The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-01-29

the light-we know nothing of the heat
that we get from our moon; while
Jupiter can supply to the nearest Of
them thirteen times as much light as
we receive from our moon. Saturn's
system is miniature of the solar sys-
tenn, first the central orb, then the ring
system, multitude of minute frag-
ments, and outside of them eight
moons, just as in the solar system there
are eight primary planets. The larger
of these moons could be compared to
Jupiter, the next to Mars, and the next
to Mercury; and the very least could be
the abode of many millions of living
creatures. Saturn himself could not be
the abode of life, even if he were not,
as think. intensely heated.
THE EARTH's FUTURE.
A comparison of the various other
members of the terrestrial part of the
solar system will tell us much of the
earth's future, the moon especially tell
ing of the earth's future just as Jupiter
has of its past. Upon the pictures of
Venus very little reliance can be
placed, and few favorable opportuni-
ties are offered for studying her, be-
cause when at the full she lies on the
other side of the sun, and at the only
time we could study her she turns her
darkened hemisphere toward us. In
this view of the transit of Venus half
her disc is shown on that of thesun.
We must not assume that this is not
sunlight, for it must be light of the sun
brought into view by the effect of re-
Election. Therefore, we learn that the
planet has an atmosphere, and it is
said to be at the very least as dense as
that of our own earth. Then we learn,
also, that oceans are on her surface, be-
cause it has been shown by the spec
trum. 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 planet
airy old age. These greenish patches
we must regard as seas, and we find
that they are much less in comparison
to the rest of the area than in our earth.
On our own planet 1900 is covered
with water, and on this only about SO. 90.
The older planet has the smaller water
surface. and the idea is suggested that
in old age of planet the waters grad
ually diminish in extent.
We pass to the moon to answer that
question, and here we certainly find no
fypon of Also t,roo o<
mosphere of appreciable density, and
everything tends to show that she had
water on her surface, but that it has
disappeared. Does this seemingly cold
and dead world appear to have passed
through the same stages as our own
earth? l 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 with
drawn, present 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 atmosphere, there is certainly no
trace on the moon, but we have pict-
ure here showing that the volcanic
action of the moon was at one time no
less than in our own earth. Here are
the craters of Capernus compared with
those on the Bay of Naples. You no.
tice that they are larger on the moon s
surface than those of Naples, with the
exception of Vesuvius. But we nave
to remember that the volcanic action of
the moon had more to contend with,
and therefore, although the volcanoes
are large, they may not have exerted
so great force. Here we have pict-
ure representing the moon without an
atmosphere, and this, it may be gen.
orally stated, represents the future of
our own earth. The moon probably
represents the future of our own earth
at distance of time of $4,000, 900
years; so not only in the first place
have we not sufficient time for these
changes to occur, but our emotions are
also satisfied, so far as they are affected
by the painful thought that when the
old age of the earth will come it will
cease as the abode of life, by the re-
Election that ourselves and thousands
after us, to the remotest generations,
will still have ample time and ample
room to remain on the earth's surface.
AN INFINITUDE OF STARS.
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. 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 por-
ton of time or one portion of space.
So think we may look at the heav-
ems, with the thousands of stars to be
seen with the naked eye, 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
a single world in its 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 are 324, 900 stars, all to be
seen with small telescope, and by one
of Herschers telescopes 20, 600, 900 stars
would have been brought into view in
the same section of the armament. We
here find in the depths of space the
worlds that will take the place of