Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-04-18
SCIENTIFIC.

Other Worids-Fiewing the universe
of suns aud worlds in the manner here
suggested, we would adopt a theory of
other worlds which would hold a posi-
ton intermediate between the Brew
sterian and Whewellite theories. Git
ia not on this account, that l advocate
it, let me remark in passing, but simply
because it accords with the evidence,
which ia not the case with Others.) Re-
ject;ng on the one hand the theory of
the plurality of worlds in the sense i'm
plying that all existent worlds are in
habited, and on the other hand the theory
of but one world, we should accept a
theory which might be entitled the
Paucity of Worlds, only that relative
not absolute paucity must be under
stood. 1t is absolutely certain that this
theory is the correct one, II we admit
two pOsrulates, neither of which can be
reasonably questIoned-viz., first that
the life bearing era of any world Is
short compared with the entire dura
tion of that world; and secondly. that
there can have been no cause which set
all the worlds in existence. not stimuli
taneously, which would be amazing
enough. bat (Which would be Infinitely
uOre surprising) in such a way that
after passing each through its time OF
preparation, longer for the large worlds
and shorter for the small worlds, they
all reached at the same time the me-
bearing era. But quite apart from this
antecedent probability, amounting as
it does to absolute certainly if these
two highly probable postulates are ad-
mitted, we have the actual evidence of
the plants we can examine that evil
dence proving incOntestibly, as | have
shown elsewhere, that such planets as
Jupiter and Saturn are still Ill the state
of preparation, still so intensely hot
that no form of life could possibly exist
upon them, and that such bodies as our
HOOn have long since passed the life
bearing stage, and are to all inients and
purposes drfunct. But may we not go
furtherf Recognizing In our own
world, In many instances, what 10 our
ideas resembles waste-waste seeds,
waste lives, waste races, waste regions,
waste forces-TecOgniZIng supertiuity
and suberabuDdaDce in all the pro-
cesses and in all the works OF nature.
should it not appear at least possible
that some, perhaps large proportion,
of the worlds in the multitudiuous sv s.
tenn peopling space are not only not
now supporting life. but never have
supported life and never Wilt Does
this idea differ in kind, however large
ly TO our feeble conceptions 1t may
seem to differ in degree, from the idea
of the imagined creatures on Il fruit
that some or even many fruits excel
lently fitted for the support of life
might not subserve that purposef And
as those creatures might conceive (as
we know that some fruits, even many,
failed to come to the full perfection of
fruit life, may not we without irIever-
ence conceive (as higher beings than
ourselves may know that planet or a
sun may fail in the makingf We can
not say that in such a case there would
be a waste OF loss of material, though
we may be unable to conceive how the
lost sun or planet could be utilized.
Our imagined insect reasODer would be
unable To imagine that fruits plucked
from their tree system would be other
wise than wasted. for they would con-
ceive that their idea of the purpose OF
fruits was the only true one; yet they
would be altogether mistaken, as We
may be in suppossing the main purpose
of planetary existence is the support OF
lie.