleton of the same plan, and even of the same parts, bone 
 for bone ; though many of the parts, in special cases, appear 
 to be altogether useless (namely, the vertebrate plan) ? We 
 cannot tell. Our naturalists and comparative anatomists, it 
 would seem, cannot point out any definite end, which is an- 
 swered by making so many classes of animals on this one ver- 
 tebrate plan. And since they cannot do this, and since we 
 cannot tell why animals are so made, we must be content to 
 say that we do not know ; and therefore, to leave this feature 
 in the structure of animals out of our argument for design. 
 Hence we do not say that the making of beasts, birds, and 
 fishes, on the same vertebrate plan, proves design in the Cre- 
 ator, in any way in which we can understand design. That 
 plan is not of itself a proof of design ; it is something in ad- 
 dition to the proofs of design ; a general law of the animal 
 creation, established, it may be, for some other reason. But 
 
240 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 this common plan being given, we can discern and admire, in 
 every kind of animal, the manner in which the common plan 
 is adapted to the particular purpose which the animal's kind of 
 life involves.* The general law is not all ; there is also, in 
 every instance, a special care for the species. The general law 
 may seem, in many cases, to remove further from us the proof 
 of providential care; by showing that the elements of the 
 benevolent contrivance are not provided in the cases alone 
 where they are needed, but in others also. But yet this seem- 
 ing, this obscuration of the evidence of design, by interposing 
 the form of general law, cannot last long. If the general law 
 supplies the elements, still a special adaptation is needed to 
 make the elements answer such a purpose ; and what is this 
 adaptation, but design ? The radius and ulna, the carpal and 
 metacarpal bones, are all in the general type of the vertebrate 
 skeleton. But does this fact make it the less wonderful, that 
 man's arm and hand and fingers should be constructed so that 
 he can make and use the spade, the plow, the loom, the pen, the 
 pencil, the chisel, the lute, the telescope, the microscope, and 
 all other instruments 1 Is it not, rather, very wonderful that 
 the bones which are to be found rudimentally, in the leg-bone 
 of a horse, or the hoof of an ox, should be capable of such a 
 curious and fertile development and modification 1 And is not 
 such development and modification a work, and a proof, of de- 
 sign and intention in the Creator ? And so in other cases. 
 The teats of male animals, the nipples of man, may arise from 
 this, that the general plan of the animal frame includes paps, 
 as portions of it ; and that the frame is so far moulded in the 
 embryo, before the sex of the offspring is determined. Be it 
 so. Yet still this provision of paps in the animal form in gen- 
 
 * This has been termed by physiologists The Law of the Development 
 from the General to the Special. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 241 
 
 eral, has reference to offspring ; and the development of that 
 part of the frame, when the sex is determined, is evidence of 
 design, as clear as it is possible to conceive in the works of na- 
 ture. The general law is moulded to the special purpose, at 
 the proper stage ; and this play of general laws, and special 
 contrivances, into each other's provinces, though it may make 
 the phenomena a little more complex, and modify our notion 
 as to the mode of the Creator's working, will not, in philo- 
 sophical minds, disturb the conviction that there is design in 
 the special adaptations : besides which, some other feature of 
 the operation of the Creative Mind may be suggested by the 
 prevalence of general laws in the Creation. 
 
 4. There is, however, one caution suggested by this view. 
 Since, besides, and mixed with the examples of Design which 
 the creation offers, there are also results of General Laws, in 
 which we cannot trace the purpose and object of the law ; we 
 may fall into error, if we fasten upon something which is a 
 result of such mere general laws, and imagine that we can 
 discern its object and purpose. Thus, for instance, we might 
 possibly persuade ourselves that we had discovered the use 
 and purpose of the teats of male animals ; or of the trace of 
 separation into parts which the leg-bone of a horse offers ; or 
 of the false toes of a pig : all which are, as we have seen, the 
 rudiments of a plan more general than is developed in the 
 particular case. And if, when we had made such a fancied 
 discovery, it were found that the uses and purposes which we 
 had imagined to belong to these parts or features, were not 
 really served by them ; at first, perhaps, we might be some- 
 what disturbed, as having lost one of the evidences of the de- 
 sign of the Creator, all which are. precious to a reverent mind. 
 But it is not likely that any disturbance of a reverent miud 
 on such grounds as this, would continue long, 
 
 11 
 
242 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 should soon come to recollect, how light and precarious, per- 
 haps how arbitrary and ill-supported by our real knowledge, 
 were the grounds on which we had assigned such uses to such 
 parts. We should turn back from them to the more solid 
 and certain evidences, not shaken, nor likely to be shaken, by 
 any change in prevalent zoological or anatomical doctrines, 
 which those who love to contemplate such subjects habitually 
 dwell upon ; and, holding ourselves ready to entertain any 
 speculations by which the bearing of those general Laws upon 
 Natural Religion could be shown, in such a way as to con- 
 vince our reason, we should rest in the confident and tranquil 
 persuasion that no success or failure in such speculations could 
 vitally affect our belief in a wise and benevolent Deity : that 
 though additional illustrations of his attributes might be in- 
 teresting and welcome, no change of our scientific point of 
 view could make his being or action doubtful. 
 
 5. This is, it would seem, the manner in which a reasonable 
 and reverent man would regard the proof of a Supreme Crea- 
 tor and Governor, which is derived from Design, as seen in 
 the organic creation ; and the mode in which such proof would 
 be affected by changes in the knowledge which we may acquire 
 of the general laws by which the organic ' creation is consti- 
 tuted and governed. And hence, if it should be found to be 
 established by the researches of the most comprehensive and 
 exact philosophy, that there are, in any province of the uni- 
 verse, resemblances, gradations, general laws, indications of 
 the mode in which one form approaches to another, and seems 
 to pass into and generate another, which tend to obliterate dis- 
 tinctions which at first appeared broad and conspicuous ; still 
 the argument, from the design which appears in the parts of 
 which we most clearly see the purpose, would not lose its 
 force. If, for instance, it should be made apparent, by geo- 
 
I 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 243 
 
 logical investigations of the extinct fossil creation, that the 
 animal forms which have inhabited the earth, have gradually 
 approached to that type in which the human form is included, 
 passing from the rudest and most imperfect animal organiza- 
 tions, mollusks, or even organic monads, to vertebrate ani- 
 mals, to warm-blooded animals, to monkeys, and to men ; still, 
 the evidences of design in the anatomy of man are not less 
 striking than they were, when no such gradation was thought 
 of. And what is more to the purpose of our argument, the 
 evidences of the peculiar nature and destination of man, as 
 shown in other characters than his anatomy, his moral and 
 intellectual nature, his history and capacities, stand where 
 they stood before ; nor is the vast chasm which separates man, 
 as a being with such characters as these latter, from all other 
 animals, at all filled up or bridged over. 
 
 6. The evidence of design in the inorganic world, in the 
 relation of earth, air, water, heat and light, is, to most per- 
 sons, less striking and impressive, than it is in the organic 
 creation. But even among these mere physical elements of 
 the world, when we consider them with reference to living 
 things, we find many arrangements which, on a reflective view, 
 excite our admiration, by the beneficial effect, and seemingly 
 beneficent purpose. Our condition is furnished with the solid 
 earth, on which we stand, and in which we find the materials 
 of man's handiworks ; stone and metal, clay and sand ; with 
 the atmosphere which we breathe, and which is the vehicle of 
 oral intercourse between man and man ; with revolutions of 
 the sun, by which are brought round the successions of day 
 and night, through all their varying lengths, and of summer 
 and winter ; with the clouds above us, which pour upon the 
 earth their fertilizing showers. All this furniture of the earth, 
 so marvellously adapting it for the abode of living creatures, 
 
244 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 and especially of man, may well be regarded as a collection 
 of provisions for his benefit : as intended to do him the good, 
 which they do. Nor would this impression be removed, or 
 even weakened, if we were to discover that some of these ar- 
 rangements, instead of being produced by a machinery con- 
 fined to that single purpose, were only partial results of a 
 more general plan. For instance ; we learn that the varying 
 lengths of days and nights through the year, and the varying 
 declination of the sun, are produced, not, as was at first sup- 
 posed, by the sun moving round the earth, in a cpmplex 
 diurnal and annual path, but by the earth revolving in an 
 annual orbit round the sun ; while at the same time she has a 
 diurnal rotation about her own axis, which axis, by the laws of 
 mechanics, remains always parallel to itself. When we learn 
 that this is so, we see that the effect is produced by a mechani- 
 cal arrangement far more simple than any which the imagina- 
 tion of man had devised ; but in this case, the effect is plainly 
 rather an increased admiration at the simplicity of the me- 
 chanism, than a wavering belief in the reality of the purpose* 
 In like manner when, instead of supposing water to exist in a 
 continuous reservoir in a firmament above the earth, and to 
 fall in the earlier and in the latter rain, by some special agency 
 for that purpose ; men learnt to see that the water in the 
 upper regions of the air must exist in clouds and in vapors 
 only, and must fall in showers by the condensing influence of 
 cold currents of air ; they needed not to cease to admire the 
 kindness of the Creator, in providing the rain to water the 
 earth, and the wind to dry it ; although the mechanism by 
 which the effect was produced was of a larger kind than they 
 had before imagined. And even if this mechanism extend 
 through the solar system : if the arrangement by which tho 
 Earth's atmosphere is the special region in which there are 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 245 
 
 winds hot and cold, clouds compact or dissolving, be an ar- 
 rangement which extends its influence to other planets, as well 
 as to ours ; if this mixed atmosphere be placed, not only at 
 the meeting point of clear aqueous vapor above, and warmer 
 airs below, but also at the meeting point of a hot central 
 region surrounding the Sun, and a cold exterior zone in which 
 water and vapor can exist in immense collected masses, such 
 as are Jupiter and Saturn ; still it would not appear, to a 
 reasonable view, that this larger expansion of the machinery 
 by which the effect is produced, makes the machinery less re- 
 markable ; or can at all tend to diminish the belief that it was 
 intended to produce the effect which it does produce. Hot and 
 cold, moist and dry, are constantly mixed together for the sup- 
 port of vegetable and animal life ; and not the less so, if we be- 
 lieve that, though elements of this kind pervade the whole 
 solar system, it is only at the Earth that they are combined 
 so as to foster and nourish living things. 
 
 7. But it will perhaps be said, that to suppose the whole 
 Solar System to be a machine merely operating for the benefit 
 of the Earth and its population, is to give to the Earth and its 
 population an importance in the scheme of creation which is 
 quite extravagant and improbable : it is to make the greater 
 orbs, Jupiter and Saturn, minister to the less ; instead of hav- 
 ing their own purpose, and their own population, which their 
 size naturally leads us to expect. To this we reply, that, in 
 the first place, we have shown good reason for believing that 
 the Earth is really, the largest dense solid globe which exists in 
 the solar system, and that the size of Jupiter and Saturn arises 
 from their being composed mainly of water and vapor. And 
 with regard to the difficulty of the greater ministering to the 
 less ; if by greater, mere size and extent be understood, it ap- 
 pears to be the universal law of creation, that the greater, in 
 
246 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 that sense, should minister to the less, when the less includes 
 living things. Even if the planets be all inhabited, the sun, 
 which is greater far than all of them together, ministers light 
 and heat to all of them. Even on this supposition, the vast 
 spaces by which the planets are separated have no use, that we 
 can discern, except to place them at suitable distances from the 
 sun. Even on this supposition, their solid globes within, their 
 atmospheres without are all merely subservient to the benefit 
 of a thin and scattered population on the surface. The space 
 occupied by men and animals on the earth's surface, even 
 taking into account the highest buildings and the deepest seas, 
 is only a few hundreds, or a thousand feet. The benefit of this 
 minute shell, interrupted in many places for vast distances, 
 everywhere loosely and sparsely filled, is ministered to by the 
 solidity and attraction of a mass below it 20 millions of feet 
 deep ; by the influence of an atmosphere above it 200 thou- 
 sand feet high at least, and it may be, much more. And this 
 being so, if we increase the depth of the centre 20 thousand 
 times ; if we carry the extreme verge of air and vapor to thirty 
 times the radius of the earth's orbit from us, how does the con- 
 struction of the machine become more improbable, or the dis- 
 proportion of its size to its purpose more incongruous 1 Is mere 
 size, extent of brute matter or blank space, so majestic a 
 thing ? Is not infinite space large enough to admit of machines 
 of any size without grudging? But if we thus move the centre 
 of the Earth's peopled surface 20 thousand times further off, 
 we reach the Sun. If we carry the limit of air and vapor to 
 the distance of 30 times the radius of the Earth's orbit we 
 arrive at Neptune. Are these new numbers monstrous, while 
 the old ones were accepted without scruple 1 Is number such 
 an alarming feature in the description of the Universe ? Does 
 not the description of every part and every aspect of it, present 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 247 
 
 us with numbers so large, that wonder and repugnance, on that 
 ground are long ago exhausted ? Surely this is so : and if the 
 evidence really tend to prove to us that all the solar system 
 ministers to the earth's population; the mere size of the 
 system, compared with the space occupied by the population, 
 will not long standin the way of the reception of such a doctrine. 
 
 8. But the objection will perhaps be urged in another form. 
 It will be said that the other Planets have so many points of 
 resemblance with the Earth, that we must suppose their nature 
 and purpose the same. They, like the Earth, revolve in circles 
 round the sun, rotate on their own axes, have, several of them, 
 satellites, are opaque bodies, deriving light and probably heat 
 from the sun. To an external spectator of the Solar System, 
 they would not be distinguishable from the Earth. Such a 
 spectator would never be tempted to guess that the Earth alone, 
 of all these, neither the greatest nor the least, neither the one 
 with the most satellites, nor the fewest, neither the innermost 
 nor the outermost of the planets, is the only one inhabited ; or 
 at any rate the only one inhabited by an intelligent population. 
 And to this we reply ; that the largest of the other planets, if 
 we judge rightly, are not like the Earth in one most essential 
 respect, -their density ; and none of them, in having a surface 
 consisting of land and water ; except perhaps Mars : that if 
 the supposed external spectator could see that this was so, he 
 might see that the earth was different from the rest ; and he 
 might be able to see the vaporous nature of the outer planets, 
 so that he would no more think of peopling them, than we do, 
 of peopling the grand Alpine ridges and vallies which we see 
 in the clouds of a summer-sky. 
 
 9. But even if the supposed spectator attended only to the 
 obvious and superficial resemblances between one of the plan- 
 ets and another, he might still, if he were acquainted with the 
 
248 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 general economy of the Universe, have great hesitation in in- 
 ferring that, if one of them were inhabited, the others also 
 must be inhabited. For, as we have said, in the plan of crea- 
 tion, we have a profusion of examples, where similar visible 
 structures do not answer a similar purpose ; where, so far as 
 we can see, the structure answers no purpose in many cases ; 
 but exists, as we may say, for the sake of similarity : the sim- 
 ilarity being a general Law, the result, it would seem, of a 
 creative energy, which is wider in its operation than the partic- 
 ular purpose. Such examples are, as we have said, the finger- 
 bones which are packed into the hoofs of a horse, or the paps 
 and nipples of a male animal. Now the spectator, recollecting 
 such cases might say : I know that the earth is inhabited ; no 
 doubt Mars and Jupiter are a good deal like the Earth ; but 
 are they inhabited ? They look like the terrestrial breast of 
 Nature : but are they really nursing breasts 1 Do they, like 
 that, give food to living offspring ? Or are they mere image's of 
 such breasts 1 male teats, dry of all nutritive power 1 sports, or 
 rather overworks of nature ; marks of a wider law than the 
 needs of Mother Earth require 1 many sketches of a design, 
 of which only one was to be executed 1 many specimens of 
 the preparatory process of making a Planet, of which only 
 one was to be carried out into the making of a World 1 Such 
 questions might naturally occur to a person acquainted with 
 the course of creation in general ; even before he remarked the 
 features which tend to show that Jupiter and Saturn, that Venus 
 and Mercury, have not been developed into peopled worlds, 
 like our Earth. 
 
