28 PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 



profusely, culminating through a long series of grada- 

 tions in the supremacy of man ? 



The diversity in the physical conditions of the 

 several planets, great though it be, does not seriously 

 affect our conclusion. Many of these differences are 

 of degree only ; and even as regards the material com- 

 position of these great globes, recent discussions have 

 shown us that the same elementary matters exist 

 throughout, however various the manner of their con- 

 solidation or their proportion in each planet. But 

 whatever the physical diversities in parts of the system, 

 it is still a system, and brought into being by that 

 Power which, in endowing the earth with such various 

 faculties and forms of life, has almost attested to us 

 the same will and power directed to other worlds than 

 our own. The vast distance between Mercury and 

 Neptune is bridged over by intervening planets and 

 their satellite moons 'the latter themselves a volume 

 of argument in the question. Is it likely that the 

 earth, intermediate in the series, and marked by no 

 obvious specialty of position or physical characters, 

 should alone have the prerogative of life upon it ? 



The objection that to people the other planets with 

 living beings we must suppose very different endow- 

 ments from those which belong to life on the earth, 

 is one that goes far to answer itself. The full admis- 

 sion of this fact need in no way impair our belief. 

 We have but to look at the endless and wonderful 

 diversities of life which surround us here, and to the 

 changes from physical causes of which they are seve- 

 rally susceptible, to see that no limit can be set to 



