448 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Nov. 28, 1884. 



of the earth] There are as many kinds of invisible as 

 visible creatures. We see from the elephant to the very 

 ant, beyond which our sight fails us ; and yet, counting 

 from that minute creature, there are an infinity of lesser 

 animals, which would be imperceptible without the aid of 

 glasses. But our magnifying glasses show us, that in the 

 least drop of rain-water, vinegar, or any other liquid, there 

 are great numbers of little fishes or ser[jents, [!] which 

 we could never have suspected there ; and philosophers 

 believe that the acid taste of these liquids proceeds from a 

 sharpness issued through the forked stings of these 

 animals, lodged under their tongues ; and further, 

 that by mixing certain things with any one of 

 these liquors, and letting them stand and corrupt, 

 will produce a new species of little animals. Several, 

 even of the most solid bodies, are nothing but an im- 

 men.se swarm of imperceptible insects. I)o but consider 

 this mulberry leaf : it ia a great world inhabited by multi- 

 tudes of these invisible worlds. It is to them a country 

 of a vast extent : what mountains, what abysses are there 

 in it ! The insects of one side know no more of their 

 fellow creatures on t'other than you and I can tell what 

 they are now doing at the Antipodes. Is it not reason- 

 able, then, to imagine that a great planet should be 

 inhabited t In the hardest stones, for example, in marble 

 there are an infinity of worms which fill up the vacuums, 

 and feed upon the substance of the stone. Fancy, then, 

 millions of living creatures to subsist many years on a 

 grain of sand ; so that were the moon but one continued 

 rock, I would rather she should be gnaw'd by these invisible 

 mites than not be inhabited. 



" In short, everything is animated. Imagine, then, those 

 animals which are yet undiscovered, and add them and 

 those which are but lately discovered to those we have 

 always seen, you will find the earth swarms with inhabi- 

 tants, and that Nature has so liberally furnished it with 

 animals, that she is not in the least concerned for our not 

 seeing above one half of them. Why, then, should Nature, 

 which is fruitful to an excess here, be so very barren as 

 to jjroduce no living things in the rest of the planets 1" 



" I must own," said the Marchioness, " you have con- 

 vince'd my reason ; but you have confounded my fancy 

 with such variety that I caunot imagine how Nature, 

 which hates repetitions, should produce so many different 

 kinds." 



" There is no need of fancy," replied I. " Do but trust 

 your eyes, and you will easily perceive how Nature diversi- 

 fies in these several worlds. All human faces in general 

 are of the same model, and yet the Europeans and the 

 Africans have two particular molds : nay, commonly 

 every family has a different aspect. What secret, then, has 

 Nature to show so much variety in a single face. Our 

 world, in respect of the universe, is but a little family, 

 where all the faces bear some resemblance to each other ; 

 in another place is another family, whose faces have quite a 

 diflferent air and make. The difference, too, increases with 

 the distance ; for whosoever should see an inhabitant of 

 the mo m and an inhabitant of the earth would soon per- 

 ceive they were nearer neighbours than one of the earth 

 and one of Saturn. Here, for example, we have the use 

 of voice ; in another world they speak by signs, and at 

 a greater distance they do not speak at all. Here our 

 reason is formed by experience, in the next world expe- 

 rience contributes little towards it, and in the next to that 

 old men know no more than children. Here we are troubled 1 

 more with what is to come than with what is past ; in the 

 next world they are more troubled for what is past than 

 for what is to come ; further off they are not concern'd 

 with either — which, by the way, I think is much the 



better. Here 'tis thought we want a sixth sense, which 

 would teach us many things of which we are now ignorant. 

 Tliis sixth sense is apparently in another world, where they 

 want one of the five which we enjoy. Nay, perhaps there 

 is a much greater number of senses ; but in the partition we 

 have made of 'em with the inhabitants of the other planets 

 there are but five fallen to our share, with which we are 

 well contented for want of being acquainted with the rest. 

 Our sciences have bounds which the wit of man could 

 never pass. There is a point where they fail us on a 

 sudden ; the rest is reserved for other worlds, where some- 

 what which we know is unknown to them. This planet 

 enjoys the pleasures of love, but lies desolate in several 

 places by the fury of war ; in another planet they enjoy 

 perpetual peace, yet in the midst of that peace know 

 nothing of love, and time lies on their hands. In a word, 

 that which Nature practices here in little, in dintributing 

 her gifts among mankind, she does at large in other worlds, 

 where she makes use of that admirable secret she has to 

 diversify all things, and at the same time makes 'em equal, 

 by com|iensating for the inequality. 



" But is it not time, madam, to be serious ? How will 

 you dispose of all those notions ? " 



" Trouble not yourself," says she, " Fancy ia a great 

 traveller: I already comprehend these several worlds, 

 and represent to myself their different characters and 

 customs ; some of them, I assure you, are very extra- 

 ordinary. I see at this moment a thousand different 

 figures, tho' I cannot well describe 'em." 



" Oh, leave them," said I, " to your dreams : we 

 shall know to-morrow whether they represent the matter 

 faithfully, and what they have taught you in relation to 

 the inhabitants of any of the planets." 



(To be continued.) 



^fbiehjsf* 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



A Treatise on the Priticiplee of Chemistry. By M. 31. 

 P.\TTisoN MuiK, M A., ic. (Cambridge : The University 

 Press. 18S4.) — This is a book worthy at once of its 

 author and of the channel through which it is given to the 

 world. As a systematic treatise on chemical |)hilosophy, 

 it has, probably, nothing at present to rival it in the 

 English language. Mr. Muir sets forth the principles and 

 laws of chemistry in a definite and perspicuous form, 

 treating of the theories by which the relations between its 

 facts are established, to a considerable extent from an 

 historical point of view. He begins with an exposition of 

 the atomic and molecular theory, and shows how it ia 

 ajiplied to explain the phenomena of allotropy, isomerism. 

 ic, and to chemical classification. Thermal, optical, and 

 physical chemistiy generally, make up the remainder of our 

 author's fir.st division of his work, to which he has applied the 

 title, " Chemical Statics." Under the head of " Chemical 

 Kinetics," the remaining portion of the volume is devoted 

 to dissociation, change, and affinity, and to the rela- 

 tions between chemical action and the distribution of the 

 energy of the changing system. All this is admirably 

 done. Great pains have obviously been taken to assign to 

 every worker his precise share in the advances effected in 

 the science. This is as apparent in the tracing of the atomic 

 theory through Richter, Fischer, Higgins, and Dalton, and 

 others, down to its latest development ; as in the careful 

 balancing of the proportion of credit respectively due to 

 those by whom the so-called " Periodic Law " has been 



