Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-07-22

drepores shesh and belemtes the cartiaginous
of the old red sandstone formation the Saurian
sters Of the LAS in short through all the countless ages
which elapsed before the last few thousand years.
Now these speculatons doubtless very ingenious,
and may be quite true the speculatons Of the
astronomers; for they both may be wrong doubt
less both wrong in many respects We certainly cannot
admit the concusveness Of the writer's reasoning to
the asserted fantness of the light and heat Of Jupiter
Because he is FIVE times farther from the than our
earth it does not necessarily follow that he is twenty
times colder and darker than globe The degrees of
light and heat in all the planets in earth, depend
their relative distances from the sum- but on the
atmospheres which envelop them. Jupiter may have
light than earth, he may have great deal less
than one twenty fifth as much.
From Jupiter we pass to Saturn Here, according to
the same augmentation, or, have shown the same
contingent probability, the writer asserts that Saturn has
only one-nineeth of the light and heat Of the EARTH
while his density hardly greater than that of cork
Hence he nfers that he be inhabited only by aque
Gus and geatnous creatures too sluggish perhaps be
deemed alive" The Of Uranus and Neptune are
of course !" the same, only more So"
Having shown" the watery and vaporous constitution
Of the planets remote from the EARTH the essayis
next directs his attention to nearer its orbit Mars
is examined In circumstances and position he is
most of all the planets like globe. He has perhaps
continents and seas he has perhaps clouded atmo.
spheres the length of his day and the order of his
sons are about the same with Our author admits
that like earth he may be inhabited but il inha-
bted it is most likely that he is inhabited as our earth
was before man appeared its surface by creatures of
the nature of corals and molluscs saurans and gua
nodons.
The twenty nine asteroids, more between Mars and
Jupiter next pass in review Setting aside the theory
Of Olbers that they the fragments Of exploded
planet he regards them the results of imperfecty
effected concentration Of the elements which elsewhere
have become oongobated into the bodies Of solar
system. They, cot course, not inhabited; being
nothing more than larger bits of meteoric sone like the
smaller pieces which sometimes caught by the earth
in their devious fall being arrested in their Grant
by the resistance of our atmosphere.
The two interior planets Venus and Mercury, dis
patched in summary If the outer PLANETS are
too cold these are too hot If inhabited at oil, Venus
may be infested by microscopic creatures with scious
coverings " while of Mercury the writer knows Of no
conditions which make animal existence conceivable
The author therefore adopts the conclusion as an in
ference from astronomy ITSELF that earth is the do
nestle hearth Of the solar system, adjusted between the
hot and fiery haze the side and the cold and water
vapor the other the only fit region to be domestic
hearth, the seat of intelligent habitaton. The earth
alone he declares is apparently placed in the Temperate
holland cold of moist and dry seems be possible
side Of the earths orbit at least outside Of Mars and
the planetods, there is apparently solid matter; all
to be watery vaporous Inside the earths orbit
we no traces of water vapor, or gas The earth
alone is placed at the border where the conditions Of
tellectual life are combined insomuch that the earth,
sit would SEEM is the abode Of ls because all the
globes which revolve round the sun may be assumed
be the abodes of f but because the earth fitted be
so by curious and complex combination Of properties
and relations which do not at all apply to the others
That the earth is inhabited for believing
that the other planets but for believing that they
are not So"
From these views it follows ALSO as our author
oludes that the earth is really the largest planetary
body in the solar system The vast globes Of Jupiter
and Saturn Of Uranus and Neptune, still only huge
masses Of cloud and vapor water and air. which, from
their enormous size, are ponderous enough to retain
round them body of small satellites perhaps in some
degree at least, solid; and which have perhaps small
lump, few similar Jumps Of planetary matter at the
centre Of their watery globe Does not the author
little overwork the dubitatve particle "perhaps 2"
Is the reader wearied with such speculatons? Does
he fear like the philosophers in Lucians atrcal page
that the and and stars will hide themselves in
disgust and be much offended with the modern specu
latss they said to be with those of yore? And
tangled Icaromenippus to make end Of all these curl
heavenly controversies and scatter them abroad =
Or dropping the hapg wing Of science, will he prefer
to plume his fight the soaring pinion Of Dante's
poetic muse and make with him and Beatrice the same
journey through the "ten heavens that by which he
has just been carried under the lead Of audacious
of science Or, conveyed in imagination by bless
ed mover" will he, with Milton, rather
"Pass the planets seven, and pass the fx'd
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd and that first moved"
| But we grow poetical.
We cannot even advert to what the essayist promu-
gates theory Of the solar system. is nothing
than modification of the ne5ular hypothesis Of La
Place. and will of be rejected by oil who reject
| that bold speculation.
In the remainder Of his volume the author recapitu
and reenforces the heads Of his metaphysical argu
in favor Of the unity and unqueness of creation
He thinks it nothing dcrogatoy to Divine Wisdom TO sup
pose that all other bodies in the universe are but as the
refuse Of the Great Builder who has fitted up our earth
be the abode Of and the theatre Of the work OF
mans redemption.
But close this his hasy review OF WORK SO
extraordinary without designating at least one OF Its
weak spot which the author has left bare to the at
tack of the critics We surprised that Sir David
Brewster has not piled him vigorously In this vu
nerabe quarter Our author distinctly teaches that man
is an immortal being "destned to endure for endless
acea aftor this earthly en Now let ask, destined