planets, as if to bind races of material beings to their surfaces, and provide for the erection of habitations and other conveniences of life. It is very remarkable, however, that those planets whose bulks are such as to indicate an insupportable attractive force, are not only less dense than our globe, but they have the most rapid daily revolution; as if, by diminished density, and a strong centrifugal force combined, to reduce the attractive force, and render locomotion possible upon their surfaces.

(d.) The magnitudes of the planets are such as to afford ample scope for the abodes of myriads of inhabitants. It is estimated that the solar bodies, exclusive of the comets, contain an area of 78,000,000,000 of square miles, or 397 times the surface of our globe. According to the population of England, this vast area would afford a residence to 21,875,000,000,000 of inhabitants; or 27,000 times the population of our globe.

(e.) The planets have a diurnal revolution around their axes, thus affording the agreeable vicissitudes of day and night. Not only are they opake bodies like our globe, receiving their light and heat from the sun, but they also revolve so as to distribute the light and shade alternately over each hemisphere. There, too, the_glorious sun arises, to enlighten, warm, and cheer; and there "the sun-strown firmament" of the more distant heavens is rendered visible by the no less important blessing of a periodic night.

(f) All the planets have an annual revolution round the sun; which, in connection with the inclination of their axes to their respective orbits, necessarily results in the production of seasons.

(g) The planets, in all probability, are enveloped in atmospheres. That this is the case with many of them is certain; and the fact that a fixed star, or any other orb, is not rendered dim or distorted when it approaches their margin, is no evidence that the planets have no atmosphere. This appendage to the planets is known to vary in density; and in those cases where it is not de

planets. Substance? Forms? Gravitation ? Magnitude? Days and nights? Seasons? Atmospheres? Moons? Mountains? &c.

tected by its intercepting or refracting the light, it may be of a nature too clear and rare to produce such phe

nomena.

(h.) The principal primary planets are provided with moons or satellites, to afford them light in the absence of the sun. It is not improbable that both Mars and Venus have each, at least, one moon. The earth has one; and as the distances of the planets are increased, the number of moons seems to increase. The discovery of six around Uranus, and only one around Neptune, is no evidence that others do not exist which have not yet been discovered.

(i.) The surfaces of all the planets, primaries as well as secondaries, seem to be variegated with hill and dale, mountain and plain. These are the spots revealed by the telescope.

(j) Every part of the globe we inhabit is destined to the support of animal life. It would, therefore, be contrary to the analogy of nature, as displayed to us, to suppose that the other planets are empty and barren wastes, utterly devoid of animated being. And if animals of any kind exist there, why not intelligent beings?

338. If other worlds are not the abodes of intellectual life, for what were they created? What influence do they exert upon our globe, especially those most remote? There are doubtless myriads of worlds beyond our system that will never even be seen by mortal eye, and that have no perceptible connection with our globe. If, then, they are barren and uninhabited islands in the great ocean of imensity, we repeat, for what were they created? The inquiry presses itself upon the mind with irresistible. force, Why should this one small world be inhabited, and all the rest unoccupied? For what purpose were all these splendid and magnificent worlds fitted up, if not to be inhabited? Why these days and years-this light and shade these atmospheres, and seasons, and satellites, and hill and dale?

838. What difficulty on the supposition that the planets are not inhabited?

339. To suppose all these worlds to be fitted up upon one general plan, provided with similar conveniences as abodes for intellectual beings, and yet only one of them to be inhabited, is like supposing a rich capitalist would build some thirty fine dwellings, all after one model, though of different materials, sizes, and colors, and provide in all for light, warmth, air, &c.; and yet, having placed the family of a son in one of them, allow the remaining twenty-nine to remain unoccupied forever! And as God is wiser than man, in the same proportion does it appear absurd, that of the twenty-six planetary temples now known to exist, only one has ever been occupied; while the remainder are mere specimens of Divine architecture, wheeling through the solitudes of immensity! The legitimate and almost inevitable conclusion, therefore, is, that our globe is only one of the many worlds which God has created to be inhabited, and which are now the abodes of his intelligent offspring. It seems irrational to suppose that we of earth are the only intelligent subjects of the "Great King," whose dominions border upon infinity. It is much more in keeping with sound reason, and with all the analogies of our globe, to suppose that

"Each revolving sphere, a seeming point,

Which through night's curtain sparkles on the eye,
Sustains, like this our earth, its busy millions."

340. The fact that we neither see, nor hear, nor hear from the inhabitants of other worlds, is no evidence that such inhabitants do not exist. It would have been premature in Columbus had he concluded, when he saw land in the distance, that it was uninhabited, simply because he could not hear the shout of its savages, or see them gathered in groups upon the beach. So in regard to the distant planets. Our circumstances forbid our knowing positively that they are inhabited; so that the absence of that knowledge is no argument against the inhabitedness of other worlds.

339. What illustration? Conclusion? Poetry?

340. What said of the objection that we neither see, hear, nor hear from the inhabitants of the other worlds?

341. It may be thought that the extremes of heat and cold on some of the planets must be fatal to the idea of animal life, at least. But even this does not follow. Upon our globe, some animals live and flourish where others would soon die from heat or cold. And some animals, having cold blood, may be frozen, and yet live. So in other worlds. He who made the three Hebrews to live in the fiery furnace, can easily adapt the inhabitants of Mercury to their warm abode. And of the exterior planets we have only to say:

"Who there inhabit must have other powers,

Juices, and veins, and sense, and life, than ours;

One moment's cold, like theirs, would pierce the bone,
Freeze the heart's blood, and turn us all to stone !"

Adaptation is a law of the universe; and this at once obviates every difficulty in regard to the temperature of the planets, which might otherwise be urged as a reason why they were not inhabited.

341. Objection drawn from extremes of temperature? Poetry? What great law answers every such objection?

PART II.

THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIXED STARS-CLASSIFICATION, NUMBER, DISTANCE, ETC.

342. THE sidereal heavens embrace all those celestial bodies that lie around and beyond the solar system, in the region of the fixed stars.

The fixed stars are distinguished from the planetary bodies by the following characteristics:

(a.) They shine by their own light, like the sun, and not by reflection.

(b.) To the naked eye, they seem to twinkle or scintil late; while the planets appear tranquil and serene.

(c.) They maintain the same general positions, with respect to each other, from age to age. On this account, they are called fixed stars.

(d.) They are inconceivably distant; so that, wher viewed through a telescope, they present no sensible disk, but appear only as shining points on the dark concave of the sky. To these might be added several other peculiarities, which will be noticed hereafter.

343. For purposes of convenience, in finding or referring to particular stars, recourse is had to a variety of artificial methods of classification.

342. What parts of the book have we now gone over? Upon what do we now enter? What is meant by the sidereal heavens? How are the fixed stars distinguished from planetary bodies?

343. What are constellations? Their origin?