Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-01-27
ssOther Worlds Than 0urY.,s
From the London Spectator. December so.


The recent observations made on the planet
Venus during her transit across the sun appear
to confirm the impression derived 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 disprove the plu-
rality of inhabited worlds, took for granted that
1--WE discern no traces of gaseous or watery
atmosphere surrounding her (venus)," and built
on this negative evidence one of his arguments
to prove that In the whole universe the earth is
not imprObably the only habitable globe. Pro-
fessor Whewell did his best to show that the
earth held very singular place in what might
be very unique solar system; that 1t occupied
what he called the temperate zone" of its own
suns system, and that there Is no particular rea-
son to suppose that any other sun has planetary
attendants at all. In Orderto make out the sin
gular position OF the earth in its own suns sys-
tenn. Professor Whewell was compelled to make
the most of the intensity of the light and heat
in Mercury and Venus and the most, again, of
the comparative cold Of Mars. In point Of fact.
however, it Is probable that very slight modi-
1catiOn Of our human OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES If any
structural modification at all of that organization
were necessary-wOuld enable creatures of the
same general structure and habits as man to live
with ease in either OF the planets nearest to the
earth, In either Mars, which should cdef.,-is pd,i-
bus be colder and darker. or in Venus, which
shoold. cdeteras pd,'ibus. be lighter and hotter
than the earth. We know, to some extent the
the configuration Of the continents in Mars, and
our astronomers have at times watched the area
of the polar SHOWS of that planet increasing with
the approach of winter. and dwindling with the
approach of summer. OF Venus we know much
less, the intense brightness of her reflected light
being very unfavOrable condition for minute
observation. But the apparently clear evidence
for an atmosphere of good deal of density,
and for the presence of cloud and aqueous vapOr
in that atmosphere, disposes completely of the
late Professor Whewell's 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 existence are such 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 something closely
approaching to those of terrestrial life. The
length of the dav In Venus Is nearly the same
the weight OF any given mass is nearly the same
the atmospheric conditions are probably not
very different from our own; the only material
differences being probably the length Of the year,
when Is not very much above the half of ours
or. say. about seven months instead of twelve
and the amount of light and heat. which unless
mltlgated 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-lmport-
ant, though in relation to question on which,
as 1t appears to us, the argument from analogy
has really very slight bearing indeed. There
Is no reason in the world why spiritual beings,
much more like to us in their thoughts than it
is at all probable that birds and tortoises are
like to US in their thoughts, should not exist
everywhere-fn the pure ether in the hottest
flames of the sum- in the dmness of the darkest
recesses 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 less Sc
cure basis for reasoning, where observation is
limited, as it is in this case to one minute cor
ner Of the universe and we shall find no more
reason why we should cOnfine the Creators
power to working within conditions closely re-
cur own than there Is why we should
assume that he will work at all in regions where
we have no evidence of that work.