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THE
PLURALITY OF WORLDS.
On Nature's Alps I stand,
And see a thousand firmaments beneath!
A thousand systems, as a thousand grains!
So much a stranger, _and so late arrived_,
How shall man's curious spirit not inquire
What are the natives of this world sublime,
Of this so distant, unterrestrial sphere,
Where mortal, untranslated, never strayed?
NIGHT THOUGHTS.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
EDWARD HITCHCOCK, D.D.,
PRESIDENT OF AMHERST COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF
THEOLOGY AND GEOLOGY.
BOSTON:
GOULD AND LINCOLN,
50 WASHINGTON STREET.
1854.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
GOULD AND LINCOLN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of
the District of Massachusetts.
PREFACE.
Although the opinions presented in the following Essay are put forwards
without claiming for them any value beyond what they may derive from the
arguments there offered, they are not published without some fear of
giving offence. It will be a curious, but not a very wonderful event, if
it should now be deemed as blamable to doubt the existence of
inhabitants of the Planets and Stars, as, three centuries ago, it was
held heretical to teach that doctrine. Yet probably there are many who
will be willing to see the question examined by all the light which
modern science can throw upon it; and such an examination can be
undertaken to no purpose, except the view which has of late been
generally rejected have the arguments in its favor fairly stated and
candidly considered.
Though Revealed Religion contains no doctrine relative to the
inhabitants of planets and stars; and though, till within the last three
centuries, no Christian thinker deemed such a doctrine to be required,
in order to complete our view of the attributes of the Creator; yet it
is possible that at the present day, when the assumption of such
inhabitants is very generally made and assented to, many persons have so
mingled this assumption with their religious belief, that they regard it
as an essential part of Natural Religion. If any such persons find their
religious convictions interfered with, and their consolatory impressions
disturbed, by what is said in this Essay, the Author will deeply regret
to have had any share in troubling any current of pious thought
belonging to the time. But, as some excuse, it may be recollected, that
if such considerations had prevailed, this very doctrine, of the
Plurality of Worlds, would never have been publicly maintained. And if
such considerations are to have weight, it must be recollected, on the
other hand, that there are many persons to whom the assumption of an
endless multitude of Worlds appears difficult to reconcile with the
belief of that which, as the Christian Revelation teaches us, has been
done for this our World of Earth. In this conflict of religious
difficulties, on a point which rather belongs to science than to
religion, perhaps philosophical arguments may be patiently listened to,
if urged as arguments merely; and in that hope, they are here stated,
without reserve and without exaggeration.
All speculations on subjects in which Science and Religion bear upon
each other, are liable to one of the two opposite charges;--that the
speculator sets Philosophy and Religion at variance; or that he warps
Philosophy into a conformity with Religion. It is confidently hoped that
no candid reader will bring either of these charges against the present
Essay. With regard to the latter, the arguments must speak for
themselves. To the Author at least, they appear to be of no small
philosophical force; though he is quite ready to weigh carefully and
candidly any answers which may be offered to them. With regard to the
amount of agreement between our Philosophy and Religion, it may perhaps
be permitted to the Author to say, that while it appears to him that
some of his philosophical conclusions fall in very remarkably with
certain points of religious doctrine, he is well aware that Philosophy
alone can do little in providing man with the consolations, hopes,
supports, and convictions which Religion offers; and he acknowledges it
as a ground of deep gratitude to the Author of all good, that man is
not left to Philosophy for those blessings; but has a fuller assurance
of them, by a more direct communication from Him.
Perhaps, too, the Author may be allowed to say, that he has tried to
give to the book, not only a moral, but a scientific interest; by
collecting his scientific facts from the best authorities, and the most
recent discoveries. He would flatter himself, in particular, that the
view of the Nebulae and of the Solar System, which he has here given, may
be not unworthy of some attention on the part of astronomers and
observers, as an occasion of future researches in the skies.
CONTENTS
OF
THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS.
PAGE
Introduction. 9
CHAPTER I.
Astronomical Discoveries. 17
CHAPTER II.
Astronomical Objection to Religion. 33
CHAPTER III.
The Answer from the Microscope. 41
CHAPTER IV.
Further Statement of the Difficulty. 49
CHAPTER V.
Geology. 72
CHAPTER VI.
The Argument from Geology. 98
CHAPTER VII.
The Nebulae. 135
CHAPTER VIII.
The Fixed Stars. 163
CHAPTER IX.
The Planets. 192
CHAPTER X.
Theory of the Solar System. 219
CHAPTER XI.
