of worlds, we had apparently forgotten that we had ever talked on the
subject. I went one day to her house, and just as I entered, two men
of some talents and celebrity were going out. You see, said she, what
visitors I have had; I assure you they are gone away with a suspicion
that you have turned my brain. I should be very proud of such an
achievement answered I; it would shew my power, for I think one could
not devise a more difficult undertaking. Well, replied she, I am afraid
you have accomplished it. I don't know how it happened, but whilst my
two friends, whom you met at the door, were here, the conversation
turned on the plurality of worlds; perhaps they had an invidious
design in directing it to that subject. I immediately told them all
the planets were inhabited. One of them said he was certain I could
not be of that opinion: in the most unaffected manner, I maintained my
sincerity; he continued to think I was only feigning, and I believe he
had too great a regard for me to admit the possibility of my having
really adopted so extravagant an opinion. The other, from esteeming
me less, did not doubt my veracity. Why have you made me obstinately
adhere to sentiments which people who have the greatest friendship for
me will not suffer themselves to believe me possessed with? But, madam,
answered I, why did you maintain these opinions seriously, when talking
with persons that I am sure would not gravely argue on any subject?
Should we thus trifle with the inhabitants of the planets? Let us, who
believe their existence, be content to remain a little select band, and
not disclose our mysteries to the vulgar. Vulgar! exclaimed she; do you
reckon those two men among the vulgar? They have good understandings,
said I; but they never reason. Grave reasoners, who are austere people,
would not hesitate to place them in that class. They however take their
revenge by ridiculing the reasoners. We should if possible accommodate
ourselves to persons of both characters; it would have been better to
speak jestingly of the planetary inhabitants to such men as your two
friends, since they are accustomed to pleasantry, than to enter on an
argument, for which they have no talents. You would have retained their
good opinion without depriving the planets of a single inhabitant.
Would you have meanly sacrificed the truth? answered she. Where is your
conscience? I must own, I replied, I have not much zeal for truths of
this nature; I would readily forbear to maintain them if it suited my
convenience.
The cause which prevents people from believing the planets to be
inhabited is, that they appear to them only bodies placed in the
heavens to give light, instead of globes consisting of meadows and
fruitful countries. We readily believe that meadows and fields are
inhabited, but it is thought ridiculous to assert that mere luminous
bodies are. 'Tis in vain that reason informs us of fields in the
planets; reason comes too late, the first coup-d'œil has impressed
our minds before-hand, and this impression is not willingly parted
with. The planets, 'tis said, are only luminous bodies; what sort of
inhabitants then can they have? Our imaginations do not enable us to
distinguish their figures, therefore it is the shortest way to deny
their existence. Would you require me, for the sake of establishing
the idea of these inhabitants, whose interest cannot be very dear to
me, to attack all the powers of the senses and the imagination? Such
an enterprize would demand a vast deal of courage. Men are not easily
persuaded to see through their reason, rather than their eyes. Some
few persons are rational enough to believe, after a thousand proofs
have been given them, that the planets are worlds like ours, but they
do not believe it in the same way they would do, if they had not seen
them apparently so different; they always recur to the first idea they
had formed, and can never wholly divest themselves of it. These people
seem to _condescend_ to our opinion, and only patronize it from a love
of singularity.
Is not that enough, said she; for an opinion that is merely probable?
You would be astonished, answered I, if I told you the word probable
was too modest for the occasion. Is it merely probable that Alexander
has been in existence? No, you consider it certain; and what is the
ground of your certainty? Is it not that you have had every proof
that such a subject requires, and that no circumstance leads you
to doubt the fact? You have never seen Alexander, nor have you any
mathematical demonstration of his existence. What would you say if
this were the case with respect to the inhabitants of the planets?
We cannot shew them to you, nor can you require us to demonstrate
their being, in a mathematical way; but you have all the evidence
that can be desired: the entire resemblance between the planets and
the inhabited earth; the impossibility of imagining any other use for
which they could be created; the fruitfulness and magnificence of
nature; the attention she seems to have paid to the wants of their
inhabitants, such as giving moons to those planets that were very
remote from the sun, and the greatest number of moons to the most
distant: and it is an important consideration that every thing is on
that side of the question, without any objections to counterbalance
it; you cannot for a moment doubt unless you resume the vulgar mode of
seeing and thinking. In fact it is impossible to have more evidence,
and evidence of a more determinate kind; how then can you treat this
opinion as a mere probability? But do you think, said she, I can feel
as certain that the planets are inhabited, as that Alexander has been
in existence? By no means, I replied; for although, on the subject
we are speaking of we have as many proofs as in our situation we can
receive, yet these proofs are not numerous. I protest, exclaimed she,
I'll renounce these planetary inhabitants, for I don't know whether
to believe there are any or not--it is not certain, yet it is more
than possible--I am quite perplexed. Do not be discouraged, madam, I
replied. Clocks that are made in the most common manner shew the hour;
those only that are made with more exquisite art, indicate the minutes;
in like manner common minds see a great difference between probability
and absolute certainty; but it is only superior understandings that
ascertain the degrees of certainty or of probability, and who, if I
may use the expression, can tell the minutes as well as the hours.
Place the inhabitants of the planets a little below Alexander in point
of certainty, but above a vast number of historical relations which
are not entirely proved; I think that is their proper place. I love
order, said she, you do me a kindness in giving arrangement to my
ideas: why did you not do this before? Because, answered I, whether you
attribute to this idea a little more, or a little less certainty than
it possesses is not of much consequence. I am certain you do not feel
so assured as you ought to do of the earth's motion: are you the less
happy on that account? Oh! as to that opinion, I am sure I do my duty;
you have no right to complain of me, for I firmly believe that the
earth turns. Yet I have not given you the most convincing proof of it,
answered I. You use me very ill, said she, to make one believe things
without sufficient reason; am I unworthy to hear the best arguments?
I wished to prove my opinions, I replied, by easy, entertaining
arguments; would you have had me make use of such solid, sturdy ones as
I should have attacked a doctor with? Certainly, said she; now fancy me
a doctor, and let me have this new proof of the earth's motion.
With all my heart, answered I; it is this, and I am vastly pleased with
it, because I think I found it out myself; but it is so good and so
natural that I can hardly hope to have been the inventor. I am sure
an obstinate learned man who wished to oppose it, would be forced to
talk a great deal on the occasion; and that is the only way in which
a scholar can be overcome. It is evident either that all the heavenly
bodies go round the earth in four-and-twenty hours, or the earth,
turning on her axis, only imagines the motion in them. It is the most
improbable thing in the world that they should in reality go round the
earth in that short space of time, though we are not at first aware of
the absurdity of such an opinion. All the planets certainly revolve
round the sun: but these revolutions are unequal from the unequal
distances at which they are placed from the sun: the most remote, as
we might naturally suppose, take a longer time than the rest. This
order is observed even in the satellites that go round a large planet.
Jupiter's four moons, and the five belonging to Saturn, require a
longer or shorter time to move round their planet according to their
distance from it. It is further ascertained that the planets have a
rotation on their own axis; the time of this is likewise unequal;
we cannot tell the cause of such inequality, whether it depends on
the different size, or the degree of solidity of the planets, or on
the different degrees of rapidity of the vortices in which they are
enclosed, and the liquid matter by which they are carried along;[57]
this inequality however is certain, and in general we find that the
order of nature is such as to admit of particular variations in things
that are regulated by the same rules.
[Footnote 57: We can assign no reason; the irregularity depends on the
original cause, whatever that cause may be, which at first determined
their motions.]
I understand, said the Marchioness; I am quite of your opinion; if
the planets moved round the earth, the time employed by each would be
different, according to their various distances, as is the case in
their revolutions round the sun: is not that what you mean? Precisely
so, madam, answered I; their unequal distances from the earth would
produce an inequality in their revolutions round her: and the fixed
stars, being so extremely remote from us, so far beyond all that could
have a general movement round us, at least situated in a place where
such a motion must be very feeble, is there any probability of their
revolving round us in four-and-twenty hours, like the moon which is so
near to us? Ought not the comets likewise which do not belong to our
vortex, which have such irregular courses, and such different degrees
of swiftness, to be exempted from performing this daily circle round
our world? No, planets, fixed stars, and comets too, must all turn
round the earth! Were there but a few minutes difference in the time
of their revolutions we might be satisfied with it; but they are all
exactly equal, never varying in the slightest degree; surely this is a
suspicious circumstance.
Oh! replied the Marchioness, I could venture to say this exactitude
existed only in our imaginations. I am glad that any thing inconsistent
with the genius of nature, which this equality in so many moving bodies
would be, should depend on our motion, and she, even at our expense, be
free from the charge of inconsistency. For my part, said I, I dislike
a perfect regularity, and I don't approve of the earth's turning every
day on her axis in exactly twenty-four hours; I am disposed to think
the time varies. Varies! she exclaimed; do not our clocks shew that it
is always equal? Oh! replied I, I don't depend on clocks, they cannot
always be perfectly right; and should they be so, and sometimes shew
that the earth has made a longer or shorter tour in four-and-twenty
hours than usual, it would be thought that we ought rather to suspect
them of being wrong than to attribute any irregularity to the
revolutions of the earth. That is paying an extravagant respect to her,
I should depend no more on the earth than on a clock; the one might be
put out of sorts almost by the same causes as the other, only I think
it would take longer time to produce a sensible irregularity in the
earth; that is the only advantage I should allow her to have over a
clock. Might not the earth by degrees get nearer to the sun, and then,
finding herself in a situation where the matter was agitated with
greater violence, perform her motion on her axis, and her revolution
round the sun, in a shorter time? In that case the years would be
shorter, and the days too, but we should not perceive the difference,
for we should still divide the year into three hundred and sixty-five
days, and the days into twenty-four hours. So that without living
longer than we do now, we should live a greater number of years: and
on the contrary, if the earth were to remove farther from the sun,
we should live fewer years, although our lives would be as long. In
all probability, said she, if that were possible, a long succession
of ages would make but a trifling difference. True, I replied; nature
does nothing abruptly, her method is to effect every alteration by such
gentle gradations that it is scarcely perceptible to us. We hardly
observe even the changes of seasons; others that are produced much more
slowly must in general escape our notice. Nevertheless every thing is
subject to mutability; even a certain lady who has been seen, through
telescopes, in the moon for about forty years, appears considerably
older. She used to be rather handsome; now her cheeks are fallen away,
her nose and chin are beginning to meet; in short all her charms are
fled, and it is even feared that her life is near its close.[58]
[Footnote 58: We are not assured that this alteration has taken place
in the part of the moon that has some resemblance to a woman's head:
but there must be changes, if we judge by the volcano which has been
repeatedly observed. Astron. Art. 3339.]
What are you talking of? cried the Marchioness. I am not jesting,
I replied. A figure has been observed in the moon which resembled
a woman's head rising from among the rocks, and in that part an
alteration is perceived. Some pieces have fallen off a mountain, and
left the points which appear like the forehead, nose and chin of an
old woman. Does it not seem, said she, as if some malignant power had
a spite against beauty, since the young lady's head is the only spot
in the moon that has undergone a change. Perhaps, answered I, to make
amends, the alterations on our globe may give additional beauty to some
face observed by the inhabitants of the moon, I mean some face formed
like those of the people in that planet, for we always try to discover
in distant objects, the resemblance of what we continually think of.
Our astronomers discern young ladies' faces in the moon; probably if
women were to examine it they would find handsome male faces. If _I_ to
look, I don't know whether I should not see your likeness, madam. I
must undoubtedly, said she, feel myself obliged to any body who could
find me there; but let us return to what we were talking of just now;
are there any considerable alterations on the earth? In all probability
there are, answered I. Many high mountains, at a great distance from
the sea, have on them beds of shells, which shew that they were
formerly covered with water. Sometimes likewise, at a distance from
the sea, are found stones containing petrified fishes. How could they
have got to that place unless the water had been there? Fables tell
us, that Hercules separated with his hands two mountains called Calpe
and Abila, which being situated between Africa and Spain obstructed
the ocean; and the sea immediately rushed in violently, and formed the
great gulph that we call the Mediterranean. Fables are not altogether
fabulous; they are histories of remote periods, disguised by two very
ancient and common defects; ignorance, and a love of the marvellous.
It is not very credible that Hercules separated the two mountains with
his hands; but I can easily believe that in the time of some Hercules,
(for there have been fifty), the ocean may have torn asunder, perhaps
with the assistance of an earthquake, two mountains more feeble than
the rest and have by that means rushed in between Europe and Africa.
Then a new spot was discovered on our globe, by the people in the
moon, for you recollect, madam, that the water forms a dark spot. It
is the general opinion that Sicily has been separated from Italy, and
Cyprus from Syria: new islands have sometimes been formed in the sea;
earthquakes have ingulfed some mountains, and produced others, as well
as changed the course of rivers. Philosophers give us reason to fear
that the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, being over great subterranean
vaults filled with sulphur, will some time or other fall in, when the
vaults are no longer strong enough to resist the fires contained in
them, which now have vent at such openings as Vesuvius and Ætna. All
this will be sufficient to diversify a little the appearance we make to
the inhabitants of the moon.
I would rather tire them said the Marchioness, with a monotonous
appearance, than entertain them by the ruin of provinces.
That is nothing, answered I, to what takes place in Jupiter. He appears
to be surrounded with belts, which are distinguished from each other,
or from the spaces betwixt them, by their different degrees of light.
These are land and seas--or at least parts of the planet differing in
their nature. Sometimes these lands grow narrower, sometimes wider. New
ones are formed in various parts, and some of the old ones disappear:
and all these changes visible only through our best telescopes, are in
themselves much more considerable than if our ocean were to inundate
all the land, and leave its own bed to form new continents. Unless the
inhabitants of Jupiter are amphibious, and live with equal ease either
on land or in water, I hardly know what can become of them.[59] We see
likewise great alterations on the surface of Mars, even from one month
to another. In that short time seas overflow large continents, and
retire by a flux and reflux a thousand times more violent than ours;
or if this be not the case, some change equivalent to it takes place.
