The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-31
THE DEPTHS OF SPACE.

1t is fascinating hope that inspires the
astronomer PLANTATION to think that the
telescope may yet reveal whether or not the
planets are inhabited. And by bringing to
within touching distance the moon and
discovering the seventeenth magnitude
stars, it is anticipated that new wonders
in the depths of space will reward the
patient research of the astronomer. To
him, the regular alienation of seasons on
Mars and Venus, the recurrence of day
and night with unfailing regularity, the
sunshine and storm, the wind and calm,
the ebb and flow of the tide, with the pos
sible flow of rivers and canals, all Of which
are suspected to exist on these two planets
nearest our earth and most similar to it,
carry the overwhelming conviction that
these worlds, like our own, are inhabited
by living organisms and sentent beings
Even If the memorable genius, science
does point out to the astronomer that he
cannot hope through any possible i'm
provement or enlargement Of the
telescope, ever to know with GER
tainty whether these surmises are correct
or not, he still hopes on and labors with
Jealous infatuation to penetrate the mys-
teries of the heavens. And he would be a
criminal who would seek to chill this
enthusiastic devotion of the astronomer to
his science; for these men are after all the
real philanthropists. From them we have
our calendar and the nautical alu,anacs by
which the captain knows his position on
the seas from observations on the moon
! and stars; from them we learn the accurate
time of day; without their aid maps of the
earth's surface would be wanting in accu-
racy; and from their observations we learn
something of the method by which the
Creator of the universe governs his works.
1t is, indeed, one of the most subtle and
beautiful concepts of theism that this won
derful machinery must have been the
work of an intelligent designer; that the
thoughts ana purposes we discover in the
celestial mechanism reveal an author who
thinks and wills; and that we can only dis
cover intelligent purposes or ineligible
thoughts in works or on pages thai
have been planned and produced by an in.
telligence that is similar to our own.
1t has been found that it is not possible by
any known methods to increase indie in
itely the magnifying and light-gatherine
power of telescopes, and that any sucf
increase as is known to be within tn,
bounds of possibility, will not give the
information of which PLANTATION speaks
Yet the difficulties may not be insurmount
able; and though the nearest that the moor
would appear to us if seen to the hes
advantage through the largest telescop
yet made, would be the same as it woult
appear forty miles away to the naked eye
looking through pin-hole lips of an incl
in diameter, and through several yards @
running water, still it is pleasant TO hop
that some unforeseen miracle in the wa,
of scientific achievement may abridge t
human vision the space that obscures tn
nearest planets, and that we may signal t
the Inhabitants of Mars, as FLAMMAR1o,
fancies, telling them that they and we ar
} not alone in the infinite reach of the neav
} ens but that life and intelligence reig
throughout the endless spaces; and that w
may. obtain faint glimpses, of the beaut,
and universal power that pervades tn
works of the great first cause. Yes, W
share in some degree the poetic hope of tn
astronomer, and bid him God-speed in hi
endeavors to search out the secrets of tn
skies and put them into the possession {
his fellow men.