The Argument from Design. 236
CHAPTER XII.
The Unity of the World. 275
CHAPTER XIII.
The Future. 292
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE
TO THE
AMERICAN EDITION.
It is an interesting feature in the literature of our day, that so many
minds are turning their attention to the bearings of science upon
religion. With a few honorable exceptions, Christian scholars have
regarded this as a most unpromising field, which they have left to the
tilting and gladiatorship of scepticism. But we owe it mainly to the
disclosures of geology, that the tables are beginning to be turned. For
a long time suspected of being in league with infidelity, it was treated
as an enemy, and Christians thought only of fortifying themselves
against its attacks. But they are finding out, that if this science has
been seen in the enemy's camp, it was only because of their jealousy
that it was compelled to remain there; like captives that are sometimes
pushed forwards to cover the front rank and receive the fire of their
friends. Judging from the number of works, some of them very able, that
appear almost monthly from the press, in which illustrations of
religion are drawn from geology, we may infer that this science is
beginning to be recognized by the friends of religion as an efficient
auxiliary.
"The Plurality of Worlds," now republished, is the most recent work of
this description that has fallen under our notice. We can see no reason
why an Essay of so much ability, in which the reasoning is so
dispassionate, and opponents are treated so candidly, should appear
anonymously. True, the author takes ground against some opinions widely
maintained respecting the extent of the inhabited universe, and seems to
suppose that he shall meet with little sympathy; and this may be his
reason, though in our view quite insufficient, for remaining incognito.
We think he will find that there are a secret seven thousand, who never
have bowed their understandings to a belief of many of the doctrines
which he combats, and he might reasonably calculate that his reasoning
will add seven thousand more to the number. We confess, however, that
though we have long been of this number to a certain extent, we cannot
go as far as this writer has done in his conclusions.
All the world is acquainted with Dr. Chalmers' splendid Astronomical
Discourses. Assuming, or rather supposing that he has proved, that the
universe contains a vast number of worlds peopled like our own, he
imagines the infidel to raise an objection to the mission of the Son of
God, on the ground that this world is too insignificant to receive such
an extraordinary interposition. His replies to this objection, drawn
chiefly from our ignorance, are ingenious and convincing. But the author
of the Plurality of Worlds doubts the premises on which the objection is
founded. He thinks the facts of science will not sustain the conclusion
that many of the heavenly bodies are inhabited; certainly not with moral
and intellectual beings like man. Nay, by making his appeal to geology,
he thinks the evidence strong against such an opinion. This science
shows us that this world was once certainly in a molten state, and very
probably, at a still earlier date, may have been dissipated into
self-luminous vapor, like the nebulae or the comets. Immense periods,
then, must have passed before any organic structures, such as have since
peopled the earth, could have existed. And during the vast cycles that
have elapsed since the first animals and plants appeared upon the globe,
it was not in a proper condition to have sustained any other than the
inferior races. Accordingly, it has been only a few thousand years since
man appeared.
Now, so far as astronomy has revealed the condition of other worlds,
almost all of them appear to be passing through those preparatory
changes which the earth underwent previous to man's creation. What are
the unresolvable nebulae and most of the comets also, but intensely
heated vapor and gas? What is the sun but a molten globe, or perhaps
gaseous matter condensed so as to possess almost the density of water?
The planets beyond Mars, also, (excluding the asteroids,) appear to be
in a liquid condition, but not from heat, and therefore may be composed
of water, or some fluid perhaps lighter than water; or at least be
covered by such fluid. Moreover, so great is their distance from the
sun, that his light and heat could not sustain organic beings such as
exist upon the earth. Of the inferior planets, Mercury is so near the
sun that it would be equally unfit for the residence of such beings.
Mars, Venus, and the Moon, then, appear to be the only worlds known to
us capable of sustaining a population at all analogous to that upon
earth. But of these, the Moon appears to be merely a mass of
extinguished volcanos, with neither water nor atmosphere. It has
proceeded farther in the process of refrigeration than the earth,
because it is smaller; and in its present state, is manifestly unfit for
the residence either of rational or irrational creatures. So that we are
left with only Mars and Venus in the solar system to which the common
arguments in favor of other worlds being inhabited, will apply.
But are not the fixed stars the suns of other systems? We will thank
those who think so, to read the chapter in this work that treats of the
fixed stars, and we presume they will be satisfied that at least many of
these bodies exhibit characters quite irreconcilable with such an
hypothesis. And if some are not central suns, the presumption that the
rest are, is weakened, and we must wait till a greater perfection of
instruments shall afford us some positive evidence, before we know
whether our solar system is a type of any others.