 10. Perhaps it may be said, that to hold this, is to make Na- 
 ture work in vain ; to waste her powei s ; to suppose her to 
 produce the frame work, and not to build ; to make the skele- 
 ton, and not to clothe it with living flesh ; to delude us with 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 249 
 
 appearances .of analogy and promises of fertility, which are 
 fallacious. What can we reply to this ? 
 
 11. We reply, that to work in vain, in the sense of produc- 
 ing means of life which are not used, embryos which are never 
 vivified, germs which are not developed ; is so far from being 
 contrary to the usual proceedings of nature, that it is an ope- 
 ration which is constantly going on, in every part of nature. 
 Of the vegetable seeds which are produced, what an infinitely 
 small proportion ever grow into plants ! Of animal ova, how 
 exceedingly few become animals, in proportion to those that do 
 not ; and that are wasted, if this be waste ! It is an old cal- 
 culation, which used to be repeated as a wonderful thing, that 
 a single female fish contains in its body 200 millions of ova, 
 and thus, might, of itself alone, replenish the seas, if all these 
 were fostered into life. But in truth, this, though it may ex- 
 cite wonder, cannot excite wonder as anything uncommon. It 
 is only one example of what occurs everywhere. Every tree, 
 every plant, produces innumerable flowers, the flowers innu- 
 merable seeds, which drop to the earth, or are carried abroad 
 by the winds, and perish, without having their powers unfolded. 
 When we see a field of thistles shed its downy seeds upon the 
 wind, so that they roll away like a cloud, what a vast host of 
 possible thistles are there ! Yet very probably none of them 
 become actual thistles. Few are able to take hold of the 
 ground at all ; and those that do, die for lack of congenial ' 
 nutriment, or are crushed by external causes before they are 
 grown. The like is the case with every tribe of plants.* The 
 
 * Every reader of physiological works knows how easy it would be 
 to multiply examples of this kind to any extent. Thus it is held by 
 physiologists, that the sporules of fungi are universally diffused 
 through the atmosphere, ready to vegetate whenever an opportunity 
 presents itself : and that a single individual produces not less than ten 
 millions of germs. It is held also that innumerable seeds of plants 
 
 11* 
 
250 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 like with every tribe of animals. The possible fertility of 
 some kinds of insects is as portentous as anything of this kind 
 can be. If allowed to proceed unchecked, if the possible life 
 were not perpetually extinguished, the multiplying energies 
 perpetually frustrated, they would gain dominion over the larg- 
 est animals, and occupy the earth. And the same is the case, 
 in different degrees, in the larger animals. The female is 
 stocked with innumerable ovules, capable of becoming living 
 things : of which incomparably the greatest number end as 
 they began, mere ovules ; marks of mere possibility, of vi- 
 tality frustrated. The universe is so full of such rudiments of 
 things, that they far outnumber the things which outgrow their 
 rudiments. The marks of possibility are much more nume- 
 rous than the tale of actuality. The vitality which is frustrated 
 is far more copious than the vitality which is consummated. 
 So far, then, as this analogy goes, if the earth alone, of all the 
 planetary harvest, has been a fertile seed of creation ; if the 
 terrestrial embryo have alone been evolved into life, while all 
 the other masses have remained barren and dead : we have, 
 in this, nothing which we need regard as an unprecedented 
 waste, an improbable prodigality, an unusual failure in the op- 
 erations of nature : but on the contrary, such a single case of 
 success among many of failure, is exactly the order of nature 
 in the production of life. It is quite agreeable to analogy, that 
 the Solar System, of which the flowers are not many, should 
 have borne but one fertile flower. One in eight, or in twice 
 eight, reared into such wondrous fertility as belongs to the 
 Earth, is an abundant produce, compared with the result in the 
 most fertile provinces of Nature. And even if any number 
 
 still capable of vegetation, lie in strata far below the earth's surface, 
 finding the occasion to vegetate only by the rarest and most excep- 
 tional occurrences. Carpenter, Manual of Physiology. 1851, Art. 44. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 251 
 
 of the Fixed Stars were also found to be barren flowers of the 
 sky ; objects, however beautiful, yet not sources of life or de- 
 velopment, we need not think the powers of creation wasted 
 or frustrated, thrown away or perverted. One such fertile re- 
 sult as the Earth, with all its hosts of plants and animals, and 
 especially with Man, an intelligent being, to stand at the head 
 of those hosts, is a worthy and sufficient produce, so far as we 
 can judge of the Creator's ways by analogy, of all the Univer- 
 sal Scheme. 
 
 12. But when we follow this analogy, so far as to speak of 
 the mere material mass of a planet as an embryo world ; a 
 barren flower ; a seed which has never been developed into a 
 plant ; we are in danger of allowing the analogy to mislead 
 us. For a planet, as to its brute mass, has really nothing in 
 common with a seed or an embryo. It has no organization, 
 or tendency to organization ; no principle of life, however ob- 
 scure. So far as we can judge, no progress of time, or opera- 
 tion of mere natural influence, would clothe a brute mass with 
 vegetables, or stock it with animals. No species of living 
 thing would have its place upon the surface,- by the mere order 
 of unintelligent nature. So much is this so, according to all 
 that our best knowledge teaches, that those geologists who 
 must most have desired, for the sake of giving completeness 
 and consistency to their systems, to make the production of 
 vegetable and animal species from brute matter, a part of the 
 order of nature, (inasmuch as they have explained everything 
 else by the order of nature,) have not ventured to do so. They 
 allow, generally at least, each separate species to require a 
 special act of creative power, to bring it into being. They 
 make the peopling of the earth, with its successive races of in- 
 habitants, a series of events altogether different from the ope- 
 ration of physical laws in the sustentation of existing species. 
 
252 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 The creation of life is, they allow, something out of the range 
 of the ordinary laws of nature. And therefore, when we speak 
 of uninhabited planets, as cases in which vital tendencies have 
 been defeated ; in which their apparent destiny, as worlds of 
 life, has been frustrated ; we really do injustice to our argu- 
 ment. The planets had no vital tendencies : they could have 
 had such given, only by an additional act, or a series of ad- 
 ditional acts, of Creative power. As mere inert globes, they 
 had no settled destiny to be seats of life : they could have such 
 a destiny, only by the appointment of Him who creates living 
 things, and puts them in the places which he chooses for them. 
 If, when a planetary mass had come into being, (in virtue of 
 the same general physical law, suppose, which produced the 
 earth,) the Creator placed a host of living things upon the earth, 
 and none upon the other planet ; there was still no violation 
 of analogy, no seeming change of purpose, no unfinished plan. 
 In the solar system, we can see what seem to be good reasons 
 why he did this ; but if we could not see such reasons, still we 
 should be yet further from being able to see reasons why he 
 necessarily must place inhabitants upon the other planet. 
 
 13. It is sometimes said, that it is agreeable to the goodness 
 of God, that all parts of the creation should swarm with life ; 
 that life is enjoyment ; and that the benevolence of the Su- 
 preme Being is shown in the diffusion of such enjoyment into 
 every quarter of the universe. To leave a planet without in- 
 habitants, would, it is thought, be to throw away an opportun- 
 ity of producing happiness. Now we shall not here dwell 
 upon the consideration, that the enjoyment thus spoken of, is, 
 in a great degree, the enjoyment which the mere life of the 
 lower tribes of animals implies ; the enjoyment of madrepores 
 and oysters, cuttle-fish and sharks, tortoises and serpents; but 
 we reply more broadly, that it is not the rule followed by the 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 253 
 
 Creator, to fill all places with living things. To say nothing of 
 the vast intervals between planet and planet, which, it is pre 
 sumed, no one supposes to be occupied by living things ; how- 
 large a portion of the surface of the earth is uninhabited, or 
 inhabited only in the scantiest manner. Vast desert tracts ex- 
 ist in Africa and in Asia, where the barren sand nourishes 
 neither animal nor vegetable life. The highest regions of 
 mountain-ranges, clothed with perpetual snow, and with far- 
 reaching sheets of glacier ice, are untenanted, except by the 
 chamois at their outskirts. There are many uninhabited 
 islands ; and were formerly many more. The ocean, covering 
 nearly three-fourths of the globe, is no seat of habitation for 
 land animals or for man ; and though it has a large population 
 of the fishy tribes, is probably peopled in smaller numbers 
 than if it were land, as well as by inferior orders. We see, 
 in the Earth then, which is the only seat of life of which we 
 really know anything, nothing to support the belief that every 
 field in the material universe is tenanted by living inhabitants. 
 14. That vegetables and animals, being once placed upon the 
 earth, have multiplied or are multiplying, so as to occupy every 
 part of the land and water which is suited for their habitation, 
 we can see much reason to believe. Philosophical natural-his- 
 orians have been generally led to the conviction that each 
 species has had an original centre of dispersion, where it was 
 first native, and that from this centre it has been diffused in all 
 directions, as far as the circumstances of climate and soil were 
 favorable to its production. But we can see also much reason 
 to believe that this general diffusion of vegetable and animal 
 life from centres, is a part of the order of nature which may 
 often be made to give way to other and higher purposes ; to 
 the diffusion, over the whole surface of the earth, of a race of 
 intelligent, moral agents. This process may often interfere 
 
254 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 with the general law of diffusion : as for instance, when man 
 exterminates noxious animals. And whatever may be the laws 
 which tend to replenish the earth, on which such centres of the 
 diffusion of life exist for animals and plants ; according to all 
 analogy, these laws can have no force on any other planet, till 
 such origins and centres of life are established on their sur- 
 faces. And even if any of the species which have ever ten- 
 anted the earth were so established on any other planet, we 
 have the strongest reason to believe that they could not sur- 
 vive to a second generation. 
 
 15. Perhaps it may be said that we unjustifiably limit the 
 power and skill of the Supreme Creator, if we deny that he 
 could frame creatures fitted to live on any of the other plan- 
 ets, as well as- in the Earth : that the wonderful variety, and 
 unexpected resource, of the ways in which animals are 
 adapted for all kinds of climates, habitations, and conditions, 
 upon the earth, may give us confidence that, under conditions 
 still more extended, in habitations still further removed, in 
 climates going beyond the terrestrial extremes, still the same 
 wisdom and skill may well be supposed to have devised pos- 
 sible modes jof animal life. 
 
 16. To this we reply, that we are so far from saying that 
 the Creator could not place inhabitants in the other planets, 
 that we have attempted to show what kind of inhabitants 
 would be most likely to be placed there, by considering the 
 way in which animals are accommodated to special conditions 
 in their habitation. In judging of such modes of accommo- 
 dating animals to an abode on other planets, as well as the 
 earth, we have reasoned from what we know, of the mode in 
 which animals are accommodated to their different habitations 
 on the earth. We believe this to be the only safe and phi- 
 losophical way of treating the question. If we are to reason 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 255 
 
 at all about the possibility of animal life, we must suppose 
 that heat and light, gravity and buoyancy, materials and affini- 
 ties, air and moisture, produce the same effect, require the 
 same adaptations, in Jupiter or in Venus, as they do on the 
 Earth. If we do not suppose this, we run into the error 
 which so long prevented many from accepting the Newtonian 
 system : the error of thinking that matter in the heavens is 
 governed by quite different laws from matter on the earth. 
 We must adopt that belief, if we hold that animals may live 
 under relations of heat and moisture, materials and affinities, 
 in Jupiter or Venus, under which they could not live on our 
 planet. And that belief, as we have said, appears to us con- 
 trary to all the teaching which the history of science offers us. 
 17. And not only is it contrary to the teaching of the his- 
 tory of science, to suppose the laws, which connect elemental 
 and organic nature, to be different in the other planets from 
 what they are on ours ; but moreover the supposition would 
 not at all answer the purpose, of making it probable that the 
 planets are inhabited. For if we begin to imagine new and 
 unknown laws of nature for those abodes, what is there to 
 limit or determine our assumptions in any degree ? What 
 extravagant mixtures of the attributes and properties of mind 
 and matter may we not then accept as probable truths 1 We 
 know how difficult the poets have found it to describe, with 
 any degree of consistency, the actions and events of a. world 
 of angels, or of evil spirits, souls or shades, embodied in forms 
 so as to admit of description, and yet not subject to the 
 laws of human bodies. Virgil, Tasso, Milton, Klopstock, and 
 many others, have struggled with this difficulty : no one of 
 them, it will be probably agreed, with any great success ; at 
 least, regarding his representation as a hypothesis of a pos- 
 sible form of life, different from all the forms which we know. 
 
256 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 Yet if we are to reject the laws which govern the known 
 forms of life, in order that we may be able to maintain the 
 possibility of some unknown form in a different planet, we 
 must accept some of these hypotheses, or find a better. We 
 must suppose that weight and cohesion, wounds and mutila- 
 tions, wings and plumage, would have, either the effect which 
 the poets represent them as having, or some different eifect : 
 and in either case it will be impossible to give any sufficient 
 reason why we should confine the population to the surface 
 of a planet. If gravity have not, upon any set of beings, the 
 effect which it has upon us, such beings may live upon the 
 surface of Saturn, though it be mere vapor : but then, on that 
 supposition, they may equally well live in the vast space be- 
 tween Saturn and Jupiter, without needing any planet for their 
 mansion. If we are ready to suppose that there are, in the 
 solar system, conscious beings, not subject to the ordinary 
 laws of life, we may go on to imagine creatures constituted of 
 vaporous elements, floating in the fiery haze of a nebula, or 
 close to the body of a sun ; and cloudy forms which soar as 
 vapors in the region of vapor. Bat such imaginations, be- 
 sides being gather fitted for the employment of poets than of 
 philosophers, will not, as we have said, find a population for 
 the planets ; since such forms may just as easily be conceived 
 swimming round the sun in empty space, or darting from star 
 to star, as confining themselves to the neighborhood of any 
 of the solid globes which revolve about the central sun. 
 
 18. We should not, then add anything to the probability 
 of inhabitants on the other planets of our system, even if we 
 were arbitrarily to assume unlimited changes in the laws of 
 nature, when we pass from our region to theirs. But prob- 
 ably, all readers will be of opinion that such assumptions are 
 contrary to the whole scheme and spirit of such speculations 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 257 
 
 as we are here presuming : that if we speculate on such sub- 
 jects at all, it must be done by supposing that the same laws 
 of nature operate in the same manner, in planetary, as in ter- 
 restrial spaces ; and that as we suppose, and prove, gravity 
 and attraction, inertia and momentum, to follow the same 
 rules, and produce the same effects, on brute matter there, 
 which they do here ; so, both these forces, and others, as light 
 and heat, moisture and air, if, in the planets, they go beyond 
 the extremes which limit them here, yet must imply, in any 
 organized beings which exist in the planets, changes, though 
 greater in amount, of the same kind as those which occur in 
 approaching the terrestrial extremes of those elementary 
 agents. And what kind of a population that would lead us to 
 suppose in Jupiter or Saturn, Mars or Venus, the reader has 
 already seen our attempt to determine ; and may thence judge 
 whether, when we go so far beyond the terrestrial extremes of 
 heat and cold, light and dimness, vapor and water, air and 
 airlessness, any population at all is probable. 
 
