The plurality of worlds: an Essay. London, 1853, 8vo. [By Dr. Wm.
Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge]. A dialogue on the
plurality of worlds, being a supplement to the Essay on that subject.
[First found in the second edition, 1854; removed to the end in
subsequent editions, and separate copies issued.][174]
A work of skeptical character, insisting on analogies which prohibit the
positive conclusion that the planets, stars, etc., are what we should call
_inhabited_ worlds. It produced {102} several works and a large amount of
controversy in reviews. The last predecessor of whom I know was
Plurality of Worlds.... By Alexander Maxwell. Second Edition. London,
1820, 8vo.
This work is directed against the plurality by an author who does not admit
modern astronomy. It was occasioned by Dr. Chalmers's[175] celebrated
discourses on religion in connection with astronomy. The notes contain many
citations on the gravity controversy, from authors now very little read:
and this is its present value. I find no mention of Maxwell, not even in
Watt.[176] He communicated with mankind without the medium of a publisher;
and, from Vieta till now, this method has always been favorable to loss of
books.
A correspondent informs me that Alex. Maxwell, who wrote on the plurality
of worlds, in 1820, was a law-bookseller and publisher (probably his own
publisher) in Bell Yard. He had peculiar notions, which he was fond of
discussing with his customers. He was a bit of a Swedenborgian.