The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-07

scanty glimpses of its face; in the
solar system, the great gap between
Mars and Jupiter, giveo up to petty
asteroids, of which you sould survey a
sample in a days walk, and half a
dozen, if they were worth anything,
might be sold in an auction-room in a
single lot; the excessive heat of Mer-
curry and cold of Neptune; the fifteen
years of alternate nighSand day near
Saturn's poles; the progressive cooling
contraction and resistance which must
reduce the whole to dead mass; and
throughout the stellar regions, the en-
ormous waste of spacs unclaimed by
worlds, and of light diIuting itself
through vacancy Facts of this
kind may fairly enough be called un-
meaning, if no more issntended by the
phrase than that we do hot know their
rdiSon d'etre; and useless, if, in order to
try them, purpose IS assumed winch
they fail to serve. On Fhe supposition
that the arctic and anprctlc latltUdes,,
that the Sahara, that E~he Pacific re-
gions were intended fdk the residence
of man, no doubt the icb, the sand, and
the salt flood are so many blunders. II
the laws of heat which determine the
currents of the atmosl here and work
in subterranean deptby have no end
but to secure the tilleAsof the soil in
his dwelling and his crops, they GER
tainly incur a failure in every out
burst of Etna or BnTeas. Are the
satellites to be criticised as lamps
alone? then it must basadmitted, they
might, by dispensing with their phases,
have given more light4 But by what
right do we judge soar system from
a mere geocentric, nay, from purely
humanistic point of vidw? Look at its
age, its scope, its history, its relations,
to innumerable systGhs vaster than
itself; and say whethsl the last conner
on one Of its planet@ is entitled TO
measure the ends whihh it embraces
by his particular needs Included
though they be in tRe whole, what
part of it are they hxely to occupy?
If it be anthropomorplic to admire an
arrangement of natur9 because it is
useful to man, is it less anthropo-
morphic to condemn enc because it is
useless to him? No coasderate Theist
imagines man to be The central object
of the universe, By chs standard of
whose requirements all things are to
be judged: even if be did apply this
narrow rule to TIE couSs tuition of the
.glaha On which be. ne need.haId
ly be much disturbed by Lucretius'
bad opinion of the equator and the
poles. The Roman poet, it seems,
would have preferred human estate
all under culture, compact and oc-
cupied, uniform in temperature, and
with no more water than was needed
for irrigation and for drink; with no
moor and mount ain to part the fields,
no freshening play of ocean and air
where man is not, no refrigerating
winds to fling wreath Of snow, no
African glow to cross over and move
the Alpine glaciers; but snug little
planet, without waste place or a wild
beast, and so comfortable that it would
soon swarm like Chinese empire or
an ant-hilI, and no 'one could be alone
on all the eaIth.' This is the land
scape-gardening of philosophy; from
which, for my part, gladly escape
back to the wild forest or the open sea,
or even the stern wonders of the ice
bergs and the northern lights. On
Comte's proposal for improving the
moon by having it full every night,
can pass no mathematical judgment;
his scientific critics say it would be
fatal to the satellites equilibrium; but
[ confess to such love of the monthly
story of her orb from the first crescent
to the last decrescent phase, that, to
save it, would accept a gaslight or
even carry lantern on dark nights
The truth is, we suppose, that Lu-
cretius did not sufficiently discern how
utterly unsuitable such planet as he
conceived likely to promote human
comfort most, would be to the nature
of man, which has 50 much in it that
is wild and desolate and incapable of
being "cabined, cribbed, confined in
any home like that which he conceived.
His failure consiste rather in not hav-
ing measured the scope Of mans evil
and his good, in not seeing man's re-
lation to what is truly infinite, than in
his contempt for that misleading of
the earth which assumed that it is pre-
cisely such a dwelling place for human
nature as a ''magnided" man would
have devised if he had been asked for
a minute specification of a planet
adjusted ID civilized Romans tastes
and wants. But LucTetius, though a
true poet, was certainly not humorist
as well. Spectator.
-'MATTHEw ARNoLD's books" says