 19. Perhaps some persons, even if they cannot resist the 
 force of these reasons, may still yield to them with regret ; 
 and may feel as if, having hitherto believed that the planets 
 were inhabited, and having now to give up that belief, their 
 view of the solar system, as one of the provinces of God's 
 creation, were made narrower and poorer than it was before. 
 And this feeling may be still further increased, if they are led 
 to believe also that many of the fixed stars are not the centres 
 of inhabited systems ; or that very few, or none are. It may 
 seem to them, as if, by such a change of belief, the field of 
 God's greatness, benevolence, and government, were narrowed 
 and impoverished, to an extent painful and shocking ; as if, 
 instead of being the Maker and Governor of innumerable 
 worlds, of the most varied constitution, we were called upon to 
 
258 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 regard him as merely the Master of the single world in which 
 we live : as if, instead of being the object of reverence and 
 adoration to the intelligent population of these thousand 
 spheres, he was recognized and worshipped on one only, and 
 on that, how scantily and imperfectly ! 
 
 20. It is not to be denied that there may be such a regret 
 and disturbance naturally felt, at having to give up our belief 
 that the planets and the stars probably contain servants and 
 worshippers of God. It must always be a matter of pain and 
 trouble, to be urged with tenderness, and to be performed in 
 time, to untwine our reverential religious sentiments from er- 
 roneous views of the constitution of the universe with which 
 they have been involved. But the change once made, it is 
 found that religion is uninjured, and reverence un diminished. 
 And therefore we trust that the reader will receive with can- 
 dor and patience the argument which we have to offer with 
 reference to this view, or rather, this sentiment. 
 
 21. We remark, in the first place, that however repugnant 
 it may be to us to believe a state of any part of the universe 
 in which there are. not creatures who can know, obey and wor- 
 ship God ; we are compelled, by geological evidence, to admit 
 that such a state of things has existed upon the earth, during a 
 far longer period than the whole duration of man's race. If 
 we suppose that the human race, if not by their actual knowl- 
 edge, obedience, and worship of God, yet at least by their 
 faculties for knowing, obeying, and worshipping, are a suffici- 
 ent reason why there should be such a province in God's 
 empire ; still in fact, this race has existed only for a few thou- 
 sand years, out of the, perhaps, millions of years of the earth's 
 existence; and during all the previous period, the earth, if 
 tenanted, was tenanted by brute creatures, fishes and lizards, 
 beasts and birds, of which none had any faculty, intellectual; 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 259 
 
 moral, or religious. By the same analogy, therefore, on which 
 we have already insisted, we may argue that there is reason 
 to believe, that if other planets, and other stars, are the seats of 
 habitation, it is rather of such habitation as has prevailed upon the 
 earth during the millions, than during the six thousand years; and 
 that if we have, in consequence of physical reasons, to give up the 
 belief of a population in the other planets, or in the stars ; we are 
 giving up, not anything with which we might dwell with religi- 
 ous pleasure hosts of fellow-servants and fellow-worshippers of 
 the Divine Author of all : but the mere brute tribes, of the 
 land and of the water, things that creep and crawl, prowl and 
 spring ; none that can lift its visage to the sky, with a feel- 
 ing that it is looking for its Maker and Master. There have 
 not existed upon the Earth, during the immense ages of its 
 proehuman existence, beings who could recognize and think 
 of the Creator of the world : and if astronomy introduces us, 
 as geology has done, to a new order of material structures, 
 thus barren of an intelligent and religious population, we must 
 learn to accept the prospect, in the one case, as in the other. 
 Nor need we fear that on a further contemplation of the uni- 
 verse, we shall find every part of it ministering, though perhaps 
 not in the way our first thoughts had guessed, to sentiments 
 of reverence and adoration towards the Maker of the universe. 
 22. The truth is, as the slightest recollection of the course 
 of opinion about the stars may satisfy us, that men have had 
 repeatedly to give up the notions which they had adopted, of 
 the manner in which the material heavens, the stars and the 
 skies, are to minister to man's feeling of reverence for the 
 Creator. It was long ago said, that the heavens declare the 
 glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork : 
 that day and night, sun and moon, clouds and stars, unite in 
 Impressing upon us this sentiment. And this language still 
 
260 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 finds a sympathetic echo, in the breasts of all religious per- 
 sons. Nor will it ever cease to do so, however our opinions 
 of the structure and nature of the heavenly bodies may alter. 
 When the new aspects of things become familiar, they will 
 show us the handiwork of God, and declare his glory, as 
 plainly as -the old ones. But in the progress of opinions, man 
 has often had to resign what seemed to him, at the time, 
 visions so beautiful, sublime, and glorious, that they could not 
 be dismissed without regret. The Universal Lord was at one 
 time conceived as directing the motions of all the spheres by 
 means of Ruling Angels, appointed to preside over each. The 
 prevalence of proportion and number, in the dimensions of 
 these spheres, was assumed to point to the existence of har- 
 monious sounds, accompanying their movements, though un- 
 heard by man ; as proportion and number had been found to 
 be the accompaniments and conditions of harmony upon earth. 
 The time came, when these opinions were no longer consistent 
 with man's knowledge of the heavenly motions, and of the 
 wide-spreading causes by which they are produced. Then 
 " Ruling Angels from their spheres were hurled," as a matter 
 of belief; though still the poets loved to refer to imagery in 
 which so many lofty and reverent thoughts had so long been 
 clothed. The aspect of the stars was most naturally turned 
 to a lesson of cheerful and thoughtful piety, by the adoption 
 of such a view of their nature and office ; and thus, the mid- 
 night contemplator of an Italian sky teaches his companion 
 concerning the starry host ; 
 
 Sit, Jessica ; look how the floor of heav'n 
 Is thick inlaid with patterns of bright gold. 
 There's not the meanest orb, which thou behold'et, 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims.; 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FEOM DESIGN. 261 
 
 Meaning, apparently, the harmony between the immortal spir- 
 its that govern each star, and the cherubims that sing before 
 the throne of God. But however beautiful and sublime may 
 be this representation, the philosopher has had to abandon it 
 in its literal sense. He may have adopted, instead, the opin- 
 ion that each of the stars is the seat, or the centre of a group 
 of seats, of choirs of worshippers ; but this again, is still to 
 suppose the nature of those orbs to be entirely different from 
 that of this earth ; though in many respects, we know that 
 they are governed by the same laws. And if he will be con- 
 tent to know no more than he has the means of knowing, or 
 even to know only according to his best means of knowing, he 
 must be prepared, if the force of proof so requires, to give up 
 this belief also ; at least for the present. 
 
 23. Indeed, those who have not been content with this, and 
 have sought to combine with the visible splendor of the skies, 
 some scheme, founded upon astronomical views, which shall 
 people them with intelligent beings and worshippers, have 
 drawn upon their fancy quite as much as Lorenzo in his lesson 
 to Jessica ; or rather, they have done what he and those from 
 whom his love was derived, had done before. They have 
 taken the truths which astronomers have discovered and taught, 
 and made the objects and regions so revealed, the scenes and 
 occasions of such sentiments of piety as they themselves have, 
 or feel that they ought to have. Even in Shakspeare, the 
 stars are already orbs, each orb has his motion, and in his mo- 
 tion produces the music of the spheres. More recent preach- 
 ers, following sounder views of the nature of these orbs and 
 motions, have been equally poetical when they come to their 
 religious reflection. When the poet of the Night Thoughts says, 
 " Each of these stars is a religious house ; 
 I saw their altars smoke, their incense rise, 
 And heard hosannas ring through every sphere." 
 
262 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 he is no less imaginative than the poet of that Midsummer 
 Nights Dream, which we have in the Merchant of Venice. 
 And we are compelled, by all the evidence which we can dis- 
 cern, to say the same of the preacher who speaks, from the 
 pulpit, of these orbs of worlds, and tells us of the stars which 
 " give animation to other systems* ;" when he saysf " worlds 
 roll in these distant regions ; and these worlds must be the 
 centres of life and intelligence ;" when he speaks of the earthj 
 as " the humblest of the provinces of God's empire." But 
 then we must recollect that these thoughts still prove the relig- 
 ious nature of man ; they show how he is impelled to endeavor 
 to elevate his mind to God by every part of the universe ; and 
 it is not too much to say, that through the faculties of man, 
 thus regarding the starry heavens, every star does really testify 
 to the greatness of God, and minister to His worship. 
 
 24. We may trust that this mere material magnificence 
 does not require inhabitants, to make it lift man's heart towards 
 the Universal Creator, and to make him accept it as a sublime 
 evidence of His greatness. The grandest objects in nature are 
 blank and void of life ; the mountain-peaks that stand, ridge 
 beyond ridge, serene in the region of perpetual snow ; the 
 summer-clouds, images of such mountain tracts, even upon a 
 grander scale, and tinted with more gorgeous colors; the 
 thunder-cloud with its dazzling bolt ; the stormy ocean with 
 its mountainous waves ; the Aurora Borealis, with its mysteri- 
 ous pillars of fire ; all these are sublime ; all these elevate the 
 soul, and make it acknowledge a mighty Worker in the ele- 
 ments, in spite of any teaching of a material philosophy. And 
 if we have to regard the planets as merely parts of the same 
 great spectacle of nature, we shall not the less regard them with 
 an admiration which ministers to pious awe. Even merely as 
 * Chalmers, p. 35. f Ibid p. 21. J Ibid. p. 119. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FEOM DESIGN. 263 
 
 a spectacle, Saturn made visible in his real shape, only by a 
 vast exertion of human skill, yet shining like a star, in form 
 so curiously complex, symmetrical and seemingly artificial, 
 will never cease to be an object of the ardent and contempla- 
 tive gaze of all who catch a sight of him. And however much 
 the philosopher may teach that he is merely a mass of water 
 and vapor, ice and snow, he must be far more interesting to 
 the eye than the Alps, or the clouds that crown them, or the 
 ocean with its icebergs ; where the same elements occur in forms 
 comparatively shapeless and lawless, irregular and chaotic. 
 
 25. But perhaps there is in the minds of many persons, a 
 sentiment connected with this regular and symmetrical form of 
 the heavenly bodies ; that being thus beautifully formed and 
 finished they must have been the objects of especial care to 
 the Creator. These regular globes, these nearly circular orbits, 
 these families of satellites, they too so regular in their move- 
 ments ; this ring of Saturn ; all the adjustments by wliich the 
 planetary motions are secured from going wrong, as the pro- 
 foundest researches into the mechanics of the universe show ; 
 all these things seem to indicate a peculiar attention be- 
 stowed by the Maker on each part of the machine. So much 
 of law and order, of symmetry and beauty in every part, im- 
 plies, it may be thought, that every part has been framed with 
 a view to some use ; that its symmetry and its beauty are 
 the marks of some noble purpose. 
 
 26. To reply to this argument, so far as it is requisite for us 
 to do so, we must recur to what we have already said ; that 
 though we see in many parts of the universe, inorganic as well 
 as organic, marks which we cannot mistake, of design and pur- 
 pose ; yet that this design and purpose are often effected by 
 laws which are of a much wider sweep than the design, so far 
 as we can trace its bearing. These laws, besides answering the 
 
264 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 purpose, produce many other effects, in which we can see no 
 purpose. "We have now to observe further that these laws, 
 thus ranging widely through the universe, and working every- 
 where, as if the Creator delighted in the generality of the law, 
 independently of its special application, do often produce in- 
 numerable results of beauty and symmetry, as if the Creator 
 delighted in beauty and symmetry, independently of the pur- 
 pose answered. 
 
 27. Thus, to exemplify this reflection : the powers of aggrega- 
 tion and cohesion, which hold together the parts of solid bodies, 
 as metals and stones, salts and ice, which solidify matter, in 
 short, we can easily see, to be necessary, in order to the for- 
 mation and preservation of solid terrestrial bodies. They are 
 requisite, in order that man may have the firm earth to stand 
 upon, and firm materials to use. But let us observe, what a 
 wonderful and beautiful variety of phenomena grows out of 
 this law* with no apparent bearing upon that which seems to 
 us its main purpose. The power of aggregation of solid bodies 
 is, in fact, the force of crystallization. It binds together the 
 particles of bodies by molecular forces, which not only hold 
 the particles together, but are exerted in special directions, 
 which form triangles, squares, hexagons, and the like. And 
 hence we have all the variety of crystalline forms which sparkle 
 in gems, ores, earths, pyrites, blendes ; and which, when ex- 
 amined by the crystallographers, are found to be an inexhausti- 
 ble field of the play of symmetrical complexity. The dia- 
 mond, the emerald, the topaz, have got each its peculiar kind 
 of symmetry. Gold and other metals have, for the basis of 
 their forms, the cube, but run from this into a vastly greater 
 variety of regular solids than ever geometer dreamt of. Some 
 single species of minerals, as calc-spar, present hundreds of 
 forms, all rigorously regular, and have been alone the subject 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 265 
 
 of volumes. Ice crystalizes by the same laws as other solid 
 bodies ; and our Arctic voyagers have sometimes relieved the 
 weariness of their sojourn in those regions, by collecting some 
 of the innumerable forms, resembling an endless collection of 
 hexagonal flowers, sporting into different shapes, which are as- 
 sumed by flakes of snow*. In these and many other ways, the 
 power of crystallization produces an inexhaustible supply of 
 examples of symmetrical beauty. And what are we to con- 
 ceive to be the object and purpose of this 1 As we have said, 
 that part of the purpose which is intelligible to us is, that we 
 have here a force holding together the particles of bodies, so 
 as to make them solid. But all these pretty shapes add no- 
 thing to this intelligible use. Why then are they there ? They 
 are there, it would seem, for their own sake ; because they 
 are pretty ; symmetry and beauty are there on their own ac- 
 count ; or because they are universal adjuncts of the general 
 laws by which the creator works. Or rather we may say, com- 
 bining different branches of our knowledge, that crystallization 
 is the mark and accompaniment of chemical composition : and 
 that as chemical composition takes place according to definite 
 numbers, so crystaline aggregation takes place according to defi- 
 nite forms. The symmetrical relations of space in crystals cor- 
 respond to the simple relations of number in synthesis ; and 
 thus, because there is rule, there is regularity, and regularity 
 assumes the form of beauty. 
 
 28. This, which thus shows itself throughout the mineral 
 kingdom, or, speaking more widely and truly, throughout the 
 whole range of chemical composition, is still more manifest in 
 the vegetable domain. All the vast array of flowers, so infi- 
 
 * Dr. Scoresby, in his Account of the Artie Regions (1820) Vol. II. 
 has given figures of 96 such forms, selected for their eminent regu- 
 larity from many more. 
 