Thus far, it seems to us, our author has firm ground, both geological
and astronomical, to stand upon. But he does not stop here. He takes the
position that probably our earth may be the only body in the solar
system, nay in the universe, where an intellectual, moral and immortal
being, like man, has an existence. He makes the "earth the domestic
hearth of the solar system; adjusted between the hot and fiery haze on
one side, and the cold and watery vapor on the other: the only fit
region to be a domestic hearth, a seat of habitation." He says that "it
is quite agreeable to analogy that the solar system should have borne
but one fertile flower. And even if any number of the fixed stars were
also found to be barren flowers of the sky, we need not think the powers
of creation wasted, or frustrated, thrown away, or perverted." He does
not deny that some other worlds may be the abodes of plants and animals
such as peopled this earth during the long ages of preadamic history.
But he regards the creation of man as the great event of our world. He
looks upon the space between man and the highest of the irrational
creatures, as a vast one: for though in physical structure they approach
one another, in intellectual and moral powers they cannot be compared.
He does not think it derogatory to Divine Wisdom to have created and
arranged all the other bodies of the universe to give convenience and
elegance to the abode of such a being; especially since this was to be
the theatre of the work of redemption.
Now we sympathize strongly in views that give dignity and exaltation to
man, and not at all with that debasing philosophy, so common at this
day, that looks upon him as little more than a somewhat improved orang.
But we cannot admit that man is the only exalted created being to be
found among the vast array of worlds around us. Geology does, indeed,
teach us, that it is no disparagement of Divine Wisdom and benevolence
to make a world--and if one, why not many--the residence of inferior
creatures; nay to leave it without inhabitants through untold ages. But
it also shows us, that when such worlds have passed through these
preparatory changes, rational and immortal beings may be placed upon
them. Nay, does not the history of our world show us that this seems to
be the grand object of such vast periods of preparation. And is it not
incredible, that amid the countless bodies of the universe, a single
globe only, and that a small one, should have reached the condition
adapted to the residence of beings made in the image of God? Of what
possible use to man are those numberless worlds visible only through the
most powerful telescopes? Surely such a view gives us a very narrow idea
of the plans and purposes of Jehovah, and one not sustained in our
opinion by the analogies of science.
There is another principle to which our author attaches, as we think,
too little importance in this connection. When we see how vast is the
variety of organic beings on this globe, and how manifold the conditions
of their existence; how exactly adapted they are to the solid, the
liquid, and the gaseous states of matter, can we doubt that rational and
intelligent beings may be adapted to physical conditions in other worlds
widely diverse from those on this globe? May not spirits be connected
with bodies much heavier, or much lighter, than on earth; nay, with mere
tenuous ether; and those bodies, perhaps, be better adapted to the play
of intellect than ours; and be unaffected by temperatures which, on
earth, would be fatal? It does seem to us that such conclusions are
legitimate inferences from the facts of science; and if so, we can
hardly avoid the conclusion that there may be races of intelligent
beings upon other worlds where the condition of things is widely
different from that on earth. Yet there is a limit to this principle;
and when we can prove another world to be in a similar condition to our
earth, when it was inhabited by preadamic races, or not at all
inhabited, the presumption is strong, that such a world has inhabitants
of a like character, or none at all.
Our author makes but a slight allusion to some most important statements
of revelation, that seem to us to bear strongly upon the hypothesis
which he adopts. We refer to the existence of angels, holy and unholy.
In the history of the latter, we learn that _they kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation_. Have we not here an example of
other rational creatures, more exalted than man, who, like him, have
fallen from their first estate; and does not the presumption hence
arise, that there may be similar examples in other worlds? And is there
not a probability, that holy angels now in heaven, may be rational
intelligences who have passed a successful probation in other worlds? It
does seem to us, that these biblical facts make the hypothesis of our
author respecting man extremely improbable.
But though we must demur as to some of the views of this work, we can
cordially recommend its perusal to intelligent and reasoning minds. It
is an effort in the right direction, and we think will do much to
correct some false notions respecting the Plurality of Worlds. And even
the author's peculiar hypothetical views are sustained with much
ability. He states the facts of geology and astronomy with great
clearness and correctness, and seems quite familiar with mathematical
reasoning. Nor does he advance opinions that come into collision with
natural or revealed religion; though, as already stated, we think his
favorite notions narrow our conceptions of the Divine plans and
purposes. We predict for the work an extended circulation among
scientific men and theologians; and commend it with confidence to all
readers--and in our country they are numerous--who are fond of tracing
out the connection between science and religion.
