THE OKIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES. 109 



analogous. We have to suppose, that every one of these 

 numberless globes is either a theatre of organic being, or in 

 the way of becoming so. This is a conclusion which every 

 addition to our knowledge makes only the more irresistible. 

 Is it conceivable, as a fitting mode of exercise for creative 

 intelligence, that it should be constantly paying a special 

 attention to the creation of species, as they may be required in 

 each situation throughout those worlds, at particular times ? 

 Is such an idea accordant with our general conception of the 

 dignity, not to speak of the power, of the Great Author 1 Yet 

 such is the notion which we must form, if we adhere to the 

 doctrine of special exercise. Let us see, on the other hand, 

 how the doctrine of a creation in the manner of law agrees 

 with this expanded view of the organic world. 



Unprepared as most men may be for such an announcement, 

 there can be no doubt that we are able, in this limited sphere, 

 to form some satisfactory conclusions as to the plants and 

 animals of those other spheres which move at such immense 

 distances from us. Suppose that the first persons of an early 

 nation who made a ship and ventured to sea in it, observed, as 

 they sailed along, a set of objects which they had never before 

 seen namely, a fleet of other ships would they not have been 

 justified in supposing that those ships were occupied, like their 

 own, by human beings, possessing hands to row and steer, eyes 

 to watch the signs of the weather, intelligence to guide them 

 from one place to another in short, beings in all respects like 

 themselves, or only showing such differences as they knew to 

 be producible by difference of climate and habits of life ? 

 Precisely in this manner we can speculate on the inhabitants 

 of remote spheres. We see that matter has originally been 

 diffused in one mass, of which the spheres are portions. Con- 

 sequently, inorganic matter must be presumed to be every- 

 where the same, although possibly with differences in the 

 proportions of ingredients in different globes, and also some 

 difference of conditions. Out of a certain number of the 

 elements of inorganic matter are composed organic bodies, 

 both vegetable and animal : such must be the rule in Jupiter 

 and in Sirius, as it is here. We, therefore, are all but certain 

 that herbaceous and ligneous fibre, that flesh and blood, are 

 the constituents of the organic beings of all those spheres 

 which are as yet seats of life. Gravitation we see to be an all- 

 pervading principle : therefore there must be a relation between 

 the spheres and their respective organic occupants, by virtue 



