RECENT ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES 129 



family of worlds through the unexplored regions 

 of space. 



We have been watching the stars in front of us 

 for many years, and will now give some attention 

 to the stars in our rear to confirm or disprove 

 many astronomical hypotheses. 



It is like getting back to anti-Copernican times 

 to have Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, in his flights 

 of speculative astronomy, say that, "our solar 

 system is central in the universe and that this 

 earth of ours is probably the only planet on which 

 humanity has been developed." In a recent article 

 he undertakes to establish this ancient fallacy. It 

 is very doubtful whether the universe has a gen- 

 eral center, but if it has it should be plain to our 

 learned astronomer that as our system is moving 

 through space in a straight line at the rate of 

 420,000 miles per day it could not occupy a cen- 

 tral position very long. The only means we have 

 to judge of the inhabitability of other worlds is 

 by analogy, which is the foundation of all scientific 

 hypotheses. The likeness in form, substance and elec- 

 tric power of suns and planets to our own world 

 leads to the natural conclusion that all suns and 

 worlds are inhabitated. In fact any other assump- 

 tion is contrary to all cosmological reasoning and 

 all analogy to be found in universal nature. Na- 

 ture nowhere bestows vast substance and power 

 without commensurate results of life and growth, 

 and it is reversing all the laws of reason, analogy 

 and cosmic experience to hold to the contrary. 

 We must give up this egotistic assumption that 

 our little world is the only living world in this vast 

 universe, or that it is only one of a few living worlds. 

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