COST OF LIFE. 



205 



The same set of conditions, in exaggerated degree, exist in the 

 minor superior planets, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, etc., while the asteroids 

 are as much out of the question as the comets and meteors. In regard 

 to the Jovian and Saturnian satellites, only probable conjecture can be 

 indulged. AVe do not know with sufficient accuracy the degree of 

 heat and light received from their primaries, to judge of those condi- 

 tions, but all the obstacles flowing out of deficient gravitation predi- 

 cated of Mars exist in equal degree in these satellites, the largest of 

 which is inferior to Mars in dimensions. 



In regard to our own moon much more definite information is ac- 

 cessible, though little need be said of its present life-conditions. Its 

 bi-monthly axial revolution, its long, more than torrid day and ant- 

 arctic night render it unnecessary to consider the question. But the 

 mass of this satellite being about a third less than even that of Mars, 

 interposes, and has ever interposed, the same everlasting mechanical 

 obstacles to life there as in Mars. Atmosphere the moon may once 

 have possessed, but it must always have been insufficient for life, in- 

 sufficient to secure the stability of water, which, even if it continued 

 in a liquid condition, would be swept so light was it in vast tides 

 over the highest mountains. For the rest, if there be a man in the 

 moon, it is interesting to know that he weighs less than two pounds, 

 and can jump a mile, more or less. 



Mercury, with a temperature of boiling water in the frigid zones 

 and red-hot iron at the equator, may be a good place for a Calvinist 

 to send his wicked neighbor, in imagination, but it can not be placed 

 among the list of inhabited worlds. At last, then, out of all the vast, 

 the countless myriads of circling orbs that do homage to our sun, 

 only two remain to be considered the Earth and Venus. 



Venus, although too near the sun to render it likely that her trop- 

 ical regions are habitable by man, is, so far as can be judged from her 

 general physical condition, by no means destitute of life. If there be 

 truth in the nebular hypothesis, Venus is younger than the Earth, and 

 is therefore perhaps not evolutionized as to the highest forms. As to 

 this, speculation would be little better than conjecture. Enough, that 

 of Venus it can not be said, as of the other planets, with a certitude 

 derived from the exact sciences, that there is no life in her. 



The insignificant little globe called the Earth furnishes the only 

 assurance of the higher forms of life, and, with the one exception of a 

 globe even less than ours, of life in any stage of evolution. The Earth 

 is not the millionth part of the known matter of our system, and, com- 

 pared with the space occupied by that system, is far more insignificant 

 than the smallest fleck of foam in the ocean. This tiny island in space 

 does indeed teem with life ; but, if this life were distributed equally 

 through the space given to its production, thousands of miles would 

 intervene between every individual form. 



So much for the space and energy expended in the evolution of 