E. H.
Amherst College, April, 1854.
THE
PLURALITY OF WORLDS.
CHAPTER I.
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES.
"When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"
1. These striking words of the Hebrew Psalmist have been made, by an
eloquent and pious writer of our own time, the starting point of a
remarkable train of speculation. Dr. Chalmers, in his _Astronomical
Discourses_, has treated the reflection thus suggested, in connection
with such an aspect of the heavens and the stars, the earth and the
universe, as modern astronomy presents to us. Even from the point of
view in which the ancient Hebrew looked at the stars; seeing only their
number and splendor, their lofty position, and the vast space which they
visibly occupy in the sky; compared with the earth, which lies dark, and
mean, and perhaps small in extent, far beneath them, and on which man
has his habitation; it appeared wonderful, and scarcely credible, that
the maker of all that array of luminaries, the lord of that wide and
magnificent domain, should occupy himself with the concerns of men: and
yet, without a belief in His fatherly care and goodness to us,
thoughtful and religious persons, accustomed to turn their minds
constantly to a Supreme Governor and constant Benefactor, are left in a
desolate and bewildered state of feeling. The notion that while the
heavens are the work of God's fingers, the sun, moon, and stars ordained
by him, He is _not_ mindful of man, does not regard him, does not visit
him, was not tolerable to the thought of the Psalmist. While we read, we
are sure that he believed that, however insignificant and mean man might
be, in comparison with the other works of God,--however difficult it
might seem to conceive, that he should be found worthy the regards and
the visits of the Creator of All,--yet that God _was_ mindful of him,
and _did_ visit him. The question, "What is man, that this is so?"
implies that there is an answer, whether man can discover it or not.
"_What_ is man, that God is mindful of him?" indicates a belief,
unshaken, however much perplexed, that man is _something_, of such a
kind that God _is_ mindful of him.
2. But if there was room for this questioning, and cause for this
perplexity, to a contemplative person, who looked at the skies, with
that belief concerning the stars, which the ancient Hebrew possessed,
the question recurs with far greater force, and the perplexity is
immeasurably increased, by the knowledge, concerning the stars, which is
given to us by the discoveries of modern astronomy. The Jew probably
believed the earth to be a region, upon the whole, level, however
diversified with hills and valleys, and the skies to be a vault arched
over this level;--a firmament in which the moon and the stars were
placed. What magnitude to assign to this vault, he had no means of
knowing; and indeed, the very aspect of the nocturnal heavens, with the
multitude of stars, of various brightness, which come into view, one set
after another, as the light of day dies away, suggests rather the notion
of their being scattered through a vast depth of space, at various
distances, than of their being so many lights fastened to a single
vaulted surface. But however he might judge of this, he regarded them as
placed in a space, of which the earth was the central region. The host
of heaven all had reference to the earth. The sun and the moon were
there, in order to give light to it, by day and by night. And if the
stars had not that for their principal office, as indeed the amount of
light which they gave was not such as to encourage such a belief,--and
perhaps the perception, that the stars must have been created for some
other object than to give light to man, was one of the principal
circumstances which suggested the train of thought that we are now
considering;--yet still, the region of the stars had the earth for its
centre and base. Perhaps the Psalmist, at a subsequent period of his
contemplations, when he was pondering the reflections which he has
expressed in this passage, might have been led to think that the stars
were placed there in order to draw man's thoughts to the greatness of
the Creator of all things; to give some light to his mental, rather than
to his bodily eye; to show how far His mode of working transcends man's
faculties; to suggest that there are things in heaven, very different
from the things which are on earth. If he thought thus, he was only
following a train of thought on which contemplative minds, in all ages
and countries, have often dwelt; and which we cannot, even now,
pronounce to be either unfounded or exhausted; as we trust hereafter to
show. But whether or not this be so, we may be certain that the Psalmist
regarded the stars, as things having a reference to the earth, and yet
not resembling the earth; as works of God's fingers, very different from
the earth with its tribes of inhabitants; as luminaries, not worlds. In
the feeling of awe and perplexity, which made him ask, "What is man that
thou art mindful of him?" there was no mixture of a persuasion that
there were, in those luminaries, creatures, like man, the children and
subjects of God; and therefore, like man, requiring his care and
attention. In asking, "What is man, that thou visitest him?" there was
no latent comparison, to make the question imply, "that thou visitest
_him_, rather than those who dwell in those abodes?" It was the
multitude and magnificence of God's works, which made it seem strange
that he should care for a _thing_ so small and mean as man; not the
supposed multitude of God's intelligent creatures inhabiting those
works, which made it seem strange that he should attend to every
_person_ upon this earth. It was not that the Psalmist thought that,
among a multitude of earths, all peopled like this earth, man might seem
to be in danger of being overlooked and neglected by his Maker; but
that, there being only one earth, occupied by frail, feeble, sinful,
short-lived creatures, it might be unworthy the regards of Him who dwelt
in regions of eternal light and splendor, unsullied by frailty,
inaccessible to corruption.
