The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-02
MAN IN OTHER WORLDS.
Astronomical Speculation ms to a
Future State.

Astronomical Speculation ms to
Future State.
From the New York Journal.
Last Saturday evening, just after
shutdown, / was admiring the spectacle
presented by the moon in that beauti-
full phase of hers a little preceding
first quarter, while the planets Saturn
and Jupiter shone near her, and Venus,
immersed in the twilight lower in the
west, glowed with lustrous splendor,
when friend at my elbow broke the
thread of my meditation upon the
problems presented by this display of
worlds, so near and yeat so far and
inaccessible, by suddenly remarking, in
a tone of inquiry:
Those are all worlds?'
Certainly they are I replied.
IT wonder if any of their inhabi-
tants remember the earth?' he con-
tinued musingly.
How do you know they have in
habitants?" I asked, smiling at him.
You said they were worlds" was
the reply, "and a world must have in
habitants."
But look at the moon, I answered.
do you think you could continue to
breathe there, where there is almost
no atmosphere? Or consider Jupiter.
where we can discover no evidence that
there is any solid surface to stand
upon; what kind of inhabitants could
there be there?" i
1T is not a question of breathing
or of walking" said my friend THE
inhabitants l speak of may have no
location for those things which be-
long peculiarly to the earth"
Then you are trying to people these
worlds above our heads with purely
imaginary creatures?' / returned.
NO not that either" he said. When
! asked you whether you thought
some of them might remember the
earth i meant to suggest that once
they were jewellers upon this planet,
although now their home is yonder'
Then you think they are disem-
bodied spirits?" I said.
Not at ALL not in the least" he re-
piled earnestly. II simply aver that
what is immortal in them has migrated
from one planet to another, but that
in some form those immortal spirits
become physically re-embodied when
ever they arrive upon a new world"
And so you think that there is little
or no resemblance between the physi-
cal forms that they assume in diff
ferent worlds?" 1 remarked.
Exactly" he said. IAN inhabitant
of the moon, although he may once
have lived in a mortal body upon the
| earth, may need no atmosphere of oxy-
| gen and nitrogen to breathe in the
world where he now dwells, and an in
| militant of Saturn, freed from the linn
| itations that once bound and confined
him within terrestrial limits, may en-
| joy the splendors of that great ring
encircled planet clothed in a physical
body as unlike ours as the impalpable
| substance of a comets tail is Different
from the densely packed molecules of
lump of lead.
| But the soul, the immortal and
| imperishable inmate of these strange,
changing physical bodies, fits from
planet to planet, retaining everywhere
| its essential nature, its intelligence,
| it's adaptability and it's capacity for
expansion and improvement"
I could not help being interested and
attracted by my friends enthusiasm,
and, abandoning the narrow limits OF
exact astronomic knowledge, / al
lowed my imagination to follow his
| flight and to picture some intelligence
that once felt the chains of the earth
now looking back from its more rad
liant abode in brilliant Venus upon the
| distant scene of it's former existence
| But" l said "even if / accept your
dream of the interplanetary migration
of intelligent spirits I cannot think
that the change they make is every
time for the better"
mot at ALL" he replied. my own
idea is that much depends upon oul
conduct and development here. Fol
my part, l would substitute for the ole
theological ideas of hell and HEAVIER
planetary abodes respectively better
or worse than the earth.
Let US say that the human spirit
which strives always after noblel
things acquires a polarity that results
in it's being attracted, when it quit:
the earth, to a brighter abode, such as
Venus or some splendid world in an
other and more beautiful solar system
among the stars; while the spirit tina
besmirches itself here thus prepares t
fall under the influence of some darker
planet some dull and distant Neptune
where it may be doomed to catch re
gretful backward glimpses at the glory
it has abandoned
By the time our conversation has
reached this point clouds began to OBJ
scure the array of planets in the SIX,
and a chilly wind recalled us to mum
dane necessities.