82 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
day, or 12,460 an hour, 200 miles a minute, and 3.33 miles per 
second. A child of Neptune at 1o years has lived 1,648 years of 
ours. A young girl of t8 years marries at the age af 2,950 terres- 
trial years, whilst the young man of her dreams is more than 3,000. 
The child of Earth, whose sweet face to-night looks up to the 
spangled vault to where Neptune hides himself, will have grown up, 
will have fought life’s battle, will have grown old, died, and have lain 
in the grave 100 years by the time the Wanderer of the Skies returns 
to the same place. 
Is this planet inhabited? Is it the abode of intelligent and 
moral beings like ourselves? To this question some say no; they 
see, or think they see, many difficulties in the way. They say it is 
too far from the sun—too little light, too little heat; that certain 
gases exist there which would prevent life, etc. Friends! has not 
God adopted the plan of adaptation and variety ? Where can we turn 
our eyes and not behold this? Has He not fashioned the beetle, the 
mole, and the worm for the mouldering soil? Has He not fashioned 
the whale and the walrus for the frozen north, the camel and dromedary 
for the arid sands of the desert, the serpent and monkey for the 
tropical forests? The air we breathe is full of life; even corrosive 
poisons and strong acids teem with life. We are, therefore, not only 
warranted, but directed, to look for life and adaptation of life to its 
circumstances, in every part and province of God’s creation. Can 
not God as easily create and adapt a population to a planet as to 
create a planet and adapt it for its lonely way so remote from the 
central star? It is as easy for God to populate Neptune as to supply 
oceans, lakes, rivers and brooks with fishes. 
Is it not consistent with reason—is it not in harmony with anal- 
ogy and all we know about the wisdom and goodness of God to 
believe that not only is Neptune, but all these planets, these stately 
mansions, have their sentient and intelligent inhabitants to travel and 
contemplate their transcendent scenes of grandeur ; that their plains 
and valleys and mountain sides teem with millions of happy beