266 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



respecting their physical habitudes ; and whereas our 

 knowledge of our own earth is limited by certain 

 barriers as yet unpassed, and probably impassable, 

 there is no part of the surface of either of the giant 

 planets which lias not come under the astronomer's 

 scrutiny. 



These considerations suggest in turn the strange 

 thought that possibly the unattained places of our 

 earth have been viewed by beings which are not of this 

 world. I say possibly, but I might almost say 

 probably. It seems in no degree unreasonable to 

 suppose not merely that the earth's sister-planet Venus 

 is inhabited, but that some creatures on Venus possess 

 the reasoning powers and the insight into the secrets 

 of Nature which have enabled the inhabitants of Earth 

 to study the orbs which circle like herself around the 

 sun. If this be the case if there are telescopists in 

 Venus as skilful as those inhabiting our earth they 

 are able to answer questions which hitherto have baffled 

 our geographers. They may not, indeed, have the 

 means of ascertaining details respecting the structure 

 of our continents and oceans. They cannot know, 

 for instance, whether the region to which Livingstone 

 has penetrated is, as he supposes, the head of the 

 river we terrestrials call the Nile, or, as others 

 suppose, is in reality the head of the Congo. For 

 certainly no telescopic powers possessed by our astro- 

 nomers could give us information on such points, if 

 our position were interchanged with that of the in- 

 habitants of Venus. But astronomers in Venus can, 



