ORIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES. 97 



Great Author ? Yet such is the notion which we must form, 

 if we adhere to the doctrine of special exercise. Let us see, 

 on the other hand, how the doctrine of a creation in the manner 

 of law agrees with this expanded view of the organic world. 



Unprepared as most men may be for such an announce- 

 ment, there can be no doubt that we are able, in this limited 

 sphere, to form some satisfactory conclusions as to the plants 

 and animals of those other spheres which move at such im- 

 mense distances from us. Suppose that the first persons of 

 an early nation who made a ship and ventured to sea in it, 

 observed, as they sailed along, a set of objects which they 

 had never before seen namely, a fleet of other ships would 

 they not have been justified in supposing that those ships 

 were occupied, like their own, by human beings, possessing 

 hands to row and steer, eyes to watch the signs of the 

 weather, intelligence to guide them from one place to an- 

 other in short, beings in all respects like themselves, or only 

 showing such differences as they knew to be producible by 

 difference of climate and habits of life ? Precisely in this 

 manner we can speculate on the inhabitants of remote 

 spheres. We see that matter has originally been diffused in 

 one mass, of which the spheres are portions. Consequently, 

 inorganic matter must be presumed to be everywhere the 

 same, although probably with differences in the proportions 

 of ingredients in different globes, and also some difference of 

 conditions. Out of a certain number of the elements of inor- 

 ganic matter are composed organic bodies, both vegetable and 

 animal : such must be the rule in Jupiter and in Sirius, as it 

 is here. We, therefore, are all but certain that herbaceous 

 and ligneous fibre, that flesh and blood, are the constituents 

 of the organic beings of all those spheres which are as yet 

 seats of life. Gravitation we see to be an all-pervading prin- 

 ciple : therefore there must be a relation between the spheres 

 and their respective organic occupants, by virtue of which 

 they are fixed, as far as necessary, on the surface. Such a 

 relation, of course, involves details as to the density and elas- 

 ticity of structure, as well as size of the organic tenants, in 

 proportion to the gravity of the respective planets pecu- 



