THE UNITY OF THE WORLD.
1. The two doctrines which we have here to weigh against each other are
the Plurality of Worlds, and the Unity of the World. In so saying, we
include in our present view, a necessary part of the conception of a
_World_, a collection of intelligent creatures: for even if the
suppositions to which we have been led, respecting the kind of
unintelligent living things which may inhabit other parts of the
Universe, be conceived to be probable; such a belief will have little
interest for most persons, compared with the belief of other worlds,
where reside intelligence, perception of truth, recognition of moral
Law, and reverence for a Divine Creator and Governor. In looking
outwards at the Universe, there are certain aspects which suggest to
man, at first sight, a conjecture that there may be other bodies like
the Earth, tenanted by other creatures like man. This conjecture,
however, receives no confirmation from a closer inquiry, with increased
means of observation. Let us now look inwards, at the constitution of
man; and consider some characters of his nature, which seem to remove or
lessen the difficulties which we may at first feel, in regarding the
Earth as, in a unique and special manner, the field of God's Providence
and Government.
2. In the first place, the Earth, as the abode of man, the intellectual
creature, contains a being, whose mind is, in some measure, of the same
nature as the Divine Mind of the Creator. The Laws which man discovers
in the Creation must be Laws known to God. The truths,--for instance the
truths of geometry,--which man sees to be true, God also must see to be
true. That there were, from the beginning, in the Creative Mind,
Creative Thoughts, is a doctrine involved in every intelligent view of
Creation.
3. This doctrine was presented by the ancients in various forms; and the
most recent scientific discoveries have supplied new illustrations of
it. The mode in which Plato expressed the doctrine which we are here
urging was, that there were in the Divine Mind, before or during the
work of creation, certain archetypal Ideas, certain exemplars or
patterns of the world and its parts, according to which the work was
performed: so that these Ideas or Exemplars existed in the objects
around us being in so many cases discernible by man, and being the
proper objects of human reason. If a mere metaphysician were to attempt
to revive this mode of expressing the doctrine, probably his
speculations would be disregarded, or treated as a pedantic
resuscitation of obsolete Platonic dreams. But the adoption of such
language must needs be received in a very different manner, when it
proceeds from a great discoverer in the field of natural knowledge: when
it is, as it were, forced upon _him_, as the obvious and appropriate
expression of the result of the most profound and comprehensive
researches into the frame of the whole animal creation. The recent works
of Mr. Owen, and especially one work, _On the Nature of Limbs_, are full
of the most energetic and striking passages, inculcating the doctrine
which we have been endeavoring to maintain. We may take the liberty of
enriching our pages with one passage bearing upon the present part of
the subject.
"If the world were made by any antecedent Mind or Understanding, that
is by a Deity, then there must needs be an Idea and Exemplar of the
whole world before it was made, and consequently actual knowledge, both
in the order of Time and Nature, before Things. But conceiving of
knowledge as it was got by their own finite minds, and ignorant of any
evidence of an ideal Archetype for the world or any part of it, they
[the Democritic Philosophers who denied a Divine Creative Mind] affirmed
that there was none, and concluded that there could be no knowledge or
mind before the world was, as its cause." Plato's assertion of
Archetypal Ideas was a protest against this doctrine, but was rather a
guess, suggested by the nature of mathematical demonstration, than a
doctrine derived from a contemplation of the external world.
"Now however," Mr. Owen continues, "the recognition of an ideal exemplar
for the vertebrated animals proves that the knowledge of such a being as
Man must have existed before Man appeared. For the Divine Mind which
planned the Archetypal also foreknew all its modifications. The
Archetypal Idea was manifested in the flesh under divers modifications
upon this planet, long prior to the existence of those animal species
which actually exemplify it. To what natural or secondary causes the
orderly succession and progression of such organic phenomena may have
been committed, we are as yet ignorant. But if without derogation to the
Divine Power, we may conceive such ministers and personify them by the
term _Nature_, we learn from the past history of our globe that she has
advanced with slow and stately steps, guided by the archetypal light
amidst the wreck of worlds, from the first embodiment of the vertebrate
idea, under its old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed in the
glorious garb of the human form."