 12 
 
266 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 nitely various, and so "beautiful in their variety, are the results 
 of a few general laws ; and show, in the degree of their sym- 
 metry, the alternate operation of one . law and another. The 
 rose, the lily, the cowslip, the violet, differ in something of the 
 same way, in which the crystalline forms of the several gems 
 differ. Their parts are arranged in fives or in threes, in pen- 
 tagons or in hexagons, and in these regular forms, one part or 
 another is expanded or contracted, rendered conspicuous by 
 color or by shape, so as to produce all the multiplicity of 
 beauty which the florist admires. Or rather, in the eye of the 
 philosophical botanist, the whole of the structure of plants, 
 with all their array of stems and leaves, blossoms and fruits, 
 is but the manifestation of one Law ; and all these members 
 of the vegetable form, are, in their natures, the same, devel- 
 oped more or less in this way or in that. The daisy consists 
 of a close cluster of flowers of which each has, in its form, the 
 rudiments of the valerian. The peablossom is a rose, with 
 some of its petals expanded into butterfly-like wings. Even 
 without changing the species, this general law leads to endless 
 changes. The garden-rose is the common hedge-rose with in- 
 numerable filaments changed into glowing petals. By the ad- 
 dition of whorl to whorl, of vegetable coronet over coronet, 
 green and colored, broad and narrow, filmy and rigid, every 
 plant is generated, and the glory of the field and of the garden, 
 of the jungle and of the forest, is brought forth in all its mag- 
 nificence. Here, then, we have an immeasurable wealth of 
 beauty and regularity, brought to view by the operation of a 
 single law. And to what use ? What purpose do these beau- 
 ties answer 1 ? What is the object for which the lilies of the 
 field are clothed so gaily and gorgeously ? Some plants, in- 
 deed, are subservient to the use of animals and of man : but 
 how small is the number in which we can trace this, as an in- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 267 
 
 telligent purpose of their existence ! And does it not, in fact, 
 better express the impression which the survey of this province 
 of nature suggests to us, to say, that they grow because the 
 Creator willed that they should grow 1 Their vegetable life 
 was an object of His care and contrivance, as well as animal and 
 human life. And they are beautiful, also because He willed 
 that they should be so : because He delights in producing 
 beauty ; and, as we have further tried to make it appear, be- 
 cause He acts by general law, and law produces beauty. Is 
 not such a tendency here apparent, as a part of the general 
 scheme of Creation 1 
 
 29. We have already attempted to show, that in the struc- 
 ture of animals, especially that large class best known to us, 
 vertebrate animals, there is also a general plan which, so far as 
 we can see, goes beyond the circuit of the special adaptation 
 of each animal to its mode of living : and is a rule of creative 
 action, in addition to the rule that the parts shall be subservi- 
 ent to an intelligible purpose of animal life. We have noticed 
 several phenomena in the animal kingdon, where parts and 
 features appear, rudimentary and inert, discharging no office 
 in their economy, and speaking to us, not of purpose, but of 
 law : consistent with an end which is visible, but seemingly 
 the results of a rule whose end is in itself. 
 
 30. And do we not, in innumerable cases, see beauties of 
 color and form, texture and lustre, which suggests to us irre- 
 sistibly the belief that beauty and regular form are rules of the 
 Creative agency, even when they seem to us, looking at the 
 creation for uses only, idle and wanton expenditure of beauty 
 and regularity. To what purpose are the host of splendid cir- 
 cles which decorate the tail of the peacock, more beautiful, 
 each of them, than Saturn with his rings ? To what purpose 
 the exquisite textures of microscopic objects, more curiously 
 
268 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 regular than anything which the telescope discloses ? To what 
 purpose the gorgeous colors of tropical birds and insects, that 
 live and die where human eye never approaches to admire 
 them ? To what purpose the thousands of species of butter- 
 flies with the gay and varied embroidery of their microscopic 
 plumage, of which one in millions, if seen at all, only draws 
 the admiration of the wandering schoolboy ? To what purpose 
 the delicate and brilliant markings of shells, which live, gener- 
 ation after generation, in the sunless and sightless depths of 
 the ocean ? Do not all these examples, to which we might add 
 countless others, (for the world, so far as human eye has scanned 
 it, is full of them,) prove that beauty and regularity are uni- 
 versal features of the work of Creation, in all its parts, small 
 and great : and that we judge in a way contrary to a vast 
 range of analogy, which runs through the whole of the Uni- 
 verse, when we infer that, because the objects which are pre- 
 sented to our contemplation are beautiful in aspect and regu- 
 lar in form, they must, in each case, be means for some special 
 end, of those which we commonly fix upon, as the main ends 
 of the Creation, the support and advantage of animals or of 
 man? 
 
 31. If this be so, then the beautiful and regular objects 
 which the telescope reveals to us ; Jupiter and his Moons, 
 Saturn and his Rings, the most regular of the Double Stars, 
 Clusters and Nebulss ; cannot reasonably be inferred, because 
 they are beautiful and regular, to be also fields of life, or scenes 
 of thought. They may be, as to the poet's eye they often ap- 
 pear, the gems of the robe of Night, the flowers of the celes- 
 tial fields. Like gems and like flowers, they are beautiful and 
 regular, because they are brought into "being by vast and gen- 
 eral laws. Those laws, although, in the mind of the Creator, 
 they have their sufficient reason, as far as they extend, may 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 269 
 
 have, in no other region than that which we inhabit, the reason 
 which we seek to discover everywhere, the sustentation of a 
 life like ours. That we should connect with the existence of 
 such laws, the existence of Mind like our own mind, is most 
 natural ; and, as we might easily show, is justifiable, reasonable, 
 even necessary. But that we should suppose the result of such 
 laws are so connected with Mind, that wherever the laws 
 gather matter into globes, and whirl it round the central body, 
 there is also a local seat of minds like ours ; is an assumption 
 altogether unwarranted ; and is, without strong evidence, of 
 which we have as yet no particle, quite visionary. 
 
 32. But finally, it may be said that by this our view of the 
 universe, we diminish the greatness of the work of creation, 
 and the majesty of the Creator. Such a view appears to rep- 
 resent the other planets as mere fragments, which have flown 
 off in the fabrication of this our earth, and of the mechanism 
 by which it answers its purpose. Instead of a vast array of 
 completed worlds, we have one world, surrounded by abortive 
 worlds and inert masses. Instead of perfection everywhere, 
 we have imperfection everywhere, except at one spot ; if even 
 there the workmanship be perfect. 
 
 33. To this, the reply is contained in what we have already 
 said : but we may add, that it cannot be wise or right, to prop 
 up our notions of God's greatness, by physical doctrines which 
 will not bear discussion. God's greatness has no need of man's 
 inventions for its support. The very conviction that the Cre- 
 ation must be such as to confirm our belief in the greatness of 
 God, shows that such a belief is more deeply seated than any 
 special views of the structure of the universe, and will tri- 
 umphantly survive the removal of error in such views. We 
 may add, that till within a few thousand years, this earth, com- 
 pared with what it now is, having upon it no intelligent beings, 
 
270 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 might be regarded as an abortive world ; that all the parts of 
 the solar system which we can best scrutinize, the moon, arid 
 meteoric stones, are inert masses ; and further, that there is 
 everywhere the perfection which results from the operation of 
 law, and that that seems to be the perfection with which the 
 Creator is contented. 
 
 34. And perhaps, when the view of the universe which we 
 here present has become familiar, we may be led to think that 
 the aspect which it gives to the mode of working of the Crea- 
 tor, is sufficiently grand and majestic. Instead of manufactur- 
 ing a multitude of worlds on patterns more or less similar, 
 He has been employed in one great work, which we cannot 
 call imperfect, since it includes and suggests all that we can 
 conceive of perfection. It may be that all the other bodies, 
 which we can discover in the universe, show the greatness of 
 this work, and are rolled into forms of symmetry and order, 
 into masses of light and splendor, by the vast whirl which the 
 original creative energy imparted to the luminous element. 
 The planets and the stars are the lumps which have flown 
 from the potter's wheel of the Great Worker ; the shred-coils 
 which, in the working, sprang from His mighty lathe : the 
 sparks which darted from His awful anvil when the solar sys- 
 tem lay incandescent thereon ; the curls of vapor which rose 
 from the great cauldron of creation when its elements were 
 separated. If even these superfluous portions of the material 
 are marked with universal traces of regularity and order, this 
 shows that universal rules are his implements, and that Order 
 is the first and universal Law of the heavenly work. 
 
 35. And, that we may see the full dignity of this work, we 
 must always recollect that Man is a part of.it, and the crown- 
 ing part. The workmanship which is employed on mere 
 matter is, after all, of small account, in the eyes of intellectual 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 271 
 
 and moral creatures, when compared with the creation and go- 
 vernment of intellectual and moral creatures. The majesty 
 of God does not reside in planets and stars, in orbs and sys- 
 tems ; which are, after all, only stone and vapor, materials 
 and means. If, as we "believe, God has not only made the 
 material world, but has made and governs man, we need not 
 regret to have to depress any portion of the material world 
 below the place which we had previously assigned to it ; for, 
 when all is done, the material world must be put in an inferior 
 place, compared with the world of mind. If there be a World 
 of Mind, that, according to all that we can conceive, must have 
 been better worth creating, must be more worthy to exist, as 
 an object of care in the eyes of the Creator, than thousands 
 and millions of stars and planets, even if they were occupied 
 by a myriad times as many species of brute animals as have 
 lived upon the earth since its vivification. In saying this, we 
 are only echoing the common voice of mankind, uttered, as so 
 often it is, by the tongues of poets. One such speaks thus of 
 stellar systems : 
 
 Behold this midnight splendor, worlds on worlds ; 
 Ten thousand add and twice ten thousand more, 
 Then weigh the whole : one soul outweighs them all, 
 And calls the seeming vast magnificence 
 Of unintelligent creation, poor. 
 
 And as this is true of intelligence, with the suggestion whfch 
 that faculty so naturally offers, of the inextinguishable nature 
 of mind, so is it true of the moral nature of man. No accu- 
 mulation of material grandeur, even if it fill the universe, has 
 any dignity in our eyes, compared with moral grandeur : as 
 poetry has also expressed : 
 
 Look then abroad through nature, to the range 
 Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, 
 
272 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 -Wheeling unshaken through the void immense, 
 And speak, O man ! Can this capacious scene 
 With half that kindling majesty exalt 
 Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose 
 Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar's fate 
 Amid the band of patriots ; and his arm 
 Aloft extending, like eternal Jove 
 When guilt calls down the thunder, call'd aloud 
 On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, 
 And bade the Father of his Country, Hail ! 
 For lo ! the tyrant prostrate in the dust, 
 And Rome again is free. . 
 
 This action being taken, .as it is here meant to be conceived, 
 for one of the highest examples of moral greatness. And 
 however we may judge of this action, we must allow that the 
 characters which are implied in this praise of it, the loftiest 
 kinds of moral excellence, are more suitable to the highest 
 idea of the object and purpose of a Deity creating worlds, 
 than would be any mere material structure of planets and 
 suns, whether kept in their places by adamantine spheres, 
 wheeling unshaken through the void immense, or themselves 
 wheeling unshaken by the power of a universal law. The 
 thoughts of Rights and Obligations, Duty and Virtue, of Law 
 and Liberty, of Country and Constitution, of the Glory of our 
 Ancestors, the Elevation of our Fellow-Citizens, the Freedom 
 and Happiness and Dignity of Posterity, are thoughts which 
 belong to a world, a race, a body of beings, of which any one 
 individual, with the capacities which such thoughts imply, is 
 more worthy of account, than millions of millions of mollusks 
 and belemnites, lizards and fishes, sloths and pachyderms, dif- 
 fused through myriads of worlds. 
 
 36. We might illustrate this argument further, by taking 
 actions of the moral character of which there will be less 
 doubt. If we look at the great acts which render Greece 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 273 
 
 illustrious and interesting in our eyes, such as the death of 
 Socrates, for instance, the triumph of a reverence for Law 
 and a love of country ; can we think it any real diminution 
 of the glory of the universe, if we are reduced to the neces- 
 sity of rejecting the belief in a multitude of worlds, which 
 though, it may be, peopled with lower animals, contain none 
 endowed with any higher principle than hunger and thirst ? 
 
 37. That the human race possesses a worth in the eyes of 
 Reason beyond that which any material structure, or any 
 brute population can possess, might be maintained on still 
 higher and stronger grounds ; namely, on religious grounds : 
 but we do not intend here to dwell on that part of the subject. 
 If man be, not merely (and he alone of all animals) capable 
 of Virtue and Duty, of Universal Love and Self-Devotion, 
 but be also immortal ; if his being be of infinite duration, his 
 soul created never to die ; then, indeed, we may well say that 
 one soul outweighs the whole unintelligent creation. And if 
 the Earth have been the scene of an action of Love and Self- 
 Devotion for the incalculable benefit of the whole human race, 
 in comparison with which the death of Socrates fades into a 
 mere act of cheerful resignation to the common lot of human- 
 ity ; and if this action, and its consequences to the whole race 
 of man, in his temporal and eternal destiny, and in his history 
 on earth before and after it, were the main object for which 
 man was created, the cardinal point round which the capacities 
 and the fortunes of the race were to turn ; then indeed we see 
 that the Earth has a pre-eminence in the, scheme of creation, 
 which may well reconcile us to regard all the material splen- 
 dour which surrounds it, all the array of mere visible lumi- 
 naries and masses which accompany it, as no unfitting ap- 
 pendages to such a drama. The elevation of millions of 
 intellectual, moral, religious, spiritual creatures, to a destiny 
 
 12* 
 
274 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 so prepared, consummated, and developed, is no unworthy 
 occupation of all the capacities of space, time, and matter. 
 And, so far as any one has yet shown, to regard this great 
 scheme as other than the central point of the divine plan ; to 
 consider it as one part among other parts, similar, co-ordinate, 
 or superior ; involves those who so speculate, in difficulties, 
 even with regard to the plan itself, which they strive in vain 
 to reconcile ; while the assumption of the subjects of such a 
 plan, in other regions of the universe, is at variance with all 
 which we, looking at the analogies of space and time, of earth 
 and stars, of life in brutes and in man, have found reason to 
 deem in any degree probable. 
 
 38. And thus that conjecture of the Plurality of Worlds, 
 to which a wide and careful examination of the physical con- 
 stitution of the Universe supplied no confirmation, derives also 
 little support from a contemplation of the Design which the 
 Creator may be supposed to have had in the work of the Crea- 
 tion ; when such Design is regarded in a comprehensive man- 
 ner, and in all its bearings. Such a survey seems to speak 
 rather in favor of the Unity of the World, than of a Plurality 
 of Worlds. A further consideration of the intellectual, moral, 
 and religious nature of man may still further illustrate this 
 view ; and with that object, we shall make a few additional 
 remarks. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 
 
 1. The two doctrines which we have here to weigh against 
 each other are the Plurality of Worlds, and the Unity of the 
 World. In so saying, we include in our present view, a neces- 
 sary part of the conception of a World, a collection of intelli- 
 gent creatures : for even if the suppositions to which we have 
 been led, respecting the kind of unintelligent living things 
 which may inhabit other parts of the Universe, be conceived 
 to be probable ; such a belief will have little interest for most 
 persons, compared with the belief of other worlds, where re- 
 side intelligence, perception of truth, recognition of moral Law, 
 and reverence for a Divine Creator and Governor. In look- 
 ing outwards at the Universe, there are certain aspects which 
 suggest to man, at first sight, a conjecture that there may be 
 other bodies like the Earth, tenanted by other creatures like 
 man. This conjecture, however, receives no confirmation from 
 a closer inquiry, with increased means of observation. Let us 
 now look inwards, at the constitution of man ; and consider 
 some characters of his nature, which seem to remove or lessen 
 the difficulties which we may at first feel, in regarding the 
 Earth as ? in a unique and special manner, the field of God's 
 Providence and Government. 
 
 2. In the first place, the Earth, as the abode of man, the in- 
 
276 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 tellectual creature, contains a being, whose mind is, in some 
 measure, of the same nature as the Divine Mind of the Crea- 
 tor. The Laws which man discovers in the Creation must be 
 Laws known to God. The truths, for instance the truths of 
 geometry, which man sees to be true, God also must see to 
 be true. That there were, from the beginning, in the Creative 
 Mind, Creative Thoughts, is a doctrine involved in every intel 
 ligent view of Creation. 
 
