Richland beacon., 1880-04-17
OUR FUTURE.

| The Estimate Placed Upon Existence BY
Prof. Pr"ctOr-The Earth's Age Follow.
Ing in the Routine Of Other Plansfs-
The MOon-The UnHuiiude OF Stars.
In one of his lectures. Prof. Proctor,
the astronomer, says: The planet Venus
has an atmosphere, and it is said to be
at the very least as dense a. that of our
earth. Then we learn also that oceans
are on her surface, because it has been
shown by the spectrum. 1t appears also
that it closely resemb blcs our earth in con.
ditiOn. ard that it is the one planet fit
10 be the abode o! livirg creatures like
those which exist on the earth. In
Mars we begin 70 recognize the effects of
| planetary old age. These Sreenish
| patches we must regard us seas, and We
find that they are much smaller in COM
| parisOn to the rest Of the area than in
our earth. On our own planet y 90 il
covered with water. and on this ouly
| about 5000. The older planet has the
smaller water surface, and the idea il
| suggested that in old age of a planet
the waters gradually diminish in ex-
| tent.
We pass to the moon to answer that
question, and here We certainly find no
traces of water. Also, we trace no at.
mospiere of appreciable density, and
| everything tends to show that she had
water on her surface, but that it has
disappesled. Does this seemingly cold
and dead world appear to nave passed
through the same stages as our own
earth? think we cannot doubt this
when we look at her volcanic craters. l
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the waters being Withdrawn, present this
finely granulated appearance from its
action. This seems to be a natural ex-
planation. As the planet becomes old
the oceans become soaked into the
planets int erior, 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withdrawn DIR. 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 pre- cess of cool
ing has gone sufficiently far. Then, in
regard to the atmosphere, there is GER
tainly no trace on the moon, but we have
a picture here showing that the volcanic
action of the moon was at one time
no less than in our own earth. The moon
probably represents the future of our
own earth at distance of time of twenty
five million of years. When the old age
of the earth will come il 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 tn 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. A study of the
heavens seems to tell us that all life
should occupy all space and all time.
and not be crowded into one portion of
time or one portion of space. So / think
we may look at the heavens, with the
thousands of stars to be seen with the
nakedeye, and hold this thought: There
you have 5000 suns, each 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 single world
J inits system as the abode of life, we have
then thousands of INHABITED worlds SIM
liar, perhaps, to our own.
In the one single polar map here
shown there are 324. 900 stars, all to be
seen with small telescope, and by one
of HerschePs telescopes 20, O0O, 600 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
suns appear TO us like the death of the
universe 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
W II still remain others to take their
places? 1t seems to me we cannot, il
we remember how thoroughly we have
been deceived in the past. We thought
the earth the centre of the universe:
then the solar system was everything;
than that system became but one in a
galaxy of stars, and in turn the galaxy
of stars is lost in the infnitude Of
stars.