4. Law implies a Lawgiver, even when we do not see the object of the
Law; even as Design implies a Designer, when we do not see the object of
the Design. The Laws of Nature are the indications of the operation of
the Divine Mind; and are revealed to us, as such, by the operations of
our minds, by which we come to discover them. They are the utterances of
the Creator, delivered in language which we can understand; and being
thus Language, they are the utterances of an Intelligent Spirit.
5. It may seem to some persons too bold a view, to identify, so far as
we thus do, certain truths as seen by man, and as seen by God:[1]--to
make the Divine Mind thus cognizant of the truths of geometry, for
instance. If any one has such a scruple, we may remark that truth, when
of so luminous and stable a kind as are the truths of geometry, must be
alike _Truth_ for all minds, even for the highest. The mode of arriving
at the knowledge of such truths, may be very different, even for
different human minds;--deduction for some;--intuition for others. But
the intuitive apprehension of necessary truth is an act so purely
intellectual, that even in the Supreme Intellect, we may suppose that it
has its place. Can we conceive otherwise, than that God does contemplate
the universe as existing in space, since it really does so;--and subject
to the relations of space, since these are as real as space itself? We
are well aware that the Supreme Being must contemplate the world under
many other aspects than this;--even man does so. But that does not
prevent the truths, which belong to the aspect of the world,
contemplated as existing in space, from being truths, regarded as such,
even by the Divine Mind.
6. If these reflections are well founded, as we trust they will, on
consideration, be seen to be, we may adopt many of the expressions by
which philosophers heretofore have attempted to convey similar views;
for in fact, this view, in its general bearing at least, is by no means
new. The Mind of Man is a partaker of the thoughts of the Divine Mind.
The Intellect of Man is a spark of the Light by which the world was
created. The Ideas according to which man builds up his knowledge, are
emanations of the archetypal Ideas according to which the work of
creation was planned and executed. These, and many the like expressions,
have been often used; and we now see, we may trust, that there is a
great philosophical truth, which they all tend to convey; and this truth
shows at the same time, how man may have some knowledge respecting the
Laws of Nature, and how this knowledge may, in some cases, seem to be a
knowledge of necessary relations, as in the case of space.[2]
7. Now, the views to which we have been led, bear very strongly upon
that argument. For if man, when he attains to a knowledge of such laws,
is really admitted, in some degree, to the view with which the Creator
himself beholds his creation;--if we can gather, from the conditions of
such knowledge, that his intellect partakes of the Nature of the Supreme
Intellect;--if his Mind, in its clearest and largest contemplations,
harmonizes with the Divine Mind;--we have, in this, a reason which may
well seem to us very powerful, why, even if the Earth alone be the
habitation of intelligent beings, still, the great work of Creation is
not wasted. If God have placed upon the earth a creature who can so far
sympathize with Him, if we may venture upon the expression;--who can
raise his intellect into some accordance with the Creative Intellect;
and that, not once only, nor by few steps, but through an indefinite
gradation of discoveries, more and more comprehensive, more and more
profound; each, an advance, however slight, towards a Divine
Insight;--then, so far as intellect alone (and we are here speaking of
intellect alone) can make Man a worthy object of all the vast
magnificence of Creative Power, we can hardly shrink from believing that
he is so.
8. We may remark further, that this view of God, as the Author of the
Laws of the Universe, leads to a view of all the phenomena and objects
of the world, as the work of God; not a work made, and laid out of hand,
but a field of his present activity and energy. And such a view cannot
fail to give an aspect of dignity to all that is great in creation, and
of beauty to all that is symmetrical, which otherwise they could not
have. Accordingly, it is by calling to their thoughts the presence of
God as suggested by scenes of grandeur or splendor, that poets often
reach the sympathies of their readers. And this dignity and sublimity
appear especially to belong to the larger objects, which are destitute
of conscious life; as the mountain, the glacier, the pine-forest, the
ocean; since in these, we are, as it were, alone with God, and the only
present witnesses of His mysterious working.