3. This, we can have no doubt, or something resembling this, was the
Psalmist's view, when he made the reflection, which we have taken as the
basis of our remarks. And even in this view, (which, after all that
science has done, is perhaps still the most natural and familiar,) the
reflection is extremely striking; and the words cannot be uttered
without finding an echo in the breast of every contemplative and
religious person. But this view is, as most readers at this time are
aware, very different from that presented to us by Modern Astronomy. The
discoveries made by astronomers are supposed by most persons to have
proved, or to have made it in the highest degree probable, that this
view of the earth, as the sole habitation of intelligent subjects of
God's government; and of the stars, as placed in a region of which the
earth is the centre, and yet differing in their nature from this lower
world; is altogether erroneous. According to astronomers, the earth is
not a level space, but a globe. Some of the stars which we see in the
vault of heaven, are globes, like it; some smaller than the earth, some
larger. There are reasons, drawn from analogy, for believing that these
globes, the other planets, are inhabited by living creatures, as the
earth is. The earth is not at rest, with the celestial luminaries
circulating above it, as the ancients believed, but itself moves in a
circle about the sun, in the course of every year; and the other planets
also move round the sun in like manner, in circles, some within and some
without that which the earth describes. This collection of planets, thus
circulating about the sun, is the SOLAR SYSTEM: of which the earth thus
forms a very small part. Jupiter and Saturn are much larger than the
earth. Mars and Venus are nearly as large. If these be inhabited, as the
Earth is, which the analogy of their form, movements and conditions,
seems to suggest, the population of the earth is a very small portion of
the population of the solar system. And if the mere number of the
subjects of God's government could produce any difficulty in the
application of his providence to them, a person to whom this view of the
world which we inhabit had been disclosed, might well, and with far more
reason than the Psalmist, exclaim, "Lord, what is man, that thou art
mindful of him? the inhabitants of this Earth, that thou regardest him?"
4. But this is only the first step in the asserted revelations of
astronomy. Some of the stars are, as we have said, planets of the kind
just described. But these stars are a few only:--five, or at most six,
of those visible to the unassisted eye of man. All the rest, innumerable
as they appear, and numerous as they really are, are, it is found,
objects of another kind. They are not, as the planets are, opaque
globes, deriving their light from a sun, about which they circulate.
They shine by a light of their own. They are of the nature of the sun,
not of the planets. That they appear mere specks of light, arises from
their being at a vast distance from us. At a vast distance they
undoubtedly are; for even with our most powerful telescopes, they still
appear mere specks of light;--mere luminous points. They do not, as the
planets do, when seen through telescopes, exhibit to us a circular face
or disk, capable of being magnified and distinguished into parts and
features. But this impossibility of magnifying them by means of
telescopes, does not at all make us doubt that they may be far larger
than the planets. For we know, from other sources of information, that
their distance is immensely greater than that of any of the planets. We
can measure the bodies of the solar system;--the earth, by absolutely
going round a part of it, or in other ways; the other bodies of the
system, by comparing their positions, as seen from different parts of
the earth. In this manner we find that the earth is a globe 8,000 miles
in diameter. In this way, again, we find that the circle which the earth
describes round the sun has, in round numbers, a radius about 24,000
times the earth's radius; that is, nearly a hundred millions of miles.
The earth is, at one time, a hundred millions of miles on one side of
the sun; and at another time, half a year afterwards, a hundred millions
of miles on the other side. Of the bright stars which shine by their own
light,--the _fixed stars_, as we call them, (to distinguish them from
the planets, the _wandering stars_,)--if any one were at any moderate
distance from us, we should see it change its apparent place with regard
to the others, in consequence of our thus changing our point of view two
hundred millions of miles: just as a distant spire changes its apparent
place with regard to the more distant mountain, when we move from one
window of our house to the other. But no such change of place is
discernible in any of the fixed stars: or at least, if we believe the
most recent asserted discoveries of astronomers, the change is so small
as to imply a distance in the star, of more than two hundred thousand
times the radius of the earth's orbit, which is, itself, as we have
said, one hundred millions of miles.[1] This distance is so vastly
great, that we can very well believe that the fixed stars, though to our
best telescopes they appear only as points of light, are really as large
as our sun, and would give as much light as he does, if we could
approach as near to them. For since they are thus, the nearest of them,
two hundred thousand times as far off as he is, even if we could magnify
them a thousand times, which we can hardly do, they would still be only
one two-hundredth of the breadth of the sun; and thus, still a mere
point.