 3. This doctrine was presented by the ancients in various 
 forms ; and the most recent scientific discoveries have sup- 
 plied new illustrations of it. The mode in which Plato ex- 
 pressed the doctrine which we are here urging was, that there 
 were in the Divine Mind, before or during the work of crea- 
 tion, certain archetypal Ideas, certain exemplars or patterns of 
 the world and its parts, according to which the work was per- 
 formed : so that these Ideas or Exemplars existed in the objects 
 around us being in so many cases discernible by man, and being 
 the proper objects of human reason. If a mere metaphysician 
 were to attempt to revive this mode of expressing the doctrine, 
 probably his speculations would be disregarded, or treated as 
 a pedantic resuscitation of obsolete Platonic dreams. But the 
 adoption of such language must needs be received in a very 
 different manner, when it proceeds from a great discoverer in 
 the field of natural knowledge : when it is, as it were, forced 
 upon .him, as the obvious and appropriate expression of the 
 result of the most profound and comprehensive researches into 
 the frame of the whole animal creation. The recent works of 
 Mr. Owen, and especially one work, On the Nature of Limbs, 
 are full of the most energetic and striking passages, inculcating 
 the doctrine which we have been endeavoring to maintain. 
 We may take the liberty of enriching our pages with one pas- 
 sage bearing upon the present part of the subject. 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 277 
 
 " If the world were made by any antecedent Mind or Under- 
 standing, that is by a Deity, then there must needs be an Idea 
 and Exemplar of the whole world before it was made, and con- 
 sequently actual knowledge, both in the order of Time and 
 Nature, before Things. But conceiving of knowledge as it 
 was got by their own finite minds, and ignorant of any evi- 
 dence of an ideal Archetype for the world or any part of it, 
 they [the Democritic Philosophers who denied a Divine Crea- 
 tive Mind] affirmed that there was none, and concluded that 
 there could be no knowledge or mind before the world was, as 
 its cause." Plato's assertion of Archetypal Ideas was a pro- 
 test against this doctrine, but was rather a guess, suggested by 
 the nature of mathematical demonstration, than a doctrine de- 
 rived from a contemplation of the external world. 
 
 " Now however," Mr. Owen continues, " the recognition of 
 an ideal exemplar for the vertebrated animals proves that the 
 knowledge of such a being as Man must have existed before 
 Man appeared. For the Divine Mind which planned the 
 Archetypal also foreknew all its modifications. The Arche- 
 typal Idea was manifested in the flesh under divers modifica- 
 tions upon this planet, long prior to the existence of those ani- 
 mal species which actually exemplify it. To what natural or 
 secondary causes the orderly succession and progression of 
 such organic phenomena may have been committed, we are as 
 yet ignorant. But if without derogation to the Divine Power, 
 we may conceive such ministers and personify them by the 
 term Nature, we learn from the past history of our globe that 
 she has advanced with slow and stately steps, guided by the 
 archetypal light amidst the wreck of worlds, from the first em- 
 bodiment of the vertebrate idea, under its old ichthyic vest- 
 ment, until it became arrayed in the glorious garb of the human 
 form." 
 
278 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 4. Law implies a Lawgiver, even when we do not see the 
 object of the Law ; even as Design implies a Designer, when 
 we do not see the object of the Design. The Laws of Nature 
 are the indications of the operation of the Divine Mind ; and 
 are revealed to us, as such, by the operations of our minds, by 
 which we come to discover them. They are the utterances of 
 the Creator, delivered in language which we can understand ; 
 and being thus Language, they are the utterances of an Intelli- 
 gent Spirit. 
 
 5. It may seem to some persons too bold a view, to identify, 
 so far as we thus do, certain truths as seen by man, and as 
 seen by God :* to make the Divine Mind thus cognizant of 
 the truths of geometry, for instance. If any one has such a 
 scruple, we may remark that truth, when of so luminous and 
 stable a kind as are the truths of geometry, must be alike Truth 
 for all minds, even for the highest. The mode of arriving at 
 the knowledge of such truths, may be very different, even for 
 different human minds ; deduction for some ; intuition for 
 others. But the intuitive apprehension of necessary truth is 
 an act so purely intellectual, that even in the Supreme Intel- 
 lect, we may suppose that it has its place. Can we conceive 
 otherwise, than that God does contemplate the universe as ex- 
 isting in space, since it really does so ; and subject to the re- 
 lations of space, since these are as real as space itself? We 
 are well aware that the Supreme Being must contemplate the 
 world under many other aspects than this ; even man does so. 
 But that does not prevent the truths, which belong to the as- 
 pect of the world, contemplated as existing in space, from be- 
 ing truths, regarded as such, even by the Divine Mind. 
 
 * Among the most recent expositors of this doctrine we may place 
 M. Henri Martin, whose Philosophic Spiritualiste de la Nature is full of 
 striking views of the universe in its relation to God. (Paris. 1849.) 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 279 
 
 6. If these reflections are well founded, as we trust they will, 
 on consideration, be seen to be, we may adopt many of the ex- 
 pressions by which philosophers heretofore have attempted to 
 convey similar views ; for in fact, this view, in its general bear- 
 ing at least, is by no means new. The Mind of Man is a par- 
 taker of the thoughts of the Divine Mind. The Intellect of 
 Man is a spark of the Light by which the world was created. 
 The Ideas according to which man builds up his knowledge, are 
 emanations of the archetypal Ideas according to which the 
 work of creation was planned and executed. These, arid many 
 the like expressions, have been often used ; and we now see, 
 we may trust, that there is a great philosophical truth, which 
 they all tend to convey ; and this truth shows at the same 
 time, how man may have some knowledge respecting the Laws 
 of Nature, and how this knowledge may, in some cases, seem to 
 be a knowledge of necessary relations, as in the case of space.* 
 
 * Most readers who have given any attention to speculations of this 
 land, will recollect Newton's remarkable expressions concerning the 
 Deity: "jEternus est et infinitus, omnipotens et omnisciens ; id est, 
 durat ab seterno in seternum, et adcst ab infinite in infinitum . . . 
 Kon est ceternitas et infinitas, sed ajternus et infinitus ; non est duratio 
 et spatium, sed durat et adest. Durat semper et adest ubique, et exist- 
 endo semper et ubique durationem et spatium constituit." 
 
 To say that God by existing always and everywhere constitutes du- 
 ration and space, appears to be a form of expression better avoided. 
 Besides that it approaches too near to the opinion, which the writer 
 rejects, that He is duration and space, it assumes a knowledge of the 
 nature of the Divine existence, beyond our means of knowing, and 
 therefore rashly. It appears to be safer, and more in conformity with 
 what we really know, to say, not that the existence of God constitutes 
 time and space ; but that God has constituted man, so that he can ap- 
 prehend the works of creation, only as existing in time and space. 
 That God has constituted time and space as conditions of man's knowl- 
 edge of the creation, is certain : that God has constituted time and 
 space as results of his .own existence in any other way, we cannot 
 know; 
 
280 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 7. Now, the views to which we have been led, bear very 
 strongly upon that argument. For if man, when he attains to 
 a knowledge of such laws, is really admitted, in some degree, 
 to the view with which the Creator himself beholds his crea- 
 tion ; if we can gather, from the conditions of such knowl- 
 edge, that his intellect partakes of the Nature of the Supreme 
 Intellect ; if his Mind, in its clearest and largest contempla- 
 tions, harmonizes with the Divine Mind ; we have, in this, a 
 reason which may well seem to us very powerful, why, even 
 if the Earth alone be the habitation of intelligent beings, still, 
 the great work of Creation is not wasted. If God have placed 
 upon the earth a creature who can so far sympathize with Him, 
 if we may venture upon the expression ; who can raise his 
 intellect into some accordance with the Creative Intellect ; and 
 that, not once only, nor by few steps, but through an indefinite 
 gradation of -discoveries, more and more comprehensive, more 
 and more profound ; each, an advance, however slight, towards 
 a Divine Insight ; then, so far as intellect alone (and we are 
 here speaking of intellect alone) can make Man a worthy ob- 
 ject of all the vast magnificence of Creative Power, we can 
 hardly shrink from believing that he is so. 
 
 8. We may remark further, that this view of God, as the 
 Author of the Laws of the Universe, leads to a view of all the 
 phenomena and objects of the world, as the work of God ; not 
 a work made, and laid out of hand, but a field of his present 
 activity and energy. And such a view cannot fail to give an 
 aspect of dignity to all that is great in creation, and of beauty 
 to all that is symmetrical, which otherwise they could not have. 
 Accordingly, it is by calling to their thoughts the presence of 
 God as suggested by scenes of grandeur or splendor, that 
 poets often reach the sympathies of their readers. And this 
 dignity and sublimity appear especially to belong to the larger 
 
THE UNITY OP THE WORLD. 281 
 
 objects, which are destitute of conscious life ; as the mountain, 
 the glacier, the pine-forest, the ocean ; since in these, we are, 
 as it were, alone with God, and the only present witnesses of 
 His mysterious working. 
 
 9. Now if this reflection be true, the vast bodies which hang 
 in the sky, at such immense distances from us, and roll on their 
 courses, and spin round their axles with such exceeding rapid- 
 ity ; Jupiter and his array of Moons, Saturn with his still larger 
 host of Satellites, and with his wonderful Ring, and the other 
 large and distant Planets, will lose nothing of their majesty, 
 in our eyes, by being uninhabited ; any more than the summer- 
 clouds, which perhaps are formed of the same materials, lose 
 their dignity from the same cause ; any more than our Moon, 
 one of the tribe of satellites, loses her soft and tender beauty, 
 when we have ascertained that she is more barren of inhab- 
 itants than the top of Mount Blanc. However destitute the 
 planets and moons and rings may be of inhabitants, they are 
 at least vast scenes of God's presence, and of the activity with 
 which he carries into effect, everywhere, the laws of nature. 
 The light which comes to us from them is transmitted accord- 
 ing to laws which He has established, by an energy which He 
 maintains. The remotest planet is not devoid of life, for God 
 lives there. At each stage which we make, from planet to 
 planet, from star to star, into the regions of infinity, we may 
 say, with the patriarch, " Surely God is here, and I knew it 
 not." And when those who question the habitability of the 
 remote planets and stars are reproached as presenting a view of 
 the universe, which takes something from the magnificence 
 hitherto ascribed to it, as the scene of God's glory, shown in 
 the things which He has created ; they may reply, that they do 
 not at all disturb that glory of the creation which arises from 
 iid being, not only the product, but the constant field of God's 
 
282 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 activity and thought, wisdom and power ; and they may per- 
 haps ask, in return, whether the dignity of the Moon would be 
 greatly augmented if her surface were ascertained to be abun- 
 dantly peopled with lizards ; or whether Mount Blanc would be 
 more sublime, if millions of frogs were known to live in the 
 crevasses of its glaciers. 
 
 10. Again : the Earth is a scene of Moral Trial. Man is 
 subject to a Moral Law ; and this Moral Law is a Law of 
 which God is the Legislator. It is a law which man has the 
 power of discovering, by the use of the faculties which God has 
 given him. By considering the nature and consequences of 
 actions, man is able to discern, in a great measure, what is right 
 and what is wrong ; what he ought and what he ought not to 
 do ; what his duty and virtue, what his crime and vice. Man 
 has a Law on such subjects, written on his heart, as the Apostle 
 Paul says. He has a conscience which accuses or excuses 
 him ; and thus, recognizes his acts as worthy of condemnation 
 or approval. And thus, man is, and knows himself to be, the 
 subject of Divine Law, commanding and prohibiting ; and is 
 here, in a state of probation, as to how far he will obey or 
 disobey this Law. He has impulses, springs of action, which 
 urge him to the violation of this Law. Appetite, Desire, 
 Anger, Lust, Greediness, Envy, Malice, impel him to courses 
 which are vicious. But these impulses he is capable of resist- 
 ing and controlling ; of avoiding the vices and practising the 
 opposite virtues ; and of rising from one stage of Virtue to 
 another, by a gradual and successive purificaticfn and elevation 
 of the desires, affections and habits, in a degree, so far as we 
 know, without limit. 
 
 11. Now in considering the bearing of this view upon our 
 original subject, we have, in the first place, to make this re- 
 mark : that the existence of a body of creatures, capable of 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 283 
 
 such a Law, of such a Trial, and of such an Elevation as this, 
 is, according to all that we can conceive, an object infinitely 
 more worthy of the exertion of the Divine Power and Wisdom, 
 in the Creation of the universe, than any number of planets 
 occupied by creatures having no such lot, no such law, no such 
 capacities, and no such responsibilities. However imperfectly 
 the moral law be obeyed ; however ill the greater part of man- 
 kind may respond to the appointment which places them here 
 in a state of moral probation ; however few those may be who 
 use the capacities and means of their moral purification and ele- 
 vation ; still, that there is such a plan in the creation, and that 
 any respond to its appointments, is really a view of the Uni- 
 verse which we can conceive to be suitable to the nature of 
 God, because we can approve of it, in virtue of the moral na- 
 ture which He has given us. One school of moral discipline, 
 one theatre of moral action, one arena of moral contests for 
 the highest prizes, is a sufficient centre for innumerable hosts of 
 stars and planets, globes of fire and earth, water and air, 
 whether or not tenanted by corals and madrepores, fishes and 
 creeping things. So great and majestic are those names of 
 Right and Good, Duty and Virtue, that all mere material or 
 animal existence is worthless in the comparison. 
 
 12. But further : let us consider what is this moral progress 
 of which we have spoken ; this purification and elevation of 
 man's inner being. Man's intellectual progress, his advance in 
 the knowledge of the general laws of the Universe, we found 
 reason to believe that we were not describing unfitly, when we 
 spoke of it as bringing us nearer to God ; as making our 
 thoughts, in some degree, resemble His thoughts ; as enabling 
 us to see things as He sees them. And on that account, we 
 held that the placing man, with his intellectual powers, in a 
 condition in which he was impelled, and enabled, to seek such 
 
284 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 knowledge, was of itself a great thing, and tended much to 
 give to the Creation a worthy end. Now the moral elevation 
 of man's being is the elevation of his sentiments and affections 
 towards a standard or idea, which God, by his Law, has indi- 
 cated as that point towards which man ought to tend. We do 
 not ascribe Virtue to God, adapting to Him our notions taken 
 from man's attributes, as we do when we ascribe Knowledge to 
 God : for Virtue implies the control and direction of human 
 springs of action ; implies human efforts and human habits. 
 But we ascribe to God infinite Goodness, Justice, and Truth, 
 as well as infinite Wisdom and Power ; and Goodness, Justice, 
 Truth, form elements of the character at which man also is, by 
 the Moral Law, directed to aim. So far, therefore, man's moral 
 progress is a progress towards a likeness with God ; and such 
 a progress, even more than a progress towards an intellectual 
 likeness with God, may be conceived as making the soul of 
 man fit to endure forever with God ; and therefore, as making 
 this earth a prefatory stage of human souls, to fit them for 
 eternity ; a nursery of plants which are to be fully unfolded 
 in a celestial garden. [/ , 
 
 13. And to this, we must add that, on other accounts also, as 
 well as on account of the capacity of the human soul for moral 
 and intellectual progress, thoughtful men have always been 
 disposed, on grounds supplied by the light of nature, to believe 
 in the existence of human souls after this present earthly life 
 iy past. Such a belief has been cherished in all ages and 
 nations, as the mode in which we naturally conceive that 
 which is apparently imperfect and deficient in the moral gov- 
 ernment of the world, to be completed and perfected. And if 
 this mortal life be thus really only the commencement of an 
 infinite Divine Plan, beginning upon earth and destined to en- 
 dure for endless ages after our earthly life ; we need no array 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 285 
 
 of other worlds in the universe to give sufficient dignity and 
 majesty to the scheme of the Creation. 
 
