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


creature II consider these attributes we shall soc
that they such to give him special relation tc
God as we conceive and must conceive God to be- and
may therefore be- in God the occasion Of special guar
dianshp and special regard exercised towards man And
since God has only recently begun TO exercise this
race may be that the sole objects of such
special and eminent superintendent In plain terms
we have reason to doubt the existence of plurality Of
worlds inhabited by intelligent beings.
The essayis having thus, he thinks rebutted the
of astronomical analogy by what he deems the
facts Of geology, goes little EDWARDS in the argument
and asks whether astronomy herself does confirm the
teaching Of geology whether the distant objects in the
universe do really be systems only the begin
nngs Of systems and whether therefore, astronomy her
self may not incline in favor of the condition of man as
being the sole creature of his kind?
In attempting this branch Of his inquiry he commences
with the outskirts of creation the ne5ul" We cannot
follow him in the elaboration Of his astronomical nves-
cations respecting the nature of these nebulous pheno
Of the skies We have only for his conclu-
sions The nebule he pronounces be vast masses of
incoherent gaseous matter Of immense tenuity diff
fused in forms more less irregular but all of them des
tute OF any regular system of solid moving bodies He
to have made 1t evident that these celestial objects
OF least are not inhabited We are not prepared to yield
assent to the conclusiveness Of the essaysts pecu
precate the weight Of his astronomical evidences their
support and know that the weight of all received
thorities in astronomical science is against him.
San astronomer" says the essayist I" armed with
powerful telescope resolpes nebula that is discerns
that luminous cloud is composed Of shining dots. But
what these dos Into what does he resolve the
sbua Into stars, 1t is commonly said Let
gle about words BY all let these dots be stars if
we know about what we speakng-if star merely
means luminous dot in the sky Some nebulae
resoyabe-are receivable into distinct points-cer-
tanly very curious probably very important dis
'coyery We may hereafter learn that all nebule are
thus receivable into distinct points that would be still
more curious discovery But what would it amount to
What would be the simple way of expressing it without
hypothesis and without assumption Plainly this that
the substance of all nebulm is not continuous but dis
screte This Sir David Brewster declares to be 'nei-
Their the language the tone of of science in
search of truth" II any dependence is to be placed
the speculatons Of astronomy it would ncontesti
BILE that since the nebul& remote than any of
the fixed stars and since the Of these must
from their distance, be equal to sun, entitled
to conclude that the separate stars Of the nebu must be
Of much greater SIZE But if the astronomers have
laborng under an optical deuson and this possible if
not probable considering the obscury that hangs about
all their knowledge Of the nebula; and if the nebua
really are essayst argues and thinks he has pro-
from the Mageanic clouds and other examples
saggregations Of vaporous rolls and streaks assuming
such forms as thin volumes of smoke vapor often
sumo in atmosphere, and assuming like them differ
'ent shapes according to the quantity Of light which
scomes to from them" then there would seem be
great plausibiy in authors new hypothesis. The
writer ut least evnces great confidence in his view of
these Luminous patches Of they have been
called; and DR.. Hitchcock adopts his idea fully, and
~.x1-.
films Of vapor and gas The essayis
the hope that his specuatons and arguments
on this head may be not unworthy Of attention
the part astronomers Of future and fur
ther researches in the skies fer the purpose Of confirming
or confutng his conclusions. He will not be satisfied
with Sir Davids perfunctory and contemptuous ecar
msnt Of his speculations.
Having as our bold specuatis believes cleared away
supposed nhaplrants from the outskirts Of creation
he proceeds to consider the fixed stars, and exam
ines the evidence to the probability Of their nhabia
ton by intelligent creatures. Beginning with clusters Of
stars he classes them in the category with the
sovabe nebu and no proof that these bright points
are suns the astronomers have asserted These cus
tiers he believes be exceedingly in their compost
on-vaporous, like the tails Of comets. The " to
this assertion be easily imagined Wherever we are
unable detect motion and paraax in the sidcrea hea-
yens it is inferred that this inability arises from the i'm
distance Of the objects observed now they are
visible spite Of this immense distance must not each
Of the luminous points Of starry cluster be immensely
large, From the gobuar clusters Of stars our author
proceeds the binary systems He admits that the law
of universal graytaon is established for several of these
systems on evidence satisfactory be desired,
but he endeavors show that each Of the stars of the
best known binary systems alpha Centaui and 81 Cygn
"may have its luminous matter dused through globe
as large the eartKs annual orbit" This mere asser-
ton Sir D. Brewster meets by osettng it with the con-
trary assertion of Sir John Hersche The necessary
complexity and liability to disorder and confusion
still further objections alleged by the essayst against the
suppositon Of regular system with its regular orbits
being the Of clustered and binary stars
Having found "but little promise of inhabitants in
this direction the anonymous writer turns his atten
ton to the single fixed stars the most hopeful cases."
and declares very summary that the only proof that
the fixed stars the centres Of planetary systems
sides in the assumption that these stars like the sum-
resemble him in their qualities and nature and therefore
must have the Offices and the same appendages"
He incnes believe that though the weight OF certain
stars is Of that Of the sum- yet their matter may
be diused through sphere equal to the earths orbit
These stars like the in only single thing, the
quality of being sefumnous or il it be said that they
are also like the in turning their it replied
that we know this to be true only of those stars which
are unlike the in having side darker than the
other Our author thus up this branch of the dis