TIME, SPACE, AND INVISIBLE WORLDS. 247 



that out of the 48,000 planets controlled by Suns visible to the 

 naked eye, only three thousand can reasonably be regarded as 

 inhabited at the present time by vegetable and animal life, short 

 of man ; and that only the very small average fraction of i'525 

 (that is, less than two) can fairly be looked upon as the present 

 abode of moral and responsible creatures like Man. These figures, 

 it will be noted, do not touch our conclusion that the 48,000 plan- 

 ets referred to, pass, with probable exceptions, arising from various 

 causes as already named, through the life-bearing stage at one 

 portion or another of their histories. 



Instead of limiting the enquiry to the six thousand Suns, which 

 our unassisted vision can distinguish on a clear night, let us extend 

 it to that vast multitude of Stars which lie within the reach of our 

 largest telescopes and most sensitive photographic plates. Estima- 

 ting these at the modest number of twenty millions, we obtain, by 

 the same process of calculation, a residual of ten million worlds 

 inhabited by inferior animal life, and 5,083 inhabited by moral 

 and intelligent life, similar to our own. 



• The argument for worlds of life in outer space is well summed 

 up in that epitomised history of Creation, which fitly stands at the 

 head of the noblest revelation given to man. In its veiled sen- 

 tences, the student will find, in simple and majestic language, not 

 only the beginning of all Earthly things, but in stately order, and 

 in measured pace, the unfolding of the Divine plan, and finally, 

 the secret told, the why and wherefore of it all — the evolution of 

 man. As in matter, we read the spiritual made manifest, so in 

 man we read matter made spiritual. In the light of this ancient 

 story, the immediate end, the object of the invisible worlds in 

 space, whatever be their ultimate destiny, stand revealed. Like 

 our Earth, they are the homes in which are born — the nurseries in 

 which are taught — the schools in which are trained, often "through 

 much tribulation " — the children of God. 



