The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1880-04-09
OUR FUTURE.


The EAaiHnnte Placed Upon Existence by |
Prof PrOctor-The Earth's Age FoIlew. |
ing I'm the Rouune OF Other Planets
The Meon-Tho Indaitude OF stars
In one of his lectures, Prof. Proctor,
the astronomer, saysi The planet Venus
has an atmosphere, and 1t is said to be
Mt the very least as dense as that of our
earth. Then we learn also that oceans |
are on her surface, beCatise IL has been
shown by the spectrum. 1t appears Also
that 1t closely resembles our earth in con-
dition, 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 rs 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 7200 ID
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 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
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 nave passed
through the same stages as our own
earth2 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the waters being withdrawn, present this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 natural cx-
| PLANTATION. 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 10
Withdrawn DIR.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 process 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
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 it will cease al
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. 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 oi
| time or one portion of space. So tkinh
| we may look at the heavens, with the
, thousands Of stars to be seen with th,
| nakedIeye, and hold this thought: Their,
, you have 5000 suns, each brother O
. our own sun, though many belong t.
i higher orders, and we may believe theJ
/. have thousands of orbs circlinl
{ round them which are the Abodes of life
!. And if each one has bat single worl'
r in its system as the abode of life, we hav
then thousands Of inhabited worlds sim
o liar, perhaps, to our own.
J. In the one single polar map her
|. shown there are $4,000 stars, all to b
r seen with small telescope, and by ON
d of Herscheps telescopes 20, 900, 900 star
r would have been brought into view j
the same section of the armament. Blu
d after all there still remains the though
,r that each planet is tending towar
'. death, and though the periods of tim
le are so vast that they seem like eternity
/ the dying out of the larger of thei
it suns appear to us like the death of th
K universe itself. But take such an or
it as Sirius, which is thousand tim'
is larger than the sun, and after his deaf
II ali the smaller orbs will have died b'
" can we escape the thought that the
In will still remain others to take the
es places? It seems TO me we cannot,
we remember how thoroughly we hal
been deceived in the past. We thougl
the earth the centre of the univers
then the solar system was everything
than that system became but one in
or galaxy Of stars, and in turn the gala1
or Of stars is lost in the in6nitude
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