 14. We may make another remark which may have an im- 
 portant bearing upon our estimate of the value of the moral 
 scheme of the world which occupies the e.arth. If, by any act 
 of the Divine Government, the number of those men should 
 be much increased, who raise themselves towards the moral 
 standard which God has appointed, and thus, towards a likeness 
 to God, and a prospect of a future eternal union with him ; 
 such an act of Divine Government would do far more towards 
 making the Universe a scene in which God's goodness and 
 greatness were largely displayed, than could be done by any 
 amount of peopling of planets with creatures who were inca- 
 pable of moral agency ; or with creatures whose capacity for 
 the development of their moral faculties was small, and 
 would continue to be small till such an act of Divine Gov- 
 ernment were performed. The Interposition of God, in the 
 history of man, to remedy man's feebleness in moral and 
 spiritual tasks, and to enable those who profit by the Inter- 
 position, to ascend towards a union with God, is an event 
 entirely out of the range of those natural courses of events 
 which belong to our subject ; and to such an Interposition, 
 therefore, we must refer with great reserve; using great 
 caution that we do not mix up speculations and conjectures of 
 our own, with what has been revealed to man concerning such 
 an Interposition. But this, it would seem, we may say : that 
 such a Divine Interposition for the moral and spiritual eleva- 
 tion of the human race, and for the encouragement and aid of 
 those who seek the purification and elevation of their nature, 
 and an eternal union with God, is far more suitable to the Idea 
 of a God of Infinite Goodness, Purity, and Greatness, than 
 any supposed multiplication of a population, (on our planet or 
 
286 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 on any other,) not provided with such means of moral and 
 spiritual progress. 
 
 15. And if we were, instead of such a supposition, to im- 
 agine to ourselves, in other regions of the Universe, a moral 
 population purified ajid elevated without the aid or need of 
 any such Divine Interposition ; the supposed possibility of such 
 a moral race would make the sin and misery, which deform 
 and sadden the aspect of our earth, appear more dark and dis- 
 mal still. We should therefore, it would seem, find no theo- 
 logical congruity, and no religious consolation, in the assump- 
 tion of a Plurality of Worlds of Moral Beings : while, to 
 place the seats of such worlds in the Stars and the Planets, 
 would be, as we have already shown, a step discountenanced 
 by physical reasons ; and discountenanced the more, the more 
 the light of science is thrown upon it. 
 
 16. Perhaps it may be said, that all which we have urged 
 to show that other animals, in comparison with man, are less 
 worthy objects of creative design, may be used as an argu- 
 ment to prove that other planets are tenanted by men, or by 
 moral and intellectual creatures like man ; since, if the crea- 
 tion of one world of such creatures exalts so highly our views 
 of the dignity and importance of the plan of creation, the be- 
 lief in many such worlds must elevate still more our senti- 
 ments of a'dmiration and reverence of the greatness and good- 
 ness of the Creator ; and must be a belief, on that account, to 
 be accepted and cherished by pious minds. 
 
 17. To this we reply, that we cannot think ourselves au- 
 thorized to assert cosmological doctrines, selected arbitrarily 
 by ourselves, on the ground of their exalting our sentiments 
 of admiration and reverence for the Deity, when the weight of 
 all the evidence which we can obtain respecting the constitution 
 of the universe is against them. It appears to us, that to dis- 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 287 
 
 cern one great scheme of moral and religious government, 
 which is the spiritual centre of the universe, may well suffice 
 for the religious sentiments of men in the present age ; as in 
 former ages such a view of creation was sufficient to over- 
 whelm men with feelings of awe, and gratitude, and love ; 
 and to make them confess, in the most emphatic language, that 
 all such feelings were an inadequate response to the view of 
 the scheme of Providence which was revealed to them. The 
 thousands of millions of inhabitants of the Earth to whom 
 the effects of the Divine Plan extend, will not seem, to the 
 greater part of religious persons, to need the addition of more, 
 to fill our minds with sufficiently vast and affecting contem- 
 plations, so far as we are capable of pursuing such contempla- 
 tions. The possible extension" of God's spiritual kingdom 
 upon the earth will probably 'appear to them a far more inter- 
 esting field of devout meditation, than the possible addition to 
 it of the inhabitants of distant stars, connected in some inscru- 
 table manner with the Divine Plan. 
 
 18. To justify our saying that the weight of the evidence is 
 against such cosmological doctrines, we must recall to the 
 reader's recollection the whole course of the argument which 
 we have been pursuing. 
 
 It is a possible conjecture, at first, that there may be other 
 Worlds, having, as this has, their moral and intellectual attri- 
 butes, and their relations to the Creator. It is also a possible 
 conjecture, that this World, having such attributes, and such 
 relations, may, on that, account, be necessarily unique and in- 
 capable of repetition, peculiar, and spiritually central. These 
 two opposite possibilities may be placed, at first, front to front, 
 as balancing each other. We must then weigh such evidence 
 and such analogies as we can find on the one side or on the 
 other. We see much in the intellectual and moral nature of 
 
288 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 man, and in his history, to confirm the opinion that the human 
 race is thus unique, peculiar and central. In the views which 
 Religion presents, we find much more, tending the same way, 
 and involving the opposite supposition in great difficulties. 
 We find, in our knowledge of what we ourselves are, reasons 
 to believe that if there be, in any other planet, intellectual and 
 moral beings, they must not only be like men, but must be 
 men, in all the attributes which we can conceive as belonging 
 to such beings. And yet to suppose other groups of the 
 human species, in other parts of the universe, must be allowed 
 to be a very bold hypothesis, to be justified only by some 
 positive evidence in its favor. When from these views, drawn 
 from the attributes and relations of man, we turn to the 
 evidence drawn from physical conditions, we find very strong 
 reason to believe that, so far as the Solar System is concerned, 
 the Earth is, with regard to the conditions of life, in a peculiar 
 and central position ; so that the conditions of any life ap- 
 proaching at all to human life, exist on the Earth alone. As 
 to other systems which may circle other suns, the possibility 
 of their being inhabited by men, remains, as at first, a mere 
 conjecture, without any trace of confirmatory evidence. It 
 was suggested at first by the supposed analogy of other stars 
 to our sun ; but this analogy has not been verified in any in- 
 stance ; and has been, we conceive, shown in many cases, to 
 vanish altogether. And that there may be such a plan of 
 creation, one in which the moral and intelligent race of man 
 is the climax and central point to which innumerable races of 
 mere unintelligent species tend, we have the. most striking 
 evidence, in the history of our own earth, as disclosed by 
 geology. We are left, therefore, with nothing to cling to, on 
 one side, but the bare possibility that some of the stars are 
 the centres of systems like the Solar System ; an opinion 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 289 
 
 founded upon the single fact, shown to be highly ambiguous, 
 of those stars being self-luminous ; and to this possibility, we 
 oppose all the considerations, flowing from moral, historical, 
 and religious views, which represent the human race as unique 
 and peculiar. The force of these considerations will, of course, 
 be different in different minds, according to the importance 
 which each person attaches to such moral, historical, and re- 
 ligious views; but whatever the weight of them may be 
 deemed, it -is to be recollected that we have on the other side 
 a bare possibility, a mere conjecture ; which, though suggested 
 at first by astronomical discoveries, all more recent astronom- 
 ical researches have failed to confirm in the smallest degree. 
 In this state of our knowledge, and with such grounds of be- 
 lief, to dwell upon the Plurality of Worlds of intellectual and 
 moral creatures, as a highly probable doctrine, must, we think, 
 be held to be eminently rash and unphilosophical. 
 
 19. On such a subject, where the evidences are so imperfect, 
 and our power of estimating analogies so small, far be it from 
 us to speak positively and dogmatically. And if any one 
 holds the opinion, on whatever evidence, that there are other 
 spheres of the Divine Government than this earth, other 
 regions in which God has subjects and servants, other beings 
 who do his will, and who, it may be, are connected with the 
 moral and religious interests of man ; we do not breathe a 
 syllable against such a belief; but, on the contrary, regard it 
 with a ready and respectful sympathy. It is a belief which 
 
 finds an echo in pious and reverent hearts ;* and it is, of itself 
 
 
 
 * " For doubt not that in other worlds above 
 There must be other offices of love, 
 That other tasks and ministries there are, 
 Since it is promised that His servants, there, 
 Shall serve Him still." TRENCH. 
 
 13 
 
290 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 an evidence of that religious and spiritual character in man, 
 which is one of the points of our argument. But the discuss- 
 ion of such a belief does not belong to the present occasion, 
 any further than to observe, that it would be very rash and 
 unadvised, a proceeding unwarranted, we think, by Eeligion, 
 and certainly at variance with all that Science teaches, to 
 place those other, extra-human spheres of Divine Government, 
 in the Planets and in the Stars. With regard to the planets 
 and the stars, if we reason at all, we must reason on physical 
 grounds ; we must suppose, as to a great extent we can prove 
 that the laws and properties of terrestrial matter and motion 
 apply to them also. On such grounds, it is as improbable 
 that visitants from Jupiter or from Sirius can come to the 
 Earth, as that men can pass to those stars : as unlikely that 
 inhabitants of those stars know and take an interest in human 
 affairs, as that we can learn what they are doing. A belief in 
 the Divine Government of other races of spiritual creatures 
 besides the human race, and in Divine Ministrations com- 
 mitted to such beings, cannot be connected with our physical 
 and astronomical views of the nature of the stars and the 
 planets, without making a mixture altogether incongruous and 
 incoherent ; a mixture of what is material and what is spirit- 
 ual, adverse alike to sound religion and to sound philosophy. 
 
 20. Perhaps again, it may be said, that in speaking of the 
 shortness of the time during which man has occupied the earth, 
 in comparison with the previous ages of irrational life, and of 
 blank matter, we are taking man at his present period of ex- 
 istence on the earth : that we do not know t*hat the race may 
 not be destined to continue upon the earth for as many ages as 
 preceded the creation of man. And to this we reply, that in 
 reasoning, as we must do, at the present period, we can only 
 proceed upon that which has happened up to the present period. 
 
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD. 291 
 
 If we do not know how long man will continue to inhabit the 
 earth, we cannot reason as if we did know that he will inhabit 
 it longer than any other species has done. We may not dwell 
 upon a mere possibility, which, it is assumed, may at some in- 
 definitely future period, alter the aspect of the facts now before 
 us. For it would be as easy to assume possibilities which may 
 come hereafter to alter the aspect of the facts, in favor of the 
 one side, as of the other.* What the future destinies of our 
 race, and of the earth, may be, is a subject which is, for us, 
 shrouded in deep darkness. It would be very rash to assume 
 that they will be such as to alter the impression derived from 
 what we now know, and to alter it in a certain preconceived 
 manner. But yet it is natural to form conjectures on this sub- 
 ject ; and perhaps we may be allowed to consider for a moment 
 what kind of conjectures the existing stage of our knowledge 
 suggests, when we allow ourselves the license of conjecturing. 
 The next Chapter contains some remarks bearing upon such 
 conjectures. 
 
 * For instance, we may assume that in two or three hundred years, 
 by the improvement of telescopes, or by other means, it may be ascer- 
 tained that the other planets of the Solar System are not inhabited, 
 and that the other Stars are not the centres of regular systems. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ' THE FUTURE. 
 
 1. WE proceed then to a few reflections to which we cannot 
 "but feel ourselves Invited by the views which we have already 
 presented in these pages. What will be the future history of 
 the human race, and what the future destination of each indi- 
 vidual, most persons will, and most wisely, judge on far other 
 grounds than the analogies which physical science can supply. 
 Analogies derived from such a quarter can throw little light on 
 those grave and lofty questions. Yet perhaps a few thoughts 
 on this subject, even if they serve only to show how little the 
 light thus attainable really is, may not be an unfit conclusion 
 to what has been said ; and the more so, if these analogies of 
 science, so far as they have any specific tendency, tend to con- 
 firm some of the convictions, with regard to those weighty and 
 solemn points, the destiny of Man, and of Mankind, which 
 we derive from other and higher sources of knowledge. 
 
 2. Man is capable of looking back upon the past history of 
 himself, his Race, the Earth, and the Universe. So far as he- 
 has the means of doing so, and so far as his reflective powers 
 are unfolded, he cannot refrain from such a retrospect. As we 
 have seen, man has occupied his thoughts with such contempla- 
 tions, and has been led to convictions thereupon, of the most 
 
THE FUTURE. 293 
 
 remarkable and striking kind. Man is also capable of looking 
 forwards to the future probable or possible history of himself, 
 his race, the earth, and the universe. He is irresistibly tempted 
 to do this, and to endeavor to shape his conjectures on the Fu- 
 ture, by what he knows of the Past. He attempts to discern 
 what future change and progress may be imagined or expected, 
 by the analogy of past change and progress, which have been 
 ascertained. Such analogies may be necessarily very vague 
 and loose ; but they are the peculiar ground of speculation, 
 with which we have here to deal. Perhaps man cannot dis- 
 cover with certainty any fixed and permanent laws which have 
 regulated those past changes which have modified the surface 
 and population of the earth ; still less, any laws which have 
 produced a visible progression in the constitution of the rest 
 of the universe. He cannot, therefore, avail himself of any 
 close analogies, to help him to conjecture the future course of 
 event*, on the earth or in the universe ; still less can he apply 
 any known laws, which may enable him to predict the future 
 configurations of the elements of the world ; as he can predict 
 the future configurations of the planets for indefinite periods. 
 He can foresee the astronomical revolutions of the heavens, so 
 long as the known laws subsist. He cannot foresee the future 
 geological revolutions of the earth, even if they are to be pro- 
 duced by the same causes which have produced the past revo- 
 lutions, of which he has learnt the series and order. Still less 
 can he foresee the future revolutions which may take place in 
 the condition of man, of society, of philosophy, of religion ; 
 still less, again, the course which the Divine Government of 
 the world will take, or the state of things to which, even as 
 now conducted, it will lead. 
 
 3. All these subjects are covered with a veil of mystery, 
 which science mid philosophy can do little in raising. Yet these 
 
294 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 are subjects to which the mind turns, with a far more eager cu- 
 riosity, than that which it feels with regard to mere geological 
 or astronomical revolutions. Man is naturally, and reasonably, 
 the greatest object of interest to man. What shall happen to 
 the human race, after thousands of years, is a far dearer concern 
 to him, than what shall happen to Jupiter or Sirius ; and even, 
 than what shall happen to the continents and oceans of the 
 globe on which he lives, except so far as the changes of his domi- 
 cile affect himself. If our knowledge of the earth and of the 
 heavens, of animals and of man, of the past condition and 
 present laws of the world, is quite barren of all suggestion 
 of what may or may not hereafter be the lot of man, such 
 knowledge will lose the charm which would have made it most 
 precious and attractive in the eyes of mankind in general. 
 And if, on such subjects, any conjectures, however dubious, 
 any analogies, however loose, can be collected from what we 
 know, they will probably be received as acceptable, in sjfite of 
 their insecurity ; and will be deemed a fit offering from the 
 scientific faculty, to those hopes and expectations, to that curi- 
 osity and desire of all knowledge, which gladly receive their 
 nutriment and gratification from every province of man's 
 being. 
 
