The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-06-15
Plurality Of Inhabited Worlds.


"This world, this planet upon which
we hve," says Flammarion, the French
astronomer, q" is only q grain of dust in
the mighty immensely Of space" And
In his admirable work on the plurality of
inhabited worlds he advances the theory
that God has created living beings on
every planet and satellite in the heavens.
Indeed, the astronomers generally agree
with him that as this earth, which is but
q mere atom In the vast expanse of the
universe, is inhabited, the presumption
Is that other worlds of more Importance
than ours in point Of magnitude are also
inhabited by beings with life and intelh-
gence like us. In short, the earth has
no marked pre-eminence in the solar sys-
tenn to entitle it to the only inhabited
world. Automatically speaking, the
other planets are arranged as well as 1t Is
as abodes of life Even the sun with all
its heat, is supposed to be inhabited by
mortals physically suited to dwell on it,
for an omnipotent God, who could create
the sun itself, could also create people
capable of living ON it.
If the universe remains to man only
great material mechanism, moved by
physical forces, nature is nothing in his
eye but gigantic laboratory, whore the
elements are mingled blindly under the
most various and casual forms; in a
word, if the admirable and magnificent
science of the heavens confines the eff
forts of the human mind eternally to the
geometry of the heavenly bodies, the
science would never attain its real end,
and that it would stop at the mo-
ment of reaping the fruit OF its immense
Iabors. It remains supremely lncom-
plete If the universe was never any
thing to it but an assemblage OF inert
bodies floating in space under the action
Of material forces.
The philosopher must go farther. He
must not contine himself to seeing under
a more or less distinct form the great
body of nature.
We live on a world which In no excep-
ton among the heavenly bodies, and
which we have no reason to believe has
received the least privilege. 1t Is the
third of the planets which revolve round
the sun, and one of the smallest among
them; without going beyond our system,
other planets are much moro important
than it. In the mechanism OF the solar
system. Jupiter, for instance, is Ala
times greater, and Saturn 734 times
greater. While it appears to us the most
important of the universe, it is in reality
lost in the immensely of the worlds
which people the heavens, and the whole
creation does not guess at its existence.
Of the planets of our own system there
are only four, the inhabitants OF which,
if they really have any, can know the
earth exists; those are Mercury, Venus,
Mars, and Jupiter; and even to this last
one it is most of the time invisible in the
solar aureola. Now, while the earth Is
thus lost amid worlds more important
than itself, the other worlds are in the
same conditions of habitability as those
that we observe on the earth. On
these planets, as on our own, the rays OF
the sun pour forth heat and light; on
them, as here, years, months, and days
succeed each other, drawing with them
the seasons which, from time to time,
support the conditions of existence; on
them as here, transparent atmosphere
envelopes the inhabited surface with
protecting climate, gives rise to meteOrio
movements, and develOpes those beau
ties which celebrate sunrise and sunset.
On them as here, vaporOus clouds rise
from the ocean with the deep waves, and
spreading themselves under the heaven,
carry dew to the parched-up regions
culates over the earth is not confined to
this little planet; the same cases devel-
ope elsewhere the same effects, and
on many among these strange worlds,
far from noticing the absence of the
riches with which the earth IS endowed,
an abundance of wealth OF which ours
only possesses the first fruits is observed.
By the side of these bodies, the earth is
essentially an inferior world in many re-
spects: from the unsatisfactory conditions
of geological stability of which the ter
restrial spheroid reminds US, its surface
being only thin pellicle, to the fatal
laws which govern life on this earth
where death reigns upreme.
If, on the one hand, the other worlds
have conditions of habitability quite as
powerful, if not more so, as the ter
restriaI conditions, on the other hand,
the earth, considered in itself, appears
to US like an overlooking cup whence life
issues on all sides. It seems that to
create is so necessary to the order of
nature, that the smallest piece of matter
of suitable properties does not exist
without serving as an abode of living
beings. -ErchGnge.