5. But if each fixed star be of the nature of the sun, and not smaller
than the sun, does not analogy lead us to suppose that they have, some
of them at least, planets circulating about them, as our sun has? If the
Sun is the centre of the Solar System, why should not Sirius, (one of
the brightest of the fixed stars,) be the centre of the _Sirian System_?
And why should not that system have as many planets, with the same
resemblances and differences of the figure, movements, and conditions of
the different planets, as this? Why should not the Sirian System be as
great and as varied as the solar system? And this being granted, why
should not these planets be inhabited, as men have inferred the other
planets of the solar system, as well as the earth, to be? And thus we
have, added to the population of the universe of which we have already
spoken, a number (so far as we have reason to believe) not inferior to
the number of inhabitants of the solar system: this number being,
according to all the analogies, very many fold that of the population of
the whole earth?
And this is the conclusion, when we reason from one star only, from
Sirius. But the argument is the same, from each of the stars. For we
have no reason to think that Sirius, though one of the brightest, is
more like our sun than any of the others is. The others appear less
bright in various degrees, probably because they are further removed
from us in various degrees. They may not be all of the same size and
brightness; it is very unlikely that they are. But they may as easily be
larger than the sun, as smaller. The natural assumption for us to make,
having no ground for any other opinion, is, that they are, upon the
average, of the size of our sun. On that assumption, we have as many
solar systems as we have fixed stars; and, it may be, six or ten, or
twenty times as many inhabited globes; inhabited by creatures of whom
we must suppose, by analogy, that God is mindful, if he is mindful of
us. The question recurs with overwhelming force, if we still follow the
same train of reflection: "What is man, that God is mindful of him?"
6. But we have not yet exhausted the views which thus add to the force
of this reflection. The fixed stars, which appear to the eye so
numerous, so innumerable, in the clear sky on a moonless night, are not
really so numerous as they seem. To the naked eye, there are not visible
more than four or five thousand. The astronomers of Greece, and of other
countries, even in ancient times, counted them, mapped them, and gave
them names and designations. But Astronomy, who thus began her career by
diminishing, in some degree, the supposed numbers of the host of heaven,
has ended by immeasurably increasing them. The first application of the
telescope to the skies discovered a vast number of fixed stars,
previously unseen: and every improvement in that instrument has
disclosed myriads of new stars, visibly smaller than those which had
before been seen; and smaller and smaller, as the power of vision is
more and more strengthened by new aids from art; as if the regions of
space contained an inexhaustible supply of such objects; as if infinite
space were strewn with stars in every part of it to which vision could
reach. The small patch of the sky which forms, at any moment, the field
of view of one of the great telescopes of Herschel, discloses to him as
many stars, and those of as many different magnitudes, as the whole
vault of the sky exhibits to the naked eye. But the magnifying power of
such an instrument only discloses, it does not make, these stars. There
appears to be quite as much reason to believe, that each of these
telescopic stars is a sun, surrounded by its special family of planets,
as to believe that Sirius or Arcturus is so. Here, then, we have again
an extension, indefinite to our apprehension, of the universe, as
occupied by material structures; and if so, why not by a living
population, such as the material structures which are nearest to us
support?