9. Now if this reflection be true, the vast bodies which hang in the
sky, at such immense distances from us, and roll on their courses, and
spin round their axles with such exceeding rapidity; Jupiter and his
array of Moons, Saturn with his still larger host of Satellites, and
with his wonderful Ring, and the other large and distant Planets, will
lose nothing of their majesty, in our eyes, by being uninhabited; any
more than the summer-clouds, which perhaps are formed of the same
materials, lose their dignity from the same cause;--any more than our
Moon, one of the tribe of satellites, loses her soft and tender beauty,
when we have ascertained that she is more barren of inhabitants than the
top of Mount Blanc. However destitute the planets and moons and rings
may be of inhabitants, they are _at least vast scenes of God's
presence,_ and of the activity with which he carries into effect,
everywhere, the laws of nature. The light which comes to us from them is
transmitted according to laws which He has established, by an energy
which He maintains. The remotest planet is not devoid of life, for God
lives there. At each stage which we make, from planet to planet, from
star to star, into the regions of infinity, we may say, with the
patriarch, "Surely God is here, and I knew it not." And when those who
question the habitability of the remote planets and stars are reproached
as presenting a view of the universe, which takes something from the
magnificence hitherto ascribed to it, as the scene of God's glory, shown
in the things which He has created; they may reply, that they do not at
all disturb that glory of the creation which arises from its being, not
only the product, but the constant field of God's activity and thought,
wisdom and power; and they may perhaps ask, in return, whether the
dignity of the Moon would be greatly augmented if her surface were
ascertained to be abundantly peopled with lizards; or whether Mount
Blanc would be more sublime, if millions of frogs were known to live in
the crevasses of its glaciers.
10. Again: the Earth is a scene of Moral Trial. Man is subject to a
Moral Law; and this Moral Law is a Law of which God is the Legislator.
It is a law which man has the power of discovering, by the use of the
faculties which God has given him. By considering the nature and
consequences of actions, man is able to discern, in a great measure,
what is right and what is wrong;--what he ought and what he ought not to
do;--what his duty and virtue, what his crime and vice. Man has a Law on
such subjects, written on his heart, as the Apostle Paul says. He has a
conscience which accuses or excuses him; and thus, recognizes his acts
as worthy of condemnation or approval. And thus, man is, and knows
himself to be, the subject of Divine Law, commanding and prohibiting;
and is here, in a state of probation, as to how far he will obey or
disobey this Law. He has impulses, springs of action, which urge him to
the violation of this Law. Appetite, Desire, Anger, Lust, Greediness,
Envy, Malice, impel him to courses which are vicious. But these impulses
he is capable of resisting and controlling;--of avoiding the vices and
practising the opposite virtues;--and of rising from one stage of Virtue
to another, by a gradual and successive purification and elevation of
the desires, affections and habits, in a degree, so far as we know,
without limit.
11. Now in considering the bearing of this view upon our original
subject, we have, in the first place, to make this remark: that the
existence of a body of creatures, capable of such a Law, of such a
Trial, and of such an Elevation as this, is, according to all that we
can conceive, an object infinitely more worthy of the exertion of the
Divine Power and Wisdom, in the Creation of the universe, than any
number of planets occupied by creatures having no such lot, no such law,
no such capacities, and no such responsibilities. However imperfectly
the moral law be obeyed; however ill the greater part of mankind may
respond to the appointment which places them here in a state of moral
probation; however few those may be who use the capacities and means of
their moral purification and elevation;--still, that there is such a
plan in the creation, and that any respond to its appointments,--is
really a view of the Universe which we can conceive to be suitable to
the nature of God, because we can approve of it, in virtue of the moral
nature which He has given us. One school of moral discipline, one
theatre of moral action, one arena of moral contests for the highest
prizes, is a sufficient centre for innumerable hosts of stars and
planets, globes of fire and earth, water and air, whether or not
tenanted by corals and madrepores, fishes and creeping things. So great
and majestic are those names of _Right_ and _Good_, _Duty_ and _Virtue_,
that all mere material or animal existence is worthless in the
comparison.
12. But further: let us consider what is this moral progress of which we
have spoken;--this purification and elevation of man's inner being.