 4. Now if we ask, what is likely to be the future condition 
 of the population of the earth as compared with the present ; 
 we are naturally led to recollect, what has been the past con- 
 dition of that population as compared with the present. And 
 here, our thoughts are at once struck by that great fact, to 
 which we have so often referred ; which we conceive to be es- 
 tablished by irrefragable geological evidence, and of which the 
 importance cannot be overrated : namely, the fact that the 
 existence of man upon the earth has been for only a few thou- 
 sand years : that for thousands, and myriads, and it may be 
 
THE FUTURE. 295 
 
 for millions of years, previous to that period, the earth was 
 tenanted, entirely and solely, by brute creatures, destitute of 
 reason, incapable of progress, and guided merely by animal in- 
 stincts, in the preservation and continuation of their races. 
 After this period of mere brute existence, in innumerable forms, 
 had endured for a vast series of cycles, there appeared upon 
 the earth a creature, even in his organization, superior far to 
 all ; but still more superior, in his possession of peculiar en- 
 dowments ; reason, language, the power of indefinite progress, 
 and of raising his thoughts towards his Creator and Governor : 
 in short, to use terms already employed, an intellectual, moral, 
 religious, and spiritual creature. After the ages of intellect- 
 ual darkness, there took place this creation of intellectual light. 
 After the long-continued play of mere appetite and sensual life, 
 there came the operation of thought, reflection, invention, art, 
 science, moral sentiments, religious belief and hope ; and thus, 
 life and being, in a far higher sense than had ever existed, even 
 in the hightest degree, in the long ages of the earth's previous 
 existence. 
 
 5. Now, this great and capital fact cannot fail to excite in us 
 many reflections, which, however vaguely and dimly, carry us 
 to the prospect of the future. The present being so related to 
 the past, how may we suppose that the future will be related 
 to the present 1 
 
 In the first place, this is a natural reflection. The terrestrial 
 world having made this advance from brute to human life, can 
 we think it at all likely, that the present condition of the earth's 
 inhabitants is a final condition 1 Has the vast step from animal 
 to human life, exhausted the progressive powers of nature ? or 
 to speak more reverently and justly, has it completed the pro- 
 gressive plan of the Creator ? . After the great revolution by 
 which man became what he is, can and will nothing be done, 
 
296 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 to bring into being something better than now is ; however 
 that future creature may be related to man 1 We leave out of 
 consideration any supposed progression, which may have taken 
 place in the animal creation previous to man's existence ; any 
 progression by which the animal organization was made to ap- 
 proximate, gradually or by sudden steps, to the human organi- 
 zation ; partly, because such successive approximation is ques- 
 tioned by some geologists ; and is, at any rate, obscure and 
 perplexed : but much more, because it is not really to our 
 purpose. Similarity of organization is not the point in ques- 
 tion. The endowments and capacities of man, by which he is 
 Man, are the great distinction, which places all other animals 
 at an immeasurable distance below him. The closest approxi- 
 mation of form or organs, does nothing to obliterate this dis- 
 tinction. It does not bring the monkey nearer to man, that 
 his tongue has the same muscular apparatus as man's, so long 
 as he cannot talk ; and so long as he has not the thought and 
 idea which language implies, and which are unfolded indefi- 
 nitely in the use of language. The step, then, by which the 
 earth became, a human habitation, was an immeasurable ad- 
 vance on all that existed before ; and therefore there is a ques- 
 tion which we are, it seems, irresistibly prompted to ask, Is 
 this the last such step ? Is there nothing beyond it 1 Man is 
 the head of creation, in his present condition ; but is that con- 
 dition the final result and ultimate goal of the progress of crea- 
 tion in the plan of the Creator ? As there was found and pro- 
 duced something so far beyond animals, as man is, may there 
 not also, in some course of the revolutions of the world, be 
 produced something far beyond what man is 1 The question 
 is put, as implying a difficulty in believing that it should be so ; 
 and this difficulty must be very generally felt. Considering 
 how vast the resources of the Creative Power have been shown 
 
THE FUTURE. 297 
 
 to be, it is difficult to suppose they are exhausted. Consider- 
 ing how great things have been done, in the progress of the 
 work of creation, we naturally think that even greater things 
 than these, still remain to be done. 
 
 6. But then, on the other hand, there is an immense difficulty 
 in supposing, even in imagining, any further change, at all com- 
 mensurate in kind and degree, with the step which carried the 
 world from a mere brute population, to a human population. 
 In a proportion in which the two first terms are brute and man, 
 what can be the third term*? In the progress from mere In- 
 stinct to Reason, we have a progress from blindness to sight ; 
 and what can we do more than see 1 When pure Intellect is 
 evolved in man, he approaches to the nature of the Supreme 
 Mind : how can a creature rise higher 1 When mere impulse, 
 appetite, and passion are placed under the control and direction 
 of duty and virtue, man is put under Divine Government : 
 what greater lot can any created being have 1 
 
 7. And the difficulty of conceiving any ulterior step at all 
 analogous to the last and most wonderful of the revolutions 
 which have taken place, in the condition of the earth's inhab- 
 itants, will be found to grow upon us, as it is more closely ex- 
 amined. For- it may truly be said, the change which occurred 
 when man was placed on the earth, was not one which could 
 have been imagined and constructed beforehand, by a specula- 
 tor merely looking at the endowments and capacities of the 
 creatures which were previously living. Even in the way of or- 
 ganization, could any intelligent spectator, contemplating any- 
 thing which then existed in the animal world, have guessed the 
 wonderful new and powerful purposes to which it was to be 
 made subservient in man 1 Could such a spectator, from seeing 
 the rudiments of a Hand, in the horse or the cow, or even from 
 seeing the handof a quadrumanous animal, have conjectured, that 
 
 13* 
 
298 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 the Hand was, in man, to be made an instrument by which in- 
 finite numbers of new instruments were to be constructed, 
 subduing the elements to man's uses, giving him a command 
 over nature which might seem supernatural, taming or con- 
 quering all other animals, enabling him to scrutinize the far- 
 thest regions of the universe, and the subtlest combinations of 
 material things 2 
 
 8. Or again; could such a spectator, by dissecting the 
 tongues of animals, have divined that the Tongue, in man, was 
 to be the means of communicating the finest movements of 
 thought and feeling ; of giving one man, weak and feeble, an 
 unbounded ascendency over robust and angry multitudes ; and, 
 assisted by the (writing) hand, of influencing the intimate 
 thoughts, laws, and habits of the most remote posterity 1 
 
 9. And again, could such a spectator, seeing animals en- 
 tirely occupied by their appetites and desires, and the objects 
 subservient to their individual gratification, have ever dreamt 
 that there should appear on earth a creature who should desire 
 to know, and should know, the distances and motions of the 
 stars, future as well as present ; the causes of their motions, 
 the history of the earth, and his own history ; and even should 
 know truths by which all possible objects and events not only 
 are, but must be regulated ? 
 
 10. And yet again, could such a spectator, seeing that 
 animals obeyed their appetites with no restraint but external 
 fear, and knew of no difference of good and bad except the 
 sensual difference, ever have imagined that there should be a 
 creature acknowledging a difference of right and wrong, as a 
 distinction supreme over what was good or bad to the sense ; 
 and a rule of duty which might forbid and prevent gratifica- 
 tion by an internal prohibition ? 
 
 11. And finally, could such a spectator, seeing nothing but 
 
THE FUTURE. 299 
 
 animals with all their faculties thus entirely immersed in the 
 elements of their bodily being, have supposed that a creature 
 should come, who should raise his thoughts to his Creator, 
 acknowledge Him as his Master and Governor, look to His 
 Judgment, and aspire to live eternally in His presence ? 
 
 12. If it would have been impossible for a spectator of the 
 prehuman creation, however intelligent, imaginative, bold and 
 inventive, to have conjectured beforehand the endowments of 
 such a creature as Man, taking only those which we have thus 
 indicated ; it may well be thought, that if there is to be a 
 creature which is to succeed man, as man has succeeded the 
 animals, it must be equally impossible for us to conjecture be- 
 forehand, what kind of creature that must be, and what will be 
 his endowments and privileges. 
 
 13. Thus a spectator who should thus have studied the 
 prehuman creation, and who should have had nothing else to 
 help him in his conjectures and conceptions, (of course, by the 
 supposition of a praehuman period, not any knowledge of the 
 operation of intelligence, though a most active intelligence 
 would be necessary for such speculations,) would not have 
 been able to divine the future appearance of a creature, so ex- 
 cellent as Man ; or to guess at his endowments and privileges, 
 or his relation to the previous animal creation ; and just as 
 little able may we be, even if there is to exist at some time, 
 a creature more excellent and glorious than man, to divine 
 what kind of creature he will be, and how related to man. 
 And here, therefore, it would perhaps be best, that- we should 
 quit the subject ; and not offer conjectures which we thus ac- 
 knowledge to have no value. Perhaps, however, the few brief 
 remarks which we have still to make, put forwards, as they 
 are, merely as suggestions to be weighed by others, can 
 
300 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 not reasonably give offence, or trouble even the most reverent 
 thinker. 
 
 14. To suppose a higher development of endowments which 
 already exist in man, is a natural mode of rising to the imag- 
 ination of a being nobler than man is ; but we shall find that 
 such hypotheses do not lead us to any satisfactory result. 
 Looking at the first of those features of the superiority of man 
 over brutes, which we have just pointed out, the Human 
 Hand, we can imagine this superiority carried further. In- 
 deed, in the course of human progress, and especially in recent 
 times, and in our own country, man employs instead of, or 
 in addition to the hand, innumerable instruments to make 
 nature serve his needs and do his will. He works by Tools 
 and Machinery, derivative hands, which increase a hundred- 
 fold the power of the natural hand. Shall we try to ascend 
 to a New Period, to imagine a New Creature, by supposing 
 this power increased hundreds and thousands of times more, 
 so that nature should obey man, and minister to his needs, in 
 an incomparably greater degree than she now does ? We 
 may imagine this carried so far, that all need for manual labor 
 shall be superseded ; and thus, abundant time shall be left to 
 the creature thus gifted, for developing the intellectual and 
 moral powers which must be the higher part of its nature. But 
 still, that higher nature of the creature itself, and not its com- 
 mand over external material nature, must be the quarter in 
 which we are to find anything which shall elevate the creature 
 above man, as man is elevated above brutes. 
 
 15. Or, looking at the second of the features of human 
 superiority, shall we suppose that the means of Communica- 
 tion of their thoughts to each other, which exist for the human 
 race, are to be immensely increased, and that this- is to be the 
 leading feature of a New Period ? Already, in addition to 
 
THE FUTURE. 301 
 
 the use of the tongue, other means of communication have 
 vastly multiplied man's original means of carrying on the in- 
 tercourse of thought : writing, employed in epistles, "books, 
 newspapers ; roads, horses and posting establishments ; ships ; 
 railways ; and, as the last and most notable step, made in our 
 time, electric telegraphs, extending across continents and even 
 oceans. We can imagine this facility and activity of com- 
 munication, in which man so immeasurably exceeds all ani- 
 mals, still further increased, and more widely extended. But 
 yet so long as what is thus communicated is nothing greater 
 or better than what is now communicated among men ; such 
 news, such thoughts, such questions and answers, as now dart 
 along our roads ; we could hardly think that the creature, 
 whatever wonderful means of intercourse with its fellow- 
 creatures it might possess, was elevated above man, so as to 
 be of a higher nature than man is. 
 
 16. Thus, such improved endowments as we have now 
 spoken of, increased power over materials, and increased 
 means of motion and communication, arising from improved 
 mechanism, do little, and we may say, nothing, to satisfy our 
 idea of a more excellent condition than that of man. For 
 such extensions of man's present powers are consistent with 
 the absence of all intellectual and moral improvement. Men 
 might be able to dart from place to place, and even from 
 planet to planet, and from star to star, on wings, such as we 
 ascribe to angels in our imagination : they might be able to 
 make the elements obey them at a beck ; and yet they might 
 not be better, nor even wiser, than they are. It is not found 
 generally, that the improvement of machinery, and of means 
 of locomotion, among men, produces an improvement in mo- 
 rality, nor even an improvement in intelligence, except as to 
 particular points. We must therefore look somewhat further, 
 
302 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 in order to find possible characters, which may enable us to 
 imagine a creature more excellent than man. 
 
 17. Among the distinctions which elevate man above brutes, 
 there is one which we have not mentioned, but which is really 
 one of the most eminent. We mean, his faculty and habit 
 of forming himself into Societies, united by laws and language 
 for some common object, the furtherance of which requires 
 such union. The most general and primary kind of such 
 societies, -is that Civil Society which is bound together by Law 
 and Government, and which secures to men the Rights of prop- 
 erty, person, family, external peace, and the like. That this 
 kind of society may be conceived, as taking a more excellent 
 character than it now possesses, we can easily see : for not 
 only does it often very imperfectly attain its direct object, the 
 preservation of Rights, but it becomes the means and source 
 of. wrong. Not only does it often fail to secure peace with 
 strangers, but it acts as if its main object were to enable men 
 to make Avars with strangers. If we were to conceive a Uni- 
 versal and Perpetual Peace to be established among the na- 
 tions of the earth ; (for instance by some general agreement 
 for that purpose ;) and if we were to suppose, further, that 
 those nations should employ all their powers and means in 
 fully unfolding the intellectual and moral capacities of their 
 members, by early education, constant teaching, and ready 
 help in all ways; we might then, perhaps, look forwards to a 
 state of the earth in which it should be inhabited, not indeed 
 by a being exalted above Man, but by Man exalted above 
 himself as he now is. 
 
 18. That by such combinations of communities of men, 
 even with their present powers, results may be obtained, 
 which at present appear impossible, or inconceivable, we may 
 find good reason to believe ; looking at what has already been 
 
THE FUTURE. 303 
 
 done, or planned as attainable by such means, in the promo- 
 tion of knowledge, and the extension of man's intellectual 
 empire. The greatest discovery ever made, the discovery, by 
 Newton, of the laws which regulate the motions of the cosmi- 
 cal system, has been carried to its present state of complete- 
 ness, only by the united efforts of all the most intellectual 
 nations upon earth ; in addition to vast labors of individ- 
 uals, and of smaller societies, voluntarily associated for the 
 purpose. Astronomical observatories have been established 
 in every land ; scientific voyages, and expeditions for the pur- 
 pose of observation, wherever they could throw light upon 
 the theory, have been sent forth ; costly instruments have 
 been constructed, achievements of discovery have been re- 
 warded ; and all nations have shown a ready sympathy with 
 every attempt to forward this part of knowledge. Yet the 
 largest and wisest plans for the extension of human knowl- 
 edge in other provinces of science by the like means, have re- 
 mained hitherto almost entirely unexecuted, and have been 
 treated as mere dreams. The exhortations of Francis Bacon 
 to men, to seek, by such means, an elevation of their intellect- 
 ual condition, have been assented to in words ; but his plans 
 of a methodical and organized combination of society for this 
 purpose, it has never been even attempted to realize. If the 
 nations of the earth were to employ, for the promotion of 
 human knowledge, a small fraction only of the means, the 
 wealth, the ingenuity, the energy, the combination, which they 
 have employed in every age, for the destruction of human 
 life and of human means of enjoyment ; we might soon find 
 that what we hitherto knew, is little compared with what man 
 has the power of knowing. 
 