7. Even yet we have not finished the series of successive views which
astronomers have had opened to them, extending more and more their
spectacle of the fulness and largeness of the universe. Not only does
the telescope disclose myriads of stars, unseen to the naked eye, and
new myriads with each increase of the powers of the instrument; but it
discloses also patches of light, which, at first at least, do not appear
to consist of stars: _Nebulae_, as they are called; bright specks, it
might seem, of stellar matter, thin, diffused, and irregular; not
gathered into regular and definite forms, such as we may suppose the
stars to be. Every one who has noticed the starry skies, may understand
what is the general aspect of such nebulae, by looking at the milky way
or galaxy, an irregular band of nebulous light, which runs quite round
the sky; "A circling zone, powdered with stars;" as Milton calls it. But
the nebulae of which I more especially speak, are minute patches,
discovered mainly by the telescope, and in a few instances only
discernible by the naked eye. And what I have to remark especially
concerning them at present is, that though to visual powers which barely
suffice to discern them, they appear like mere bright clouds, patches of
diffused starry matter; yet that, when examined by visual powers of a
higher order, by more penetrating telescopes, these patches of
continuous feeble light are, in many instances at least, distinguishable
into definite points: they are found, in fact, to be aggregations of
stars; which before appeared as diffused light, only because our
telescopes, though strong enough to reveal to our senses the aggregate
mass of light of the cluster, were not strong enough to enable us to
discern any one of the stars of which the cluster consists. The galaxy,
in this way, may, in almost every part, be _resolved_ into separate
stars; and thus, the multitude of the stars in the region of the sky
occupied by that winding stream of light, is, when examined by a
powerful telescope, inconceivably numerous.
8. The small telescopic nebulae are of various forms; some of them may be
in the shape of flat strata, or cakes, as it were, of stars, of small
thickness, compared with the extent of the stratum. Now, if our sun were
one of the individuals of such a stratum, we, looking at the stars of
the stratum from his neighborhood, should see them very numerous and
close in the direction of the edge of the stratum, and comparatively few
and rare in other parts of the sky. We should, in short, see a galaxy
running round the sky, as we see in fact. And hence Sir William Herschel
has inferred, that our sun, with its attendant planets, has its place in
such a stratum; and that it thus belongs to a host of stars which are,
in a certain way, detached from the other nebulae which we see. Perhaps,
he adds, some of those other nebulae are beds and masses of stars not
less numerous than those which compose our galaxy, and which occupy a
larger portion of the sky, only because we are immersed in the interior
of the crowd. And thus, a minute speck of nebulous light, discernible
only by a good telescope, may contain not only as many stars as occupy
the sky to ordinary vision, but as many as is the number into which the
most powerful telescope resolves the milky light of the galaxy. And of
such resolvable nebulae the number which are discovered in the sky is
very great, their forms being of the most various kind; so that many of
them may be, for aught we can tell, more amply stocked with stars than
the galaxy is. And if all the stars, or a large proportion of the
stars, of the galaxy, be suns attended by planets, and these planets
peopled with living creatures, what notion must we form of the
population of the universe, when we have thus to reckon as many galaxies
as there are resolvable nebulae! the stock of discoverable nebulae being
as yet unexhausted by the powers of our telescopes; and the possibility
of resolving them into stars being also an operation which has not yet
been pursued to its limit.
9. For, (and this is the last step which I shall mention in this long
series of ascending steps of multitude apparently infinite,) it now
begins to be suspected that not some nebulae only, but _all_, are
resolvable into separate stars. When the nebulae were first carefully
studied, it was supposed that they consisted, as they appeared to
consist, of some diffused and incoherent matter, not of definite and
limited masses. It was conceived that they were not stars, but Stellar
Matter in the course of formation into stars; and it was conceived,
further, that by the gradual concentration of such matter, whirling
round its centre while it concentrated, not only stars, that is, suns,
might be formed, but also systems of planets, circling round these suns;
and thus this _Nebular Hypothesis_, as it has been termed, gave a kind
of theory of the origin and formation of systems, such as the solar
system. But the great telescope which Lord Rosse has constructed, and
which is much more powerful than any optical instrument yet fabricated,
has been directed to many of the nebulae, whose appearance had given rise
to this theory; and the result has been, in a great number of cases,
that the nebulae are proved to consist entirely of distinct stars; and
that the diffused nebulous appearance is discovered to have been an
illusion, resulting from the accumulated light of a vast number of small
stars near to each other. In this manner, we are led to regard every
nebula, not as an imperfectly formed star or system, but as a vast
multitude of stars, and, for aught we can tell, of systems; for the
apparent smallness and nearness of these stars are, it is thought, mere
results of the vast distance at which they are placed from us. And thus,
perhaps, all the nebulae are, what some of them seem certainly to be, so
many vast armies of stars, each of which stars, we have reason to
believe, is of the nature of our sun; and may have, and according to
analogy has, an accompaniment of living creatures, such as our sun has,
certainly on the earth, probably, it is thought, in the other planets.
10. It is difficult to grasp, in one view, the effect of the successive
steps from number to number, from distance to distance, which we have
thus been measuring over. We may, however, state them again briefly, in
the way of enumeration.