Our planet is very quiet compared with these; we have great reason
to congratulate ourselves, especially if it is true that in Jupiter
countries as extensive as Europe have been set on fire. Set on fire!
cried the Marchioness; that would be a great piece of news there. It
would indeed, answered I. We have observed in Jupiter, for perhaps
twenty years, a long stream of light more brilliant than the rest of
the planet.[60] We have had deluges here, but very seldom; perhaps
in Jupiter they have now and then a large conflagration as well as
frequent deluges. But be that as it may, the brilliant light I spoke
of is very different from another, which apparently is as old as the
world, though it has but lately been discovered.[61] How can a light be
formed for concealment? said she, that is something quite out of the
common way.
[Footnote 59: These lands surrounding Jupiter, which are sometimes few,
and sometimes in great numbers, are apparently clouds.]
[Footnote 60: I don't know that this observation is authentic.]
[Footnote 61: The zodiacal light. Astron. Art. 844.]
This light, I replied, is only visible at twilight, which is most
frequently long enough, and of sufficient power to conceal it; and
when it is not hid by the twilight, either the vapours of the horizon
prevent us from seeing it, or without great attention we may even
mistake it for twilight. However, about thirty years since it was
discovered with certainty, and for some time gave great delight to the
astronomers, whose curiosity wanted stimulating by something new. They
might find as many new subaltern planets as they chose without feeling
any interest in them. The two last moons of Saturn, for instance, did
not enrapture them as Jupiter's satellites had done; custom destroys
the power of every thing.
We see, during a month before and after the equinox of March, when
the sun is set and the twilight disappeared, a sort of whitish light
resembling the tail of a comet. It is seen before the dawn and
sun-rise, towards the equinox of September, and morning and night
towards the winter solstice. At other times, as I have before said,
the twilight conceals it; for we have reason to believe it always
exists. It has lately been conjectured that it is produced by a large
mass of matter, somewhat dense, which environs the sun for a certain
extent. The greatest part of his rays penetrate this covering, and come
to us in a straight line; but some of these rays by striking against
the internal surface are reflected back to us, either before the
direct rays can reach us in the morning, or after they have ceased to
enlighten us in the evening. As these reflected rays come from a higher
region than the direct ones, it is therefore earlier when we receive
them, and later before we lose them.
On this ground I must retract what I said on the probability of the
moon having no twilight, for want of a surrounding atmosphere as dense
as that of the earth. She is no loser by it, if she can receive a
twilight through this thick air which surrounds the sun, and reflects
his light to places which could not have his direct rays. Then,
enquired the Marchioness, will not this be a source of twilight to all
the planets, without the necessity of a dense atmosphere to environ
each, since that which surrounds the sun may produce the same effect
for all the planets in the vortex? From the frugality of nature, I
am disposed to believe she has effected the purpose by this means
only. Yet, said I, in spite of this frugality, the earth would have
two causes of twilight, one of which (the dense air before the sun),
would be useless, and could only serve as an object of curiosity to
the frequenters of the observatory: but it may be that the earth alone
sends out exhalations sufficiently gross to produce twilight; and
therefore a general resource has been provided for the other planets,
if their evaporations are more pure and subtile. We, perhaps, of the
inhabitants of all the worlds in our vortex breathe the grossest air;
did the people of the other planets know that, with what contempt they
would survey us!
That would be wrong, answered the Marchioness; we are not contemptible
for being surrounded by a thick atmosphere since the sun himself is
in the same situation. Tell me, is not this air produced by certain
vapours that you formerly told me issued from the sun; and may it
not be to moderate the power of the first rays which perhaps would
otherwise be excessive? I think it probable that the sun may be thus
veiled, to accommodate it to our use. That is a happy idea, madam, said
I; you have founded a pretty little system. We may add that this vapour
possibly falls back in a sort of rain to refresh the sun, in the same
manner as we sometimes throw water into a forge when the fire becomes
too fierce. We cannot attribute too much to the power of nature; but
all her operations are not made visible to us, therefore we cannot feel
assured of having discovered her designs, or her manner of acting.
We should not consider any new discovery a certain foundation for
reasoning on, though we are very much inclined to do it: philosophers
are like elephants, that in walking never put one foot to the ground
till they feel the other firmly supported. That comparison, said she,
is the more just because the merit either of elephants or philosophers
does not consist in external charms; we shall however do well to
imitate the superior judgment of both: inform me more of the new
discoveries, and I promise not to be in a hurry again to form systems.