The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-03-25
Plurality of Inhabited Worlds.


we hve," says Flammarion, the French
astronomer, d" is only grain of dust in
the mighty immensity of space And
in his admirable work ON the plunlity of
inhabited worlds he advances the theory
that God has created living beings on
every planet and satellite in the beavens
| Indeed, the astronomers generally agree
| with him that as this earth, whidh is but
a 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 ad intelh-
gence like us. In short, the earth has
no marked pre-eninence in the solar sys-
tenn to entitle it to the only inhabited
world. Astronomically speaking, the
other planets are arranged rs vel as it is
as abodes of life. Even the sunwith all
its heat, is supposed to be inhabited hy
mortals physicallSz ssAitad a shAell sa. 4
for am onnipotent God, who could create
the sun itself, conld 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 where the
elements are mingled blindly under the
most various and casual forms; IN
word, if the admirable and magnificent
science of the heavens confines the ef-
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
labors. 1t remains supremely lncon-
plete If the universe was never any
thing to it but an assemblage OF inert
~,
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 Is 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 reyOlve round |
the sun, and one of the smallest among |
them; without going beyond our system, |
other planets are much more important |
than it IN the mechanism of the solar |
system. Jupiter, for instance, is !, ,4I4 |
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 immenslty 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
solnr 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 day
succeed each other, drawing with tir's'lA4
the seasons which, from time to time,
support the conditions of existence; on
them as here, a Transparent atmosphere
envelopes the inhabited surface with
climate, gives rise to meteoric
and developes those bean
ties which celebrate sunrise and sunset.
On them as here, vapOrous clouds rise
rom the ocean with the deep waves, and
spreading themselves under the heaven,
larry dew to the parched-up regions.
This great movement of life which cir
,ulates over the earth is not confined to
his little planet; the same cases devel-
)pe elsewhere the same effects, and |
IN many among these strange worlds,
ar from noticing the absence of the
iches with which the earth is endowed,
IN abundance of wealth of which ours
,nly possesses the first fruits Is observed.
BY the side of these bodies, the earth is
an inferior world in many re-
poets: from the unsatisfactory conditions
4 geological stability of which the ter
estrial spheroid reminds us, its surface
'eing only thin pellicle, to the fatal
avs which govern life on this earth
There death reigns upreme.
If, on the one hand, the other worlds
ave conditions of habitability quite as
'owerful, if not more so, as the ter
estrial conditions, on the other hand,
he earth. considered in itself, appears
o MS like an overfowing cup whence life
ssues on all sides. It seems that to
reate is so necessary TO the order of
ature, that the smallest piece of matter
suitable properties does not exist
rithout serving as an abode of living
eings. s.-E1ehange