From our own place on the earth, we pass, in thought, as a first step,
to the whole globe of the Earth; from this, as a second step, to the
Planets, the other globes which compose the Solar System. A third step
carries us to the Fixed Stars, as visible to the naked eye; very
numerous and immensely distant. The transition to the Telescopic Stars
makes a fourth step; and in this, the number and the space are
increased, almost beyond the power of numbers to express how many there
are, and at what distances. But a fifth step:--perhaps all this array of
stars, obvious and telescopic, only make up our Nebula; while the
universe is occupied by other Nebulae innumerable, so distant that, seen
from them, our nebula, though including, it may be, stars of the 20th
magnitude, which may be 20 times or 2,000 times more remote than Sirius,
would become a telescopic speck, as their nebulae are to us.
11. Various images and modes of representation have been employed, in
order to convey to the mind some notion of the dimensions of the scheme
of the universe to which we are thus introduced. Thus, we may reckon
that a cannon-ball, moving with its usual original velocity unabated,
would describe the interval between the sun and the earth in about one
year. And this being so, the same missile would, from what has been
said, occupy more, we know not how much more, than 200,000 years in
going to the nearest fixed star: and perhaps a thousand times as much,
in going to other stars belonging to our group; and then again, 200,000
times so much, or some number of the like order, in going from one group
to another. When we have advanced a step or two in this mode of
statement, the velocity of the cannon-ball hardly perceptibly affects
the magnitude of the numbers which we have to use.
And the same nearly is the case if we have recourse to the swiftest
motion with which we are acquainted; that of Light. Light travels, it is
shown by indisputable scientific reasonings, in about eight minutes from
the sun to the earth. Hence we can easily calculate that it would occupy
at least three years to travel as far as Sirius, and probably, three
thousand years, or a much greater number, to reach to the smallest
stars, or to come from them to us. And thus, as Sir W. Herschel
remarked, since light is the only vehicle by which information
concerning these distant bodies is conveyed to us, we do, by seeing
them, receive information, not what they are at this moment, but what
they were, as to visible condition, thousands of years ago. Stars may
have been created when man was created, and yet their light may not have
reached him.[2] Stars may have been extinguished thousands of years
ago, and yet may still be visible to our eyes, by means of the light
which they emitted previous to their extinction, and which has not yet
died away.
12. So vast then are the distances at which the different bodies of the
universe are distributed; and yet so numerous are those bodies. In the
vastness of their distances, there is, indeed, nothing which need
disturb our minds, or which, after a little reflection, is likely to do
so: for when we have said all that can be said, about the largeness of
these distances, still there is no difficulty in finding room for them.
We necessarily conceive _Space_ as being infinite in its extent: however
much space the heavenly bodies occupy, there is space beyond them: if
they are not there, space is there nevertheless. That the stars and
planets are so far from each other, is an arrangement which prevents
their disturbing each other with their mutual attractions, to any
destructive extent; and is an arrangement which the spacious, the
infinite universe, admits of, without any difficulty.
13. But we are more especially concerned with the _Numbers_ of the
heavenly bodies. So many planets about our sun: so many suns, each
perhaps with its family of planets: and then, all these suns making but
one group: and other groups coming into view, one after another, in
seemingly endless succession: and all these planets being of the nature
of our earth, as all these stars are of the nature of our sun:--all
this, presents to us a spectacle of a world--of a countless host of
worlds--of which, when we regard them as thus arranged in planetary
systems, and as having, according to all probability, years and seasons,
days and nights, as we have, we cannot but accept it as at least a
likely suggestion, that they have also inhabitants;--intelligent beings
who can reckon these days and years; who subsist on the fruits which
the season brings forth, and have their daily and yearly occupations,
according to their faculties. When we take, as our scheme of the
universe, such a scheme as this, we may well be overwhelmed with the
number of provinces, besides that in which man dwells, which the empire
of the Lord of all includes; and, recurring to the words of the
Psalmist, we may say with a profundity of meaning immeasurably
augmented--"Lord, what is man?"
It was this view, I conceive, which Dr. Chalmers had in his thoughts, in
pursuing the speculations which I have mentioned, in the outset of this
Essay.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is quite to our purpose to recollect the impression which such
discoveries naturally make upon a pious mind.
Oh! rack me not to such extent,
These distances belong to Thee;
The world's too little for Thy tent,
A grave too big for me!
GEORGE HERBERT.
[2] This thought is, however, older. Young expresses it in his _Night
Thoughts_, Night IX., (published in 1744):
How distant some of these nocturnal suns!
So distant (says the sage) 'twere not absurd
To doubt if beams, set out at nature's birth,
Are yet arrived at this so foreign world.