The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-02-15
"other worlus than Ours."

The recent observations made on tho
planet Venus during her transit across the
sun appear to confirm the impression do
rived from the last transit, In 1874, that
she has an atmosphere not less dense than
our own, and aqueous vapor and cloud
within that atmosphere. This conclusion
would have grieved the late Professor
Whewell, who, IN his ingenious essay to
dlsprove the plurality Of inhabited worlds,
took for granted that we ''dlscern no traces
Of gaseous or watery atmosphere sur
rounding her (Venus)," and built on this
NJ gatlve evidence one Of his arguments to
prove that Ia the whole universe the earth
ls not lmprobably the only habitable globe.
Professor Whewell did his best to show
that the earth held very singular place
in what might be very unique solar sys.
tenn; that 1t occupied what he called s'the
temperate zone" of It's own suns system,
and that there ls no particular reason to
| suppose that any other sun has planetary
attendants at all. In order to make out
the singular position Of tue earth in its
own suns system, Professor Whewell was
compelled to make the most of the intensi-
ty of the light and heat in Mercury and
Venus, and the most again, of the compar-
ative cold of Slars. In polut OF fact, how
ever, 1t ls probable that very slight mod
iflcation of our human organization-even
II any structural modification at all of that
| organization were necessary-wou.d enable
creatures OF the same general structure
and habits as Dlan to 1.-Two with ease in
either OF the planets nearest to tho earth,
| IN either Mars, which should, caetcris
pari6us, be colder and darker, or in
| Venus, which should cacteris D07Ibus,
| nH hon IN
know, to some extent, the configurat,on of
the continents in Mars, aud our astronom.
ers have at times watched the area of the
! polar SHOWS of that planet increasl. e with
the approach OF winter and dwiSdlng
with the approach of summer. Of Venus
we know much less. the intense brightness
of her reflected light being very unfavor-
able condition for minute observation,
But the apparently clear evidence for an
atmosphere of u good deal OF density, and
! Tor the preencc Of cloud aud aqueous vapor
/ in that atmosphere, disposes completely of
the late Professor Whewelps ASSUMPTION
that no creature resembling man now has,
or could ever have, his abode there. There
| now seems no reason to doubt that IN
Venus the conditions of physical cxls ence
are sucn that either there now may be
there, or may have been, Or may be in
future, being whose physical existence
| might, like that of man and the animal
natures nearest to man, exist under some
thing closely approaching 10 those of ter
restrial life. Tho length of the day IN
Venus is nearly the same, the weight of
any given mass is nearly tho same, The at
mospheric conditions are probably moi
very different from orr own; the only
material differences being probably the
length of the year, which is not very
much above the half of ours-or, saw
about seven months instead of twelve
and the amount Of light and heat, which
unless mitigated by special atmospheric
conditions, as they easily might be, would
probably be twice as intense as terrestrial
light and heat.
We insist on this analogy, however,
only for the sake Of those who like the
late DR.. Whewell, made the argument
from analogy SO all-important, though in
relation to question on which, as 1t ap-
pears to us, the argument from analogy
has really very slight bearing indeed
There is no reason IN the world why spir
itual beings, much more like to US ia their
thoughts than it ls at all probable that
J birds and tortolses arc like to us in their
thoughts, should not exist evervwhere--
In the pure ether, in the hottest flames of
the sun, IN the dimness of the darkest re-
cesses of space, in the heat of The volcano.
or IN the depth of the ocean. Ignore the
reasoning from analogy and we can hardly
! have a less secure basis for reasoning,
where observation Is limited as it is in
this case, IN one minute corner Of the uni =
| verse, and we shall find no more reason
why we should confine the Creator power
to working within conditions closely re-
semhling our own than there is why we
should assume that He will work at all in
regions where we have no evidence of that
work.