The morning call., 1890-08-05
A TALE OF NEW WORLDS.

1t is now announced, on the high author
ity of the greatest living astronomer, Signor
Schiaparelli of Milan, that Venus, like
Mercury, only revolyes once on its axis in
its Journey around the sun. 1t always
presents the same side to the sun, the other
side being forever buried in endless night.
The discovery, if confirmed, is OF the
highest Importance to believers in a plur-
atty of worlds.
Venus, which has been described as the
most beautiful object in the heavens, is, as
everybody knows, nearly as large as the
earth, and is sixty-six millions of miles
from the sun. There is water on its sur
face, and it is surrounded by an atmosphere,
and by heavy clouds. 1t may thus contain
inhabitants who so far resemble the deni-
zens Of the earth that they breathe air. But
they must be differently constituted from
us in other essentials. The inhabitant of
the sunward side of Venus, if there be any,
knows no distinction of day and night.
To him it is always bright, shining day. At
the EQUATOR he must endure volume of
heat which can hardly be conceived by an
inhabitant of the earth. NJ. SChiaparelli
thinks that the intensity Of the heat may
be mitigated by constant clouds which
shield the planet from the fierce rays of the
sun. But this is a mere conjecture, which
rests on no actual observation. Even grant
ing the clouds, the heat of the tropical
regions of Venus must be such that 10 deni-
zen of our world could endure it and live.
On the other side of Venus, which is
turned away from the sun, black darkness
forever prevails. Some rays of light may
reach the dark surface OF the planet from
the stars, especially from our earth. which
is the largest and brightest star in the fir
mament of Venus. Venus has no moon.
1t can never be light enough on the dark
side of the planet to give employment to
human eye. Whether creatures cast in
our shape could live in such gloom is a
question. Miners In the Ural Mountains
do live, sometimes for a few years. in the
lower levels of the mines, and never see
the daylight. But they were brought up in
broad sunshine, and when they were de-
prived of it they languished and gradually
faded away. Light is as essential to the
human life, we know, as food. Still, there
may be other forms Of human life, which
can grow like mushrooms in the damp dark,
and like the fishes in snbterranean lakes
gradually dispense with eyesight.
Signor Schiaparelli seems to think that
owing to the fact that the axis of Venus is
polar regions of that planet may enjoy a
comparatively mild climate, though the
regions south of them may blaze with unen-
durable heat. If so, mankind on Venus
must be restricted in its habtation to the
very regions which are uninhabitable on
our earth-the polar regions, and one side
only of them. In our world mankind in
habits a strip of about eighty degrees of
latitude north and south of the EQUATOR.
There are few inhabited spots north and
south of these limits. but they are so few
and life there is so hard that they do not
count. Possibly the proportion of inhabi.
table land ON Venus is nearly as large.
The distracting feature in these specula-
lions is the quasi certainty that we shall
never know much more than we do. There
is limit to the penetrating power of the
telescope. That limit passed, the ray of
| light becomes so diffused that it is indis-
tinct. and so to say illegibe. The spectator
on Mount Hamilton who focuses the Oak
land ferries through the Lick telescope can
sometimes recognize a friend in the crowd
landing from the ferry-boat But this is
about as far as tile power of telescopy can
reach. 1t is not likely that we shall ever
see smaller objects ON the moon than are
now revealed by the great telescopes of the
day. Nor is it at all probable that objects
of the size of the Great Salt Lake will ever
be discerniole in any Of the planets by the
aid of the finest instruments which astrono-
mers may cOntrive. Whether they are or
are not inhabited must be left to conjecture
and speculation based on analogies, at any
rate until scientific discovery prolongs
human vision far beyond the reach of glass
lenses