The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-09-29
From Columns New Monthly.
THE MIDDLE HOME CELESTIAL.

Few persons who can reflect on the highly
interesting and eevating subject Of the proba-
bic uses in the creation of the vast rnyriads of
heavenly bodies which we see, during our hours
of darkness, sparkling in the distant armament
above, and which we know, by the calculations
and discoveries Of astronomers, 10 be spread
over the illimitable universe, can entertain the
narrow minded irrational idea that ell those
visible and invisible globes are mere matter,
floating in space, unemployed and uninhabited,
while our little planet alone has been selected
by the Almighty for the abode of intellectual
beings.
This idea is the embodiment Of selfconcet,
vain glory, and presumption For, though We
are told in the Scriptures that man is made
" lower than the angels, we are nowhere as
sured that no intellectual beings except man
have ever been imbued with life and we have
no warrant to pronounce that these vast lumi-
naries we're called into existence for no other
purpose than TO throw tide of useless splendor
over the solitudes Of immensity."*
Such is not, and has not been, the opinion of
the greatest, the wisest, and the best. Many
Christian philosophers and astronomers, as well
as learned divines, have declared their belief in
the theory of the sun, moon, and stars, being
each and all inhabited worlds, or in prepa-
ration to receive inhabitants. Faith" says
one of these philosophers, whose grasp of mind
may well claim influence, even for his specula-
tons on this lofty theme - " faith associates
with these bright abodes the future fortunes of
immortal and regenerated man. 1t places there
the loved and the lost it follows them into
celestial bowers " and genius brings the
charm of poetry to shed halo of beauty around
the mystic scenes, which imagination fails to
portray;
There is place where spirits come,
Beneath the shrine % live,
mystic place, middle home,
Which GOO TO them doth give.
What mortal fancy can disclose
The secret OF their weird repose,
n is quetness more ceep
Than de adest sxOon, deepest sleep,
SLENDER full of glorious Dreams
OF asic sounds and broken CLEANS
Outside the walls of Heaven
Science, in its Hottest stretch, cannot tray-
erse the "trackless vacancy which lies beyond
our earth, intervening between it and the dis
tant orbs which ilumine the vast vault ofheaven;
vet fancy, when uncontrolled by sober rea-
son, will sometimes dare to wing its fight to
them, Who knows, when its material frame Is
sunk in that which we call sleep, whether the
spirit wanders or not, and how, and where
Enchanting music has been heard, and beauti-
full objects have been seen, in dreams and it
is vision of strange scenes obtained during
trance, consequent on extreme illness and de-
bility that we are about to relate.
A lady, still youthful, though not mere girl,
who was fond of star-gazing, without having the
least pretensions to astronomical knowledge,
and who was enabled to indulge her taste, as
she lived in tropical climate. where the clear
ness of the atmosphere and the beauty of the
nights are favorable to star-gazing, was once
seized with dangerous illness. The fever and
headache baffled all the usual remedies; mus
tard plasters, blsters cuppiDg, were all resorted
to in vain, and the poor young woman lay APP
Dr. Chslmers,s Astronomical DiseOssrsss.
Mgrs Worlds tAan ous. BY Sir David Brewster.