OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 293, 21 September 1880, Page 2

OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS.

[From “ Town and Country,” AuM Mr Proctor delivered his lecture M Worlds than Ours” to a crowded! Wednesday night at the School ol|j| subject of the lecture was and it was ably discussed by thedegy many of the facts bearing ‘UV'fJiei could be crowded into a discon brought into review, and the infereni they warrant were pointed out. Thi stated that ever since the time of B

the subject on which he was about tcH them had been regarded as one oil interest. It was not, however, subject, for science treated onlyjof! known, and it is impossible for us to part of life may exist on bodies are the planets of our system. Aided! most powerful telescope, man W 0 1! unable to see any works analagous l own, such as the great pyramid of I on the moon, which is the nearest pll our earth. Speculation respecting ! hability of the planets w.s netwj associated with astronomical researcM tended to invest them with absorbing M We ought not to suppose that bee*! earth is inhabited that all plapetaryj are inhabited also, for we M that the moon, our nearest planetary, hour, is a dead world, and is not disti-| by the presence of those conditions odr life depends. The sun is\fsr too hoi the abode of living creatures anslag those which exist on earth, so that bo largest orb and also the smallest one system are devoid of life* abounds everywhere on our glohj! tropics, the Arctic regions, the dspufl

s©'.i, the utmost bounds of tli~ air, all swarm ■with living things. Geology and its cognate scienc. 8 show tiiat at every stage in the pa. t history of the earth life abounded on it. He quoted a passage from Tennyson showing that Natui e, which has taken so much care to preserve species and races, is careless with respect to the fate of individuals. When he began to study the question before him he felt strongly inclined to -dopt the views of Dick, Chalmers, and Brewster, but deeper research had led him to greatly modify the opinion he then held. Whe well had, as they well knew, argued in bis Bridgewater treatise for the inhabitability of the planets, but in his more recent work on the plurality of worlds he had changed his views, and con. tended that there was no proof whatever that any other world than our own globe was the abode of life. The lecturer could not adopt tl at view, for he thought it possible as well as probable that life existed on some Oilier worlds than our own, and the facts on which hj founded that view he would proceed to submit to their consideration. The solar system consisted of several distinct familiej or groups of worlds. The nearest group to the sun comprised Mercury, "Venus, the Earth, and Mars. Outside of these revolved a multitude of minor planets, about 250 of which had been discovered, and then came the family of the giant p'anets, Jupiter and Saturn, whilst outside of these revolved in huge orbits Tirana and Neptune. Mr Proctor proceeded to show that Jupiter was not fit to support life, owing to its beared state, and the terrific action of winds and storms on its surface. It had been contended that the four moons of Jupiter, would compensate for this planet’s distance from the Sun, the said dis* tance being five times that of the earth, but he (the lecturer) had calculated that the amount of light which these four moons would thr *w upon Jupiter would not exceed one sixteenth part of our full moon’s light. The moons of Jupiter, however, might be inhabited worlds, and|Jupiter would give them a very large amount of light, ard perhaps also inherent heat One of these moons com rised an area of 12,000,000, of square miles, and another 20,000,000 of spuare miles Saturn for the same, along with other reasons, was uninhabitable The nature of Saturn’s ring of meteoric bodies, the mode in which the ring eclipse certain portions ef the planet, and other allied facts, were adduced as proofs that life as we know it could not exist on the body of the planet Life might, as in the case of Jupiter, exist on some of Saturn’s moons Venus had an atmosphere, and there was al o clear proof that water existed on that planet If Venus was inhabited, the sun would appear to her people twice as large as it does to us, and the planet would receive a much greater amount of light and heat from the sun than we do on this glole If life exists there, it may be that the conditions of life are not only endurable by, but are required for the comfort of, the venusian people With respect to Mars all the primary conditions of life existed on its surface It had an atmosphere, (oceans, seas, rivers, winds, and meteorological phenomena analagous to our earth. Most probably life existed on that planet. But although life ~might_not exist on some of tlio yet there were others on wtuen i\~ when we lake into consideration the star depths of space, in which millions of suns and systems revolve, each sun vith his family of planets travelling round him, we must conclude that life abounds throughout al! space, as it has abounded on the earth in past time. We merely give a very brief and imperfect abstract of the leading ideas which the lecturer expressed in clear and appropriate language. His discourse was much applauded* and also was copiously illustrated by diagrams and pictures of the various bodies of the solar system.