Man's intellectual progress, his advance in the knowledge of the general
laws of the Universe, we found reason to believe that we were not
describing unfitly, when we spoke of it as bringing us nearer to
God;--as making our thoughts, in some degree, resemble His thoughts;--as
enabling us to see things as He sees them. And on that account, we held
that the placing man, with his intellectual powers, in a condition in
which he was impelled, and enabled, to seek such knowledge, was of
itself a great thing, and tended much to give to the Creation a worthy
end. Now the moral elevation of man's being is the elevation of his
sentiments and affections towards a standard or idea, which God, by his
Law, has indicated as that point towards which man ought to tend. We do
not ascribe _Virtue_ to God, adapting to Him our notions taken from
man's attributes, as we do when we ascribe Knowledge to God: for Virtue
implies the control and direction of human springs of action;--implies
human efforts and human habits. But we ascribe to God infinite Goodness,
Justice, and Truth, as well as infinite Wisdom and Power; and Goodness,
Justice, Truth, form elements of the character at which man also is, by
the Moral Law, directed to aim. So far, therefore, man's moral progress
is a progress towards a likeness with God; and such a progress, even
more than a progress towards an intellectual likeness with God, may be
conceived as making the soul of man fit to endure forever with God; and
therefore, as making this earth a prefatory stage of human souls, to fit
them for eternity;--a nursery of plants which are to be fully unfolded
in a celestial garden.
13. And to this, we must add that, on other accounts also, as well as on
account of the capacity of the human soul for moral and intellectual
progress, thoughtful men have always been disposed, on grounds supplied
by the light of nature, to believe in the existence of human souls after
this present earthly life is past. Such a belief has been cherished in
all ages and nations, as the mode in which we naturally conceive that
which is apparently imperfect and deficient in the moral government of
the world, to be completed and perfected. And if this mortal life be
thus really only the commencement of an infinite Divine Plan, beginning
upon earth and destined to endure for endless ages after our earthly
life; we need no array of other worlds in the universe to give
sufficient dignity and majesty to the scheme of the Creation.
14. We may make another remark which may have an important bearing upon
our estimate of the value of the moral scheme of the world which
occupies the earth. If, by any act of the Divine Government, the number
of those men should be much increased, who raise themselves towards the
moral standard which God has appointed, and thus, towards a likeness to
God, and a prospect of a future eternal union with him;--such an act of
Divine Government would do far more towards making the Universe a scene
in which God's goodness and greatness were largely displayed, than could
be done by any amount of peopling of planets with creatures who were
incapable of moral agency; or with creatures whose capacity for the
development of their moral faculties was small, and would continue to be
small till such an act of Divine Government were performed. The
Interposition of God, in the history of man, to remedy man's feebleness
in moral and spiritual tasks, and to enable those who profit by the
Interposition, to ascend towards a union with God, is an event entirely
out of the range of those natural courses of events which belong to our
subject; and to such an Interposition, therefore, we must refer with
great reserve; using great caution that we do not mix up speculations
and conjectures of our own, with what has been revealed to man
concerning such an Interposition. But this, it would seem, we may
say:--that such a Divine Interposition for the moral and spiritual
elevation of the human race, and for the encouragement and aid of those
who seek the purification and elevation of their nature, and an eternal
union with God, is far more suitable to the Idea of a God of Infinite
Goodness, Purity, and Greatness, than any supposed multiplication of a
population, (on our planet or on any other,) not provided with such
means of moral and spiritual progress.
15. And if we were, instead of such a supposition, to imagine to
ourselves, in other regions of the Universe, a moral population purified
and elevated without the aid or need of any such Divine Interposition;
the supposed possibility of such a moral race would make the sin and
misery, which deform and sadden the aspect of our earth, appear more
dark and dismal still. We should therefore, it would seem, find no
theological congruity, and no religious consolation, in the assumption
of a Plurality of Worlds of Moral Beings: while, to place the seats of
such worlds in the Stars and the Planets, would be, as we have already
shown, a step discountenanced by physical reasons; and discountenanced
the more, the more the light of science is thrown upon it.
16. Perhaps it may be said, that all which we have urged to show that
other animals, in comparison with man, are less worthy objects of
creative design, may be used as an argument to prove that other planets
are tenanted by men, or by moral and intellectual creatures like man;
since, if the creation of _one_ world of such creatures exalts so highly
our views of the dignity and importance of the plan of creation, the
belief in _many_ such worlds must elevate still more our sentiments of
admiration and reverence of the greatness and goodness of the Creator;
and must be a belief, on that account, to be accepted and cherished by
pious minds.
