ARE THE STARS PEOPLED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1540, 23 April 1887, Page 4

ARE THE STARS PEOPLED

Professor Prootor says : — " It ia almost Impossible to *ay under what conditions life is potsible or impossible- Men of loience have lately been taught this m a very striking manner ; for, judging by what they know of the state of things at the bottom of the deep Bea, they concluded that there could be no living or eat ares there. They reasoned that the pressure exerted by the water would orueh the life out of any kcown creatures, which was unquestionably true. A piece of the hardest and densest wood Bunk to those depths h/s the water literally forced into its very substance, and the tremendous mail cf the crocodile, or the thick - skin of the .rhinoceros, would be nnable to resist a tithe of the enormous pressure exerted by the water at the bottom of the deep soao. Yet it is known that qreaturca'not only exist down there, but that, notwithstanding the great darkness that must prevail there, these creatures are provided with tho means of eeeiug; So unlike they are to all other oreaf urep, Ijowcyer, that they ate unable to live out ~ "of their native depths, and when dragged up by the dredgers, they are burst asuider and are kiiled long before reach m? the snrfoce. This should teach us that although it may be proved that m some inaccessible world, like Venus, or any of her fellow planet", tho conditions which prevail are not such as would be oonvenient to terreatial cresturcß, or are even, such as do creatures known to us coaloV endure pven for a few minutss, \>£e may ' neverth 19? exist. It is indeed tole/ably certain t bat if there be living creatures m Venue (« for my part I little doubt), and. if among these orea tares there be any which poises* reasoning powers such as ours (which is nut «-, certain), it must appear to each reasoning beings m Venus at least as difficult to understand how oar earth can be inhabited as we find It to conceive what nature of creatures. they may be which exist m Venus,"