Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-01-17
How the Earth Will Perish.

Inc planet venus has aH atmosphere, and 1t
of our own earth. Then we learn also that
oceans are on her surface, because it has been
shown oy the spectrum. 1t appears also that it
closely resembles our earth in condition, and
that it is the one planet fit to be the abode OF
living creatures like those which exist on the
earth. In Mars we begin to recognize the effects
OF planetary old age. These greenish patches
we must regard as seas, and we find that they
are much smaller in comparison to the rest OF
the area than In our earth. On our own planet
100 Is covered with water, and on this only
about 5000. The older planet has the smaller
water surface, and the idea is suggested that in
old age OF planet the waters gradually dimin-
1Sh In extent.
We pass to the moon to answer that question,
and here we certainly find no traces of water
Also, we trace no atmosphere of appreciate
density, and everything tends to show that she
had water on her surface, but that it has disap-
peared. Does this seemingly cold and dead world
appear to have passed through the same stages
as our own earth? think we cannot doubt
this when we look at her volcanic craterS.
think, too, there must have been there such life
as exists on our own planet. There were oceans
on her surface which formerly occupied these
spots, which, the waters being withdrawn pre-
sent this finely granulated appearance from Its
action. This seems to be a natural explanation.
AS the planet becomes Old the oceans become
soaked into the planets interior, the crust of the
surface as the planet cools being formed into
large cavities such as exist in porous substances
and into these the water Is withdrawn. DR..
Franklin, Of England, has shown that four times
as much water as now finds place on the earth'S
surface could be found room for in the interior
of the EARTH when the process of cooling has
gone sufficiently far. Then in regard to the at
mosphere, there is certainly no trace on the
moon, but we have picture here showing that
the volcanic action of the moon was at one time
no less than in our own earth. The moon prob
ably represents the future Of our own earth at a
distance OF time of twenty-five million Of years.
When the old age Of the earth will come 1t will
cease as the abode OF life.
Let us pause to consider some of the stars in
this regard Many of them are too old and many
too young to sustain life on their surfaces, but
that they were formed for some purpose beyond
that of being useful to this particular planet
there is no doubt. study of the heavens seems
to tell us that all life should occupy all space
and all time, and not be crowded into one por-
ton OF time or one portion OF space. So think
we may look at the heavens with the thousands
or stars to be seen with the naked eye, and hold
this thought. There you have 6OOO suns each
a brother of our own sun, though many belong
to higher orders, and we may believe they have
thousands of orbs circling round them which
are the abodes OF life. And If each one has but
a single world in It's system as the abode of life
we have then thousands Of Inhabited worlds
similar, perhaps, to our own.
In the one single polar map here shown there
ale 324, 900 stars, all to be seen with small tel
Escape, and by one of HerschePs telescopes 90
GOO, 800 stars would have been brought into view
in the same section Of the armament. But after
all there still remains the thought that each
planet is tending toward death, and though the
periods Of time are so vast that they seem like
eternity, the dying out Of the larger Of these
ouuS appears W 10 llhC tltC VI Iuc uuuftISt
itself. But take such an orb as Sirius, which is
a thousand times larger than the sun, and after
his death all the smaller orbs.will have died;
but can we escape the thought that there will
still remain others to take their places? 1t
seems to me We cannot, If we remember how
thoroughly we have been deceived in the past.
We thought the earth the center Of the uni
verse; then the solar system was everything;
then that system became but one in galaxy of
stars and In turn the galaxy Of stars is lost in
the infnitude OF stars.-(Trfbufse's Report Of
Prof. PrOctO7''S Lecture.