 19. But there is another kind of Society, or another object 
 of Society among men, which in a still more important manner 
 
304 THE PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 
 
 aims at the elevation of their nature. Man sympathizes with 
 man, not only in his intellectual aspirations, but in his moral 
 sentiments, in his religious beliefs and hopes, in his efforts 
 after spiritual life. Society, even Civil Society, has generally 
 recognized this sympathy, in a greater or less degree ; and has 
 included Morality and Religion, among the objects which it 
 endeavored to uphold and promote. But any one who has 
 any deep and comprehensive perception of man's capacities 
 and aspirations, on such subjects, must feel that what has com- 
 monly, or indeed ever, been done by nations for such a pur- 
 pose, has been far below that which the full development of 
 man's moral, religious, and spiritual nature requires. Can we 
 not conceive a Society among men, which should have for its 
 purpose, to promote this development, far more than any 
 human society has yet done 1 a Body selected from all na- 
 tions, or rather, including all nations, the purpose of which 
 should be to bind men together by a universal feeling of 
 kindness and mutual regard, to associate them in the acknowl- 
 edgment of a common Divine Lawgiver, Governor, and 
 Father ; to unite them in their efforts to divest themselves 
 of the evil of their human nature, and to bring themselves 
 nearer and nearer to a conformity with the Divine Idea ; and 
 finally, a Society which should unite them in the hope of such 
 a union with God that the parts of their nature which seem 
 to claim immortality, the Mind, the Soul, and the Spirit, 
 should endure forever in a state of happiness arising from 
 their exalted and perfected condition 1 And if we can sup- 
 pose such a Society, fully established and fully operative, 
 would not this be a condition, as far elevated above the ordi- 
 nary earthly condition of man, as that of man is elevated above 
 the beasts that perish ? 
 
 20. Yet one more question ; though we hesitate to mix such 
 
THE FUTUBE. 305 
 
 suggestions from analogy, with trains of thought and belief, 
 which have their proper nutriment from other quarters. We 
 know, even from the evidence of natural science, that God has 
 interposed in the history of this Earth, in order to place Man 
 upon it. In that case, there was a clear, and, in the strongest 
 sense of the term, a supernatural interposition of the Divine 
 Creative Power. God interposed to place upon the earth, 
 Man, the social and rational being. God thus directly insti- 
 tuted Human Society ; gave man his privileges and his pros- 
 pects in such society ; placed him far above the previously ex- 
 isting creation ; and endowed him with the means of an eleva- 
 tion of nature entirely unlike anything which had previously 
 appeared. Would it then be a violation of analogy, if God 
 were to interpose again, to institute a Divine Society, such as 
 we have attempted to describe ; to give to its members their 
 privileges ; to assure to them their prospects ; to supply to 
 them his aid in pursuing the objects of such a union with each 
 other ; and thus, to draw them, as they aspire to be drawn, to 
 a spiritual union with Him ? 
 
 It would seem that those who believe, as the records of 
 the earth's history seem to show, that the establishment of 
 Man, and of Human Society, or of the germ of human so- 
 ciety, upon the earth, was an interposition of Creative Power 
 beyond the ordinary course of nature ; may also readily be- 
 lieve that another supernatural Interposition of Divine Power 
 might take place, in order to plant upon the earth the Germ of 
 a more Divine Society ; and to introduce a period in which 
 the earth should be tenanted by a more excellent creature than 
 at present. 
 
 21. But though we may thus prepare ourselves to assent to 
 the possibility, or even probability, of such a Diviife Interpo- 
 sition, exercised for the purpose of establishing upon earth a 
 
306 THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 
 
 Divine Society : it would be a rash and unauthorized step, 
 especially taking into account the vast differences between ma- 
 terial and spiritual things, to assume that such an Interposi- 
 tion would have any resemblance to the commencement of a 
 New Period in the earth's history, analogous to the Periods 
 by which that history has already been marked. What the 
 manner and the operation of such a Divine Interposition would 
 be, Philosophy would attempt in vain to conjecture. It is con- 
 ceivable that such an event should produce its effect, not at 
 once, by a general and simultaneous change in the aspect of 
 terrestrial things, but gradually, by an almost imperceptible 
 progression. It is possible also that there may be such an In- 
 terposition, which is only one step in the Divine Plan ; a 
 preparation for some other subsequent Interposition, by which 
 the change in the Earth's inhabitants is to be consummated. Or 
 it is possible that such a Divine Interposition in the history of 
 man, as we have hinted at, may be a preparation, not for a new 
 form of terrestrial life, but for a new form of human life ; 
 not for a new peopling of the Earth, but for a new existence 
 of Man. These possibilities are so vague and doubtful, so far 
 as any scientific analogies lead, that it would be most unwise 
 to attempt to claim for them any value, as points in which Sci- 
 ence supplies support to Eeligion. Those persons who most 
 deely feel the value of religion, and are most strongly con- 
 vinced of its truths, will be the most willing to declare, that 
 religious belief is, and ought to be, independent of any such 
 support, and must be, and may be, firmly established on its 
 own proper basis. 
 
 22. We find no encouragement, then, for any attempt to 
 obtain, from Science, by the light of the analogy of the past, 
 any definite view of a future condition of the Creation. And 
 that this is so, we cannot, for reasons which have been given, 
 
THE FUTURE. 307 
 
 feel any surprise. Yet the reasonings which we have, in va- 
 rious parts of this Essay, pursued, will not have been without 
 profit, even in their influence upon our- religious thoughts, if 
 they have left upon our minds these convictions : That if the 
 analogy of science proves anything, it proves that the Creator 
 of man can make a Creator as far superior to Man, as Man, 
 when most intellectual, moral, religious, and spiritual, is supe- 
 rior to the brutes : and again, That Man's Intellect is of a di- 
 vine, and therefore of an immortal nature. Those persons who 
 can, on any basis of belief, combine these two convictions, so 
 as to feel that they have a personal interest in both of them ; 
 those who have such grounds as Religion, happily appealed 
 to, can furnish, for hoping that their imperishable element may, 
 hereafter, be clothed with a new and more glorious apparel by 
 the hand of its Almighty Maker ; may be well content to ac- 
 knowledge that Science and Philosophy could not give them this 
 combined conviction, in any manner in which it could minister 
 that consolation, and that trust in the Divine Power and Good- 
 ness, which human nature, in its present condition, requires. 
 
 THE END. 
 
IMPORTANT 
 
 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC WORKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 
 59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, 
 
 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY ; or, Year Book of Facts 
 in Science and Art, exhibiting the most important Discoveries and Improvements in 
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 DAVID A WELLS, A. M. 12mo, cloth, 1,25. 
 
 This work, commenced in the year 1850, and issued on the first of March annually, contains all 
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 THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR ; or, The Asterolepis of 
 Stromness. With numerous Illustrations. By HUGH MILLER, author of " The Old Red 
 Sandstone," &c. From the third London Edition. With a Memoir of the Author, by 
 Louis AGASSIZ. 12mo, cloth, 1,00. 
 
 Dr. BUCKLAND, at a meeting of the British Association, said he had never been so much aston- 
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 The publishers have again covered themselves with honor, by giving to the American public, with 
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 THE OLD RED SANDSTONE ; or, New Walks, in an Old Field. By 
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 Mr. Miller's exceedingly interesting book on this formation is just the sort of work to render any 
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GUYOT'S WORKS. 
 
 THE EARTH AND MAN; Lectures on COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL 
 GEOGRAPHY, in its relation to the History of Mankind. By Prof. ARNOLD GUVOT. 
 Translated from the French, by Prof. C C. FELTON, with numerous Illustrations. 
 Eighth thousand. 12rao, cloth, 1,25. 
 
 From Prof- Loins Affassiz, of Harvard University. 
 
 It will not only render the study of Geography more attractive, i>ut actually show it in its true light, 
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 ries of graduated text books of geography, from the first elements up to a scientific treatise. It would 
 give new life to these studies in this country, and be the best preparation for sound statistical investi- 
 gations. 
 
 From George S. ITftlard. Esq., of Boston, 
 
 Professor Gnyot's Lectures arc marked by learning, ability, and taste. His bold and comprehen- 
 sive generalizations rest upon a careful foundation of facts. The essential value of his statements is 
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 Examiner. 
 
 The -work is one of high merit, exhibiting a wide range of knowledge, great research, and a philo- 
 sophical spirit of investigation. Its perusal will well repay the most learned in such subjects, and 
 give new views to all of man's relation to the globe he inhabits. Sithman's Journal. 
 
 COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; 
 
 or, the Study of the Earth and its Inhabitants. A series of graduated courses for the use 
 of Schools. By ARNOLD GUYOT, author of " Earth and Man," etc, 
 
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 GUYOT'S MURAL MAPS ; a Series of elegant Colored Maps, projected 
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 MAP OF NORTH AMERICA,-Now ready. 
 
 MAP OF SOUTH AM ERIC A, -Nearly ready. 
 
 MAP OF GEOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS, -Now ready. 
 Jfc3~ Othr Maps of the Series are in preparation. C 
 
VALUABLE SCIENTIFIC WORKS. 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF THE 
 
 Animal Kingdom. By Profs. C. TH. VON SIEBOLD and H. STANNIUS. Translated 
 from the German, with Notes, Additions, &c., By WALDO J. BURNETT, M. D., Boston. 
 Two volumes, octavo, cloth. 
 
 This is unquestionably the best and most complete work of its class yet published ; and its appear- 
 ance in an English dress, with the corrections, improvements, additions, etc., of the American Editor, 
 will no doubt be welcomed by the men of science in this country and in Europe, from whence or- 
 ders for supplies of the work have been received. 
 
 THE POETRY OF SCIENCE ; or, the Physical Phenomena of Nature. 
 By ROBERT HUNT, Author of " Panthea," " Researches of Light," <fcc. 12mo, cloth, 1,25. 
 
 "We are heartily glad to ee this interesting work republished in America. It is a book that is a 
 book. Scientific American. 
 
 It is one of the most readable, interesting, and instructive works of the kind that we have ever 
 seen. Phil Christian Observer. 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SPECIES: its Typical Forms 
 and Primeval Distribution. By CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH. With an Introduction, 
 containing an Abstract of the Views of Bluinenbach, Prichard, Bachman, Agassiz, and 
 other writers of repute. By SAMUEL KNEELAND, JR., M. D. With elegant Illustra- 
 tions. 12mo, cloth, 1,25. 
 
 The history of the species is thoroughly considered by Colonel Smith, with regard to its origin, 
 typical forms, distribution, filiations, &e. The marks of practical good sense, careful observation, 
 and deep research are displayed in every page. An introductory essay of some seventy or eighty 
 pages forms a valuable addition to the work. It comprises an abstract of the opinions advocated by 
 the most eminent writers on the subject The statements are made with strict impartiality, and, 
 without a comment, left to the judgment of the reader. Sartain's Magazine. 
 
 This work exhibits great research, as well as an evident taste and talent, on the part of the author, 
 for the study of the history of man, upon zoological principles. It is a book of learning, and full of 
 interest, and may be regarded as among the comparatively few real contributions to science, that 
 serve to redeem, in some measure, the mass of useless stuff under which the press groans. Chris. 
 Witness. 
 
 This book is characterized by more curious and interesting research than any one that has recently 
 come under our examination. Albany'Journal and Register. 
 
 It contains a learned and thorough treatment of an important subject, always interesting, and of 
 late attracting more than usual attention. Ch. Register. 
 
 The volume before us is one of the best of the publishers' series of publications, replete with rare 
 and valuable information, presented in a style at once clear and entertaining, illustrated in the most 
 copious manner with plates of all the various forms of the human race, tracing with the most minute 
 precision analogies and resemblances, and hence origin. The more it Is read, the more widely opens 
 this field of research before the mind, again and again to be returned to, with fresh zest and satisfac- 
 tion. It is the result of the researches, collections, and labors of a long and valuable lifetime, present- 
 ed in the most popular form imaginable. Albany Spectator. 
 
 LAKE SUPERIOR : its Physical Character, Vegetation, and Animals, 
 compared with those of other and similar regions. By L. AGASSIZ, and Contributions 
 from other eminent Scientific Gentlemen. With a Narrative of the Expedition, and 
 Illustrations. By J. E. CABOT. One volume, octavo, elegantly illustrated. Cloth, 3,50. 
 
 The illustrations, seventeen in number, are in the finest style of the art, by Sonrel ; embracing 
 lake and landscape scenery, fishes, and other objects of natural history, with an outline map of Lake 
 Superior. 
 
 This work is one of the most valuable scientific works that has appeared in this country. Embody- 
 ing the researches of our best scientific men relating to a hitherto comparatively unknown region i 
 It will be found tn contain a great amount of scientific information, JJ 
 
HUGH MILLER'S WORKS. 
 
 MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS 
 
 OF ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 BY HUGH MILLER, author of " Old Bed Sandstone," " Footprints of the 
 Creator/' etc., with a fine likeness of the author. 12ino, cloth, 1,00. 
 
 Let not the careless reader imagine, from the title of this hook, that it is a common hook of travels, 
 on the contrary, it is a very remarkable one, both in design, spirit, and execution. The facts recorded, 
 and the views advanced in this book, are so fresh, vivid, and natural, that we cannot but commend it 
 at. a treasure, both of information and entertainment It will greatly enhance the author's reputation, 
 in this country as it already has in England. Willis's Home Journal. 
 
 This is a noble book, worthy of the author of the Footprints of the Creator and the Old Eed Sand- 
 stone, because it is seasoned with the same power of vivid description, the same minuteness of obser- 
 vation, and soundness of criticism, and the same genial piety. We have read it with deep interest, 
 and with ardent admiration of the author's temper and genius. It is almost impossible to lay the book 
 down, even ,to attend to more pressing matters. It is, without compliment or hyperbole, a most de- 
 lightful volume. JT. Y. Commercial. 
 
 It abounds with graphic sketches of scenery and character, is full of genius, eloquence, and observa- 
 tion, and is well calculated to arrest the attention of the thoughtful and inquiring. Phil. Inquirer. 
 
 This is a most amusing and instructive book, by a master hand. Democratic Review. 
 
 The author of this work proved himself, in the Footprints of the Creator, one of the most original 
 thinkers and powerful writers of the age. In the volume before us he adds new laurels to his reputa- 
 tion. Whoever wishes to understand the character of the present race of Englishmen, as contradistin- 
 guished from past generations ; to comprehend the workings of political, social, and religious agitation 
 in the minds, not of the nobility or gentry, but of the people, will discover that, in this volume, he haa 
 found a treasure. Peterson's Magazine. 
 
 His eyes were open to see, and his ears to hear, every thing ; and, as the result of what he saw and 
 heard in "merrie " England, lie has made one of the most spirited and attractive volumes of travels 
 and observations that we have met with these many days. Traveller. 
 
 It is with the feeling with which one grasps the hand of an old friend that we greet to our home and 
 heart the author of the Old Red Sandstone and Footprints of the Creator. Hugh Miller is one of the 
 most agreeable, entertaining, and instructive writers of the age ; and, having been so delighted with 
 him before, we open the First Impressions, and enter upon its perusal with a keen intellectual appe- 
 tite. We know of no work in England so full of adaptedness to the age as this. It opens up clearly to 
 view the condition of its various classes, sheds new light into its social, moral, and religious history, 
 not forgetting its geological peculiarities, and draws conclusions of great value. Albany Spectator. 
 
 We commend the volume to our readers as one of more than ordinary value and interest, from the 
 pen of a writer who thinks for himself, and looks at mankind and at nature through his own spec- 
 tacles. Transcript. 
 
 The author, one of the most remarkable men of the nge, arranged for this journey into England, 
 expecting to "lodge in humble cottages, and wear a humble dress, and see what was to be seen by 
 humble men only, society without its mask." Such an observer might be expected to bring to view 
 a thousand things unknown, or partially known before ; and abundantly does he fulfil this expecta- 
 tion. It is one of the most absorbing books of the time. Portland Ch. Mirror. 
 
 NEW WORK. 
 
 MY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS; 
 OR THE STORY OF MY EDUCATION. 
 
 BY HUGH MILLER author of " Footprints of the Creator," " Old Ked 
 Sandstone," " First Impressions of England." etc, 12mo, cloth 
 
 This is a personal narrative of a deeply interesting and instructive character, concerning one of the 
 most remarkable men of the age. Jffjxon? who jvvre fr.ia this book will have occasion to regret it, our 
 word for it I 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
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