THE FINITE UNIVERSE 



But this reference should not be taken to imply that Professor 

 Newcomb stands for the especial conclusions here developed. 

 Some of the same material has been employed, too, by Dr. 

 Alfred Russel Wallace in a curious article on " Man's Place in 

 the Universe," which appeared as these pages were being put in 

 type. It should not be needful to suggest that the peculiar views 

 of Dr. Wallace are not shared by the present writer. The deep 

 study of spiritualism and its kindred which has occupied the 

 later portions of the distinguished naturalist's life find a not 

 unnatural culmination in the discovery that our tiny globe is 

 the centre of the stellar system, and that the object of creation 

 is the development, on this earth, of man's immortal soul. It 

 did not require the subtlety of a theologian to point out that 

 even supposing, what is in no wise probable, that the earth is 

 now the centre of the stellar system, it appears to be drifting 

 away from that centre at the rate of a million miles a day. It 

 was not, then, at the centre yesterday, nor will it be to-morrow. 

 The idea is simply absurd. Equally so seems the suggestion 

 that life on this earth, and "man's immortal soul," have any 

 special significance for the universe at large. Even supposing 

 the other planets of our solar system now uninhabited, they 

 probably have been or will be some day. Moreover, the evi- 

 dence of the spectroscope seems fairly conclusive that the ma- 

 terial of the universe is the same, and this material seems dom- 

 inated by the same forces and the same laws. If, therefore, 

 the stellar universe consists of several hundred or several thou- 

 sand million suns, it is possible there are millions of other 

 planets upon which life exists. It is conceivable, even, that 

 hundreds of thousands are undergoing an evolution identical 

 with that of our earth, both in character and time; in a word, 

 that in far-away places other worlds like ours are just emerging 

 from an animal existence, from infantile superstitions, and 

 vulgar aims, and beginning the study of natural phenomena. 

 r as we can see, life is simply a stage of planetary evolu- 

 tion. Planets, suns, and systems come and go, wax and wane, 



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