Bridgeton pioneer., 1893-08-10
In OTHER WORLDS.
HUMAN REASONING MAY BE AT FAULT
REGARDING THE STARS.

Camille Fiammarion Shows That Other
Worlds Than Ours May he Inhabited by
Creatures Fairer and More Ethereal or
Coarser Than We.
In properly interpreting the spectacle of
terrestrial life and the positive data fur
n1shed by study it is plainly evident that
we should enlarge the circle of our concep-
tlons and of our judgments and not limit
planetary exlstences to servile image of
what exists here below The terrestrial Or
ganic 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
stete of water and of some other elements.
q ing which we may mention chloride of
sodium. The flesh of animals is not chem
1caily different from ours. 1t all comes
from water and air and will return to
them. The same elements in small quan-
Titles make up every living being The OK,
which eats the grass, forms the same kind
OF hesh as man, who eats the OK All ter
restrlal organic matter is only carbon, COM
blned 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 substance? In
world where chloride would dominate
would we not find chloric acid and all the
fertile family of the ch1orides fulfilling an
important part in the functions of life?
And bromide. could it not be associated
with other formations? And why should
we stop at terrestrial chemistry?
One thing certain is that the marvellous
revelations of the spectrum analysis do not
argue in favor of unity of chemical con-
stltut1on in the different celestial bodies,
nor OF an absolute unity among them
selves; far from it. In our own solar sys-
tenn we find essential differences between
certain planets In the spectrum of Jupiter,
for example, we find an unknown substance
which manifests itself by strong absorp-
ton of certain red rays. This gas, which
does not exist on the earth, shows itself
even more strongly in the atmosphere of
the atmosphere even appears, if we leave
aqueous vapor out of consideration, to have
no analogy with ours. Moreover, in the
solar spectrum itself we find a substance to
| which has been given the name of helium,
and which we have never found ON the
earth
The relationship of the planets emong
themselves is an undeniable fact, since they
are all daughters of one father, but they
differ among themselves, not only by loca-
ton, position, volume, mass, density, tenn
perature, atmosphere, but still more by
their physical and chemical constitution,
and the point to which we call attention
here is that this diversity should not be
| considered as an obstacle to the manifesto
tlons of life; but, on the contrary, as new
| field open to the infinite fecundity of the
universal mother.
| When, then, our thought takes fight not
only toward our neighbors the moon, We
nus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, but even to the
| myrlads of unknown worlds which gravi
tate about the suns scattered in space, we
have no plausible reason for imagining
! that the inhabitants of these other worlds
| of the skies resemble us in any particular,
| whether in form or in organic substance
| The form of the terrestrial human body is
| due to the elements of our planet, notably
| carbon. The terrestrial human form is de-
| rived from ancestral animals, from which
| 1t has gradually elevated itself by the con-
| tlnued progress of the transformation of
| beings. Beyond doubt, it seems to US that
| to be man or a woman there must be a
head, heart, lungs, two legs, two arms,
etc. Nothing is less clearly demonstrated
II we are constituted as we are, it is SIM
ply because the prosimians had also a head,
heart, lungs, legs, arms, not by any means
as elegant as yours, madam, but still of the
same anatomy. And little by little we go
back easily today by means of paleontology
to the origin of beings. Thus it is certain
that the bird has developed from the rep
tile by aprocess of organic evolution; so also
1t is certain that terrestrial humanity repre-
sents the summit of an immense genealog-
ical tree, of which all the branches are
brothers, and the roots of which plunge
into the very rudiments of the most ele-
mentary primitive organisms.
All Kinds OF imaginable and unimagina-
BILE forms should people the multitude of
worlds. Terrestrial man is endowed with
live senses, or rather with six. Why should
nature have stopped there? Why, for ex-
ample, should she not have endowed GER
tain mortals with an electric sense? with a
magnetic sense? with sense of locality?
with an organ capable of perceiving ethe-
real vibrations of intra rouge and of ultra
violet? OF sense permitting one to hear
at distance. to see through the walls?
We eat and digest like the grosser animals.
Do there not exist worlds where the nutri-
tive atmosphere dispenses its inhabitants
from so ridiculous burden? The smallest
swallow, the dusky bat itself, has the ad-
vantage over us of flying through the air
Is not our world. where the man of the
greatest genius, the most exquisite woman,
finds himself or herself nailed to the earth
like the common caterpillar before it's
metamorphosis very inferior ones
Welll Would it be so disagreeable to in
habit world of perfume and voluptuous-
ness, where the flowers woula be animated,
where suns of many colors-the diamond
Joined to the ruby. garnet to the emerald
and to the sapphire shine night
and day-blue nights, scarlet days-in the
glory OF an eternal springtime; many col
ored moons sleeping on the mirror of the