17. To this we reply, that we cannot think ourselves authorized to
assert cosmological doctrines, selected arbitrarily by ourselves, on the
ground of their exalting our sentiments of admiration and reverence for
the Deity, _when the weight of all the evidence which we can obtain
respecting the constitution of the universe is against them_. It appears
to us, that to discern one great scheme of moral and religious
government, which is the spiritual centre of the universe, may well
suffice for the religious sentiments of men in the present age; as in
former ages such a view of creation was sufficient to overwhelm men with
feelings of awe, and gratitude, and love; and to make them confess, in
the most emphatic language, that all such feelings were an inadequate
response to the view of the scheme of Providence which was revealed to
them. The thousands of millions of inhabitants of the Earth to whom the
effects of the Divine Plan extend, will not seem, to the greater part of
religious persons, to need the addition of more, to fill our minds with
sufficiently vast and affecting contemplations, so far as we are capable
of pursuing such contemplations. The possible extension of God's
spiritual kingdom upon the earth will probably appear to them a far more
interesting field of devout meditation, than the possible addition to it
of the inhabitants of distant stars, connected in some inscrutable
manner with the Divine Plan.
18. To justify our saying that the weight of the evidence is against
such cosmological doctrines, we must recall to the reader's recollection
the whole course of the argument which we have been pursuing.
It is a possible conjecture, at first, that there may be other Worlds,
having, as this has, their moral and intellectual attributes, and their
relations to the Creator. It is also a possible conjecture, that this
World, having such attributes, and such relations, may, on that account,
be necessarily unique and incapable of repetition, peculiar, and
spiritually central. These two opposite possibilities may be placed, at
first, front to front, as balancing each other. We must then weigh such
evidence and such analogies as we can find on the one side or on the
other. We see much in the intellectual and moral nature of man, and in
his history, to confirm the opinion that the human race is thus unique,
peculiar and central. In the views which Religion presents, we find much
more, tending the same way, and involving the opposite supposition in
great difficulties. We find, in our knowledge of what we ourselves are,
reasons to believe that if there be, in any other planet, intellectual
and moral beings, they must not only be _like_ men, but must _be_ men,
in all the attributes which we can conceive as belonging to such beings.
And yet to suppose other groups of the human species, in other parts of
the universe, must be allowed to be a very bold hypothesis, to be
justified only by some positive evidence in its favor. When from these
views, drawn from the attributes and relations of man, we turn to the
evidence drawn from physical conditions, we find very strong reason to
believe that, so far as the Solar System is concerned, the Earth _is_,
with regard to the conditions of life, in a peculiar and central
position; so that the conditions of any life approaching at all to human
life, exist on the Earth alone. As to other systems which may circle
other suns, the possibility of their being inhabited by men, remains, as
at first, a mere conjecture, without any trace of confirmatory evidence.
It was suggested at first by the supposed analogy of other stars to our
sun; but this analogy has not been verified in any instance; and has
been, we conceive, shown in many cases, to vanish altogether. And that
there may be such a plan of creation,--one in which the moral and
intelligent race of man is the climax and central point to which
innumerable races of mere unintelligent species tend,--we have the most
striking evidence, in the history of our own earth, as disclosed by
geology. We are left, therefore, with nothing to cling to, on one side,
but the bare possibility that some of the stars are the centres of
systems like the Solar System;--an opinion founded upon the single
fact, shown to be highly ambiguous, of those stars being self-luminous;
and to this possibility, we oppose all the considerations, flowing from
moral, historical, and religious views, which represent the human race
as unique and peculiar. The force of these considerations will, of
course, be different in different minds, according to the importance
which each person attaches to such moral, historical, and religious
views; but whatever the weight of them may be deemed, it is to be
recollected that we have on the other side a bare possibility, a mere
conjecture; which, though suggested at first by astronomical
discoveries, all more recent astronomical researches have failed to
confirm in the smallest degree. In this state of our knowledge, and with
such grounds of belief, to dwell upon the Plurality of Worlds of
intellectual and moral creatures, as a highly probable doctrine, must,
we think, be held to be eminently rash and unphilosophical.
