4 



272 INHABITED WORLDS. 



would be very unreasonable, considering how im- 

 mense is the diversity of appearance, habit, func- 

 tion, and nature among the animals alone of our 

 own planet. 



Yet even to assert that the other planets would 

 be wasted in the scheme of the universe because 

 they do not or may not contain life is in itself a 

 gross piece of purely human and mundane arro- 

 gance. It is as thougli an ant, emerging from its 

 nest and surveying the ocean, were to declare that 

 all the vast expanse of waters was wasted because 

 it did not afford room for innumerable ant-hills. 

 What, after all, is life or humanity that we should 

 erect it into a measure and standard for the great 

 wide universe? We do not consider the earth's 

 interior wasted because no life is possible there. 

 We are not even greatly affected by the sands of 

 Sahara and the Himalayan snow-fields, the north 

 pole or the antarctic continent. We do not com- 

 plain that the sun is too hot to hold living crea- 

 tures, and that tlie fixed stars are in a continual 

 state of fiery agitation. It is only the barrenness 

 of planetary surfaces that thus affects us, because 

 we think that there at least some form of life is 

 fairly conceivable. But why should we demand 

 tliat the univei'se should be laid out for life at 

 all ? Wh}' believe that life is necessary anywhere 

 in any way outside the limits of our own little 

 planet? It may well be that plants and animals 



