410 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Mat 15, 1885. 



Waitzia, Xigella, Hyoscyamus, Oxalia rosea, Scyphanthns, Papaver 

 album and ceruleum, Pampas Grass, Digitalis, Carraway, Silene 

 pendula, Gladiolus, Lychnis, Calampelis, Petunia, Eucharidium 

 coDcinnum, Gentian, Paulowniaimperialis, Whillatia, Eeveda, Dian- 

 thns barbatus, Linaria Anagalis, Amaranthus, Silene armeria, 

 Loasa aurantiaca, Nemesia Portulaca, Lophospemum, Escholtzia 

 crocea and tenuifolia. 



The Umbellifers are put first. All are worth examining, 

 though not half have special beauty. The others are given 

 without any botanical or other classification. As stated 

 in the former article, the Composites, which are well repre- 

 sented in the collection, deserve special attention. 



OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. 



A WEEK'S CONVERSATION ON THE PLUEALITY OF 



WOELDS. 



By Mons. de Fontexelle. 



with notes by richard a. proctor. 



THE SIXTH EVENING (continued from p. 370). 



" npHE entire resemblance of the planets with the earth," 



X I continued, " which is inhabited, the impossibility 

 of conceiving any other use for which they were created, 

 the fecundity and magnificence of nature, the certain 

 regards she seems to have had to the necessities of their 

 inhabitants, as in giving moons to those planets remote 

 from the sun, and more moons still to those yet more 

 reaiote ; and what is still very material, there are all 

 things to be said on one side, and nothing on the other ; 

 and you cannot comprehend the least subject for a doubt, 

 unless you will take the eyes and understanding of the 

 vulgar. In short, supposing that these inhabitants of the 

 planets really exist, they could not declare themselves by 

 more maiks, or marks more sensible : and after this you 

 are to consider whether you are willing not to take their 

 case to be more than purely probable." 



"But you would not have me," says she, "look upon 

 this tn i.p as certain as that there was such a man as 

 Alexander 1 " 



■• ^,,0 altogether, madam," says I ; "for tho' we have as 

 many pioofs touching the inhabitants of the planets as we 

 ca'i Have in the sitiiation we are, yet the number of these 

 proofs is not great." 



" 1 must reiiouuce these planetary inhabitants," said her 

 Ladyship, interrupting me, " for I cannot conceive how to 

 rank them in my imaginntion ; there is no absolute cer- 

 tainty of them, and >et there is more than a probability; 

 30 that I am confounded in my notions." 



"Ab, madam," says I, "never put yourself out of con- 

 ceit with them for that ; the most common and ordinary 

 clocks shew the hours, but those are wrought with more 

 art and nicety which shew the minutes. Just so vour 

 ordinary capacities are sensible of the difference betwixt a 

 simple probability, and an evident certainty ; but it is only 

 your fine spirits that discern the exact proportions of cer- 

 tainty or probability, and can mark, if 1 may use the 

 phrase, the minutes in their sentiments. Now place the 

 inhabitants of the planets a little below Alexander ; yet 

 above many other historical facts which are not so clearly, 

 proved : I believe this position will do." 



" I love order," says she, " and you oblige me in thus 

 ranging my ideas for me ; but, pray, why did not you take 

 this care before 1 " 



" Because," says I, " should you believe the inhabitants 

 of the planets either a little more or less than they deserve, 

 there will be no great damage iu it. I am sure that you 

 do not believe the motion of the earth so fully as it ought 



to be believed ; and have you much reason to complain on 

 that score 1 " 



" Oh, for that matter," replies she, "I have discharged 

 myself very well ; you have nothing to reproach me with 

 on that account, for I firmly believe that the earth turns." 



"And yet," says I, "madam, I have not given you the 

 strongest reasons in proving it" 



" Ah, traytor ! " she cried, " to make me believe things 

 upon feeble proofs I Then you did not think me worthy 

 of believing upon substantial reasons ! " 



" I only proved things," says I, " upon little plausible 

 reasons, and such as were adapted to your peculiar use. 

 Should I have conjured up as strong and solid arguments, 

 as if I had been to attack a doctor in the science 1 " 



"Yes," says she; " pray take me for a doctor from this 

 moment, and let me have your full demonstrations of the 

 earth's moving." 



" With all my heart, madans," says I, " and I own the 

 proof pleases me strangely, perhaps because I think it was 

 of my own finding ; yet it is so good and natural that I 

 must not presume positively to have been the inventor of 

 it. It is most certain that, if a learned man was puzzled, 

 and desired to make replications to it, he would be obliged 

 to declaim at large, which is the only method in the world 

 to confound a learned man. We must grant that all the 

 celestial bodies in twenty-four hours, turn round the 

 earth, or that the earth turning on itself, imparts 

 this motion to all the celestial bodies. But that 

 they really have this revolution in twenty - four 

 hours round the earth is a matter which has the least 

 probability in the world, tho' the absurdity does not pre- 

 sently appear to our view. All the planets certainly make 

 their great revolution about the sun ; but these revolutions 

 of theirs are unequal, according to the distances of the 

 respective planets from the sun ; for the most remote ones 

 make their course in a longer time, which is most agreeable 

 to nature. The same order is observed among the little 

 secondarv planets in turning about a great one. The four 

 moons of Jupiter, and the five of Saturn, make their circles 

 in more or less time round their great planet, according as 

 they are more or less remote. Besides, it is certain that 

 the planets have motions upon their own centers, wnd these 

 motions likewise are unequal. We cannot well tell how to 

 account for this inequality — whether it proceeds from the 

 different magnitudes of the planets, or on the different 

 swiftness of the particular vortexes which inclose them, 

 and the liquid matters in which they are sustained ; but, 

 in short, the inequality is most undoubted ; and such is the 

 order of nature in general, that whatever is common to 

 many things, is found at the same time to vary in some 

 different particular.^." 



" I understand you," says the Marchioness, interrupting 

 me, " and I think there is a great deal of rea>on in what 

 yon say. I am entirely of your mind, if the planets 

 turned about the earth, they would do it iu unequal spaces 

 of time, according to their distances, as they do about the 

 sun. Is not that the meaning of what you were saying V 



"Exactly, madam," says I; "their unequal distances 

 with respect to the earth, their different magnitudes, and 

 the different rapidity of the particular vortexes inclosing 

 them, should consequently produce differences in their 

 pretended motion round the earth, as well as in 

 all their other motions. And the fixed stars, which 

 are at such a prodigious distance from us, and 

 so much elevated above everything that can take a 

 general motion round us — at least which are situated 

 in a place whence this motion should he very much 

 weakened, would there not be a very great probability 

 that they did not turn at all about us in twenty-four 



