The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-08-07
in OTHER WORLDS.
HUMAN REASONING MAY BE AT FAULT
REGARDING THE STARS.

Camille ILLUMINATION Shows That Other
Worlds Than Ours May BE Inhabited by
! Creatures Fairer and More Ethereal or
Coarser Than We.
In properly interpreting the spectacle of
terrestrial life, and the positive data fur
nished by study it is plainly evident that
we should enlarge the circle of our concep-
lions and Of our judgments and not limit
planetary existences to a servlle image of
what exists here below. The terrestrial Or
ganc forms are due to the local causes of
our planet. The chemical constitution of
water and of the atmosphere, temperature,
light, density, weight, are SO many ele-
ments which have served to make our bod
les. Our flesh is composed of carbon, azote,
hydrogen and oxygen, combined with the
state Of water and of some other elements,
among which we may mention chloride of
sodium. The flesh of animals is not chem
ically different from ours. 1t all comes
from water and air and will return to
them. The same elements in small guam
titles make up every living being. The OK,
which eats the grass, forms the same kind
of flesh as man, who eats the OK. All ter
restrial organic matter is only carbon, COM
bined in varying proportions with hydro.
gen, azote, oxygen, ETC.
But we have no right to forbid nature to
act otherwise in worlds where carbon does
not exist. A world, for example, where
silica would replace carbon, silic acid, car
bonic acid-could it not be inhabited by
beings of an organism altogether different
, from those existing on the earth, different
not only in form but also in substancei In
! world where chloride would dominate
would apA nj a al IA,
I fertile family of the chlorides fulfilling an
: important part in the functions of lifcs
And bromide. could 1t not be associated
with other formations? And why should
we stop at terrestrial chemistry
y One thing certain is that the marvellous
+ revelations of the spectrum analysis do not
v argue in favor of unity of chemical con
o stitution in the different celestial bodies
p nor Of an absolute unity among them
:. selves; far from it, In our own solar sys
y tenn we find essential differences between
certain planets. In the spectrum of Jupiter
for example, we find an unknown substance
which manifests itself by a strong absorp
70 tion of certain red rays. This gas, whicl
=, does not exist on the earth, shows itsel
4. even more strongly in the atmosphere o
II Saturn and OF Uranus. On this last planet
10 the atmosphere even appears, if we leavt
= aqueous vapor out of consideration, to hay,
no analogy with ours Moreover, in tn,
= solar spectrum itself we find a distance Il
= which has been given the name of helium
and which we have never found on tn
earth.
Tho relationship of the planets anon,
themselves is an undenlable fact, since the,
are all daughters of one father, but the
differ among themselves, not only by loca
tinn, position, volume, MACS, density, TEN
perature, atmosphere, but still more b.
their physical and chemical constitution
and the point to which we call attention
here is that this diversity should not b
considered as an obstacle to the manifesto
tions Of life; but, ON the contrary, as ne,
field open to the infinite fecundity of tn
universal mother
When, tEen, our thought takes flight nc
only toward our neighbors the moon, w
nus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, but even to tn
myriads of unknown worlds which gray
re tate about the suns scattered in space, W
X have no plausible reason for imaginn
i. that the Inhabitants Of these other world
of the skies resemble us in any particular
X whether in form or in organic suhstanc,
Ot The form of the terrestrial human body
due to the elements Of our planet, notnbl
carbon. The terrestrial human form is d
&c rived from ancestral animals, from whic
o. il has gradually elevated itself by the cor
n tinued progress of the transformation G
beings. Beyond doubt, it seems to us tina
~ to be II man G. woman there must be
~ head, heart, lungs, two legs, two arms
~ etc. Nothing is less clearly dumunstrated
:; If We are constituted as we arc, it is sim
- ply because the prosimiuus had also "a hcat
lie u heart, lungs, legs, arms, not by any mean
Nv as elegant Ms yours, madam, but still OF h
l., same anatomy, And little by little we Z
~ bacl; easily today by means Of palcontolog
III to tic origin u beings. Thus it is ccrtui
I'D thai the bird has developed from the rel
- tile by "a process of organic evolution; so ais
- itiScertain that terrestrial humanity rcpr
'4 sents the summit OF an immense gencalol
Of irul tree, OF which all the branches al
brothers, and the roots of which plune
into the vcrJ fudimcuts of the most ell
III mpntary primitive organisms.
Ill All kinds Of imaginable ind unimngin
h. bic forms should people the multitude ,
:. worlds. Terrestrial man is endowed wit
u five senses or rather with six. Why shoul
OF nature have stopped thercE Why, for e.
X ample should she not have endowed &c
= thin mortalS with an electric sense with
~ magnetic sense2 with IA sense OF locality
NJ with an organ capable Of pprceiying eth
its real vibrations OF mira rouge and of ultl
violet? of II sense permitting one to hei
mt distance. to see through the wall
We eat and digest like the gr0s~cr animal
Us DO there not exist worlds where tho mutt
tive atmosphere dispenses its inhabitan
froil so ridiculous u burdenf The smalle
- swallow, the dusky bat ITSELF has the IA
~ vantage over us of flying through the al
ct, Is not our world, where the man of Il
greatest genius, the most exquisite woma
finds himself or herself nailed to the ear
like the common caterpillar before
nrtamorphosisa very inferior oue2
Well Would it be so disagrccable to
habit world of perfume and yoluptuol
Hrss, where tue flowers would he animate
where suns of many colors-thc diumoi
joined to the ruby garnet to the cmerl
aud to the sapphire-would shine mig
and day-blue nights, scarlet days-in I
glory Of an eternal springtime; many e
cred moons sleeping on the mirror of t
waters, phosphoresCcnt mountains, aer
Inhabitants, men, women and prrha
uthrr sexes, perfect in their forms,
lowed with multiplied sensibilitic5 lun
nous Mt will, incambuatible as asbpstus il
mortal perhaps? At least, lilliputf
atoms that we arc, once for all let us
convinced that all OH imagination is b
sterility in the midst Of the infinite, scn1l
- " seen through the telescope C5ui
70 Flamuarion in ST. Louis Globe. DemoGr
- Parliamentary Popping"
4 mpube of congress had been I'M vi