284 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



fidently by some who formerly advocated the 

 theory that lunar vegetation causes the darken- 

 in"' of the floor ; but there can be no doubt of its 

 justice, for no one (not prejudiced in favor of a 

 theory) who has tested the matter experimental- 

 ly, eliminating the effects of contrast, has failed 

 to find that there is no real darkening of the floor 

 of Plato. 



It seems as certain as any matter not admit- 

 ting of actual demonstration can be that the 

 moon is, to all intents and purposes, dead. Her 

 frame is, indeed, still undergoing processes of 

 material change, but these afford no more evi- 

 dence of real planetary life than the changes af- 

 fecting a dead body are signs of still lingering 

 vitality. Again, it seems certain that the pro- 

 cesses through which the moon has passed in her 

 progress toward planetary death must be passed 

 through in turn by all the members of the solar 

 system, and finally by the sun himself. Every 

 one of these orbs is constantly radiating its heat 

 into space, not indeed to be actually lost, but still 

 in such sort as to reduce all to the same dead level 

 of temperature, whereas vitality depends on dif- 

 ferences of temperature. Every orb in space, 

 then, is tending steadily onward toward cosmical 

 death. And, so far as our power of understand- 

 ing or' even of conceiving the universe is con- 

 cerned, it seems as though this tendency of every 

 individual body in the universe toward death in- 

 volved the tendency toward death of the universe 

 itself. It may indeed be said that since the uni- 

 verse is of necessity infinite, whereas we are 

 finite, we cannot reason in this way from what 

 we can understand, or conceive, to conclusions 

 respecting the universe, which we cannot even 

 conceive, far less understand. Still it must be 

 admitted that, so far as our reasoning powers can 

 be relied upon at all, the inference, from what we 

 know, appears a just one, that the life of the uni- 

 verse will have practically departed when the 

 largest and therefore longest-lived of all the orbs 

 peopling space has passed on to the stage of cos- 

 mical death. So far as we know, there is but 

 one way of escape from this seemingly demon- 

 strated, but in reality incredible, conclusion. 

 Hay it not be that as men have erred in former 

 times in regarding the earth as the centre of the 

 universe, as they have erred in regarding this 

 period of time through which the earth is now 

 passing as though it were central in all time, so 

 possibly they may have erred in regarding the 

 universe we live in, and can alone comprehend, 

 as though it were the only universe. May there 

 not be a higher order of universe than ours, to 



which ours bears some such relation as the ether 

 of space bears to the matter of our universe? 

 and may there not, above that high order, be 

 higher and higher orders of universe, absolutely 

 without limit ? And, in like manner, may not 

 the ether of space, of which we know only indi- 

 rectly though very certainly, be the material sub- 

 stance of a universe next below ours, 1 while be 

 low that are lower and lower orders of universe 

 absolutely without limit ? And, as the seemingly 

 wasted energies of our universe are poured into 

 the universe next below ours, may it not well be 

 that our universe receives the supplies of energy 

 wasted (in seeming) from the universe next in or 

 der above it ? So that, instead of the absolute 

 beginning and the absolute end which we had 

 seemed to recognize, there may be in reality but 

 a continual interchange between the various or- 

 ders of universe constituting the true universe, 

 these orders being infinite in number even as each 

 one of them is infinite in extent. We find our- 

 selves lost, no doubt, in the contemplation of 

 these multiplied infinities ; but we are equally 

 lost in the contemplation of the unquestioned in- 

 finities of space and time amid which our little 

 lives are cast, while the mystery of infinite waste, 

 which seems so inscrutable when we consider the 

 universe as we know it, finds a possible interpre- 

 tation when we admit the existence of other or- 

 ders of universe than the order to which our lives 

 belong. Thus should we find a new argument 

 for the teaching of the poet who has said : 

 "Let knowledge grow from more to more, 

 But more of reverence in us dwell, 

 That, mind and soul according well, 



May make our music as before, 



But vaster ; " 



a new significance in the vision of him who said : 

 " See all things with each other blending, 

 Each to all its being lending, 

 All on each in turn depending; 

 Heavenly ministers descending, 

 And again to heaven uptending. 

 Floating, mingling, interweaving, 

 Rising, sinking, and receiving — 

 Each from each, while each is giving 

 On to each, and each relieving 

 Each— the pails of gold ; the living 

 Current through the air is heaving: 

 Breathing blessings see them bending, 

 Balanced worlds from change defending, 

 "While everywhere diffused is harmony unending.'' 



— Cornlull Magazine. 



1 The work called " The Unseen Universe" presents a 

 portion of the evidence to this effect, but unfortunately the 

 style of that, woik is not sufficiently lucid to bring its 

 reasoning vithin the range of the general non-scientific 

 reader. 



