LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS. 31 



fact the chemistry of the sun is of so different an order from any that 

 we have experience of, that we can not reconcile it with any of our 

 notions of life. But if such a vast fund of energy can run to waste 

 without producing life except in distant planets, there must be in 

 nature an extravagance such as almost to justify those persons who 

 imagine our own world to be the only one bearing life, and the whole 

 universe to be made for man. 



These few particulars, which we have learned concerning the physical 

 conditions prevailing in other worlds of our solar system, are distinctly 

 against the probability of their possessing life similar to that existing 

 in this world. If they contain life, even life depending on the same 

 principles, it must be quite different in its manifestations, and not 

 easily recognizable with the telescope. If any germ of life should 

 escape from this world and land upon another member of the solar 

 system, it must pretty certainly perish for want of the necessary con- 

 ditions. The same might be said of a germ from another world landing 

 on our earth — if indeed we have any right to speak of a 'germ' from 

 another world, since the word is geomorphic, and actually assumes 

 that similarity which we hold to be improbable in life under different 

 conditions. 



Whether any members of other solar systems resemble our own in 

 physical conditions is naturally a matter of pure speculation; but 

 there is no a priori impossibility, since the spectroscope shows that 

 many of the fixed stars contain the same elements as our sun, and 

 have about the same temperature. 



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We are considering only such life as depends on the same principles 

 as earthly life. We may admit the possibility of other kinds of life, 

 having nothing in common with such life as we know, but at present 

 we have no grounds for speculation concerning them. Keeping within 

 the bounds of legitimate induction, we are led to the following con- 

 clusions : 



1. If life is essentially a function of the elements nitrogen, oxygen, 

 carbon and hydrogen, acting together, then it can probably occur only 

 on exceptional worlds, with conditions closely resembling those of our 

 own earth. Such conditions are not present in any other world in our 

 solar system, nor can they be expected to occur frequently in members 

 of other systems. 



2. On the other hand, if different conditions can awaken a capacity 

 for exalted energy traflSc among other elements than those just named, 

 then the universe seems to provide immense possibilities of life, whose 

 variety and magnificence may far exceed an5d;hing that we can imagine. 