19. On such a subject, where the evidences are so imperfect, and our
power of estimating analogies so small, far be it from us to speak
positively and dogmatically. And if any one holds the opinion, on
whatever evidence, that there are other spheres of the Divine Government
than this earth,--other regions in which God has subjects and
servants,--other beings who do his will, and who, it may be, are
connected with the moral and religious interests of man;--we do not
breathe a syllable against such a belief; but, on the contrary, regard
it with a ready and respectful sympathy. It is a belief which finds an
echo in pious and reverent hearts;[3] and it is, of itself, an evidence
of that religious and spiritual character in man, which is one of the
points of our argument. But the discussion of such a belief does not
belong to the present occasion, any further than to observe, that it
would be very rash and unadvised,--a proceeding unwarranted, we think,
by Religion, and certainly at variance with all that Science
teaches,--to place those other, extra-human spheres of Divine
Government, in the Planets and in the Stars. With regard to the planets
and the stars, if we reason at all, we must reason on physical grounds;
we must suppose, as to a great extent we can prove that the laws and
properties of terrestrial matter and motion apply to them also. On such
grounds, it is as improbable that visitants from Jupiter or from Sirius
can come to the Earth, as that men can pass to those stars: as unlikely
that inhabitants of those stars know and take an interest in human
affairs, as that we can learn what they are doing. A belief in the
Divine Government of other races of spiritual creatures besides the
human race, and in Divine Ministrations committed to such beings, cannot
be connected with our physical and astronomical views of the nature of
the stars and the planets, without making a mixture altogether
incongruous and incoherent; a mixture of what is material and what is
spiritual, adverse alike to sound religion and to sound philosophy.
20. Perhaps again, it may be said, that in speaking of the shortness of
the time during which man has occupied the earth, in comparison with the
previous ages of irrational life, and of blank matter, we are taking man
at his present period of existence on the earth:--that we do not know
that the race may not be destined to continue upon the earth for as many
ages as preceded the creation of man. And to this we reply, that in
reasoning, as we must do, at the present period, we can only proceed
upon that which has happened up to the present period. If we do not
know how long man will continue to inhabit the earth, we cannot reason
as if we did know that he will inhabit it longer than any other species
has done. We may not dwell upon a mere possibility, which, it is
assumed, may at some indefinitely future period, alter the aspect of the
facts now before us. For it would be as easy to assume possibilities
which may come hereafter to alter the aspect of the facts, in favor of
the one side, as of the other.[4] What the future destinies of our race,
and of the earth, may be, is a subject which is, for us, shrouded in
deep darkness. It would be very rash to assume that they will be such as
to alter the impression derived from what we now know, and to alter it
in a certain preconceived manner. But yet it is natural to form
conjectures on this subject; and perhaps we may be allowed to consider
for a moment what kind of conjectures the existing stage of our
knowledge suggests, when we allow ourselves the license of conjecturing.
The next Chapter contains some remarks bearing upon such conjectures.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Among the most recent expositors of this doctrine we may place M.
Henri Martin, whose _Philosophie Spiritualiste de la Nature_ is full of
striking views of the universe in its relation to God. (Paris. 1849.)
[2] Most readers who have given any attention to speculations of this
kind, will recollect Newton's remarkable expressions concerning the
Deity: "AEternus est et infinitus, omnipotens et omnisciens; id est,
durat ab aeterno in aeternum, et adest ab infinito in infinitum.... Non
est aeternitas et infinitas, sed aeternus et infinitus; non est duratio et
spatium, sed durat et adest. Durat semper et adest ubique, et existendo
semper et ubique durationem et spatium constituit."
To say that God by existing always and everywhere _constitutes duration
and space_, appears to be a form of expression better avoided. Besides
that it approaches too near to the opinion, which the writer rejects,
that He _is_ duration and space, it assumes a knowledge of the nature of
the Divine existence, beyond our means of knowing, and therefore rashly.
It appears to be safer, and more in conformity with what we really know,
to say, not that the existence of God constitutes time and space; but
that God has constituted _man_, so that _he_ can apprehend the works of
creation, only as existing in time and space. That God has constituted
time and space as conditions of man's knowledge of the creation, is
certain: that God has constituted time and space as results of his own
existence in any other way, _we_ cannot know.
[3]
"For doubt not that in other worlds above
There must be other offices of love,
That other tasks and ministries there are,
Since it is promised that His servants, there,
Shall serve Him still."--TRENCH.
[4] For instance, we may assume that in two or three hundred years, by
the improvement of telescopes, or by other means, it may be ascertained
that the other planets of the Solar System are not inhabited, and that
the other Stars are not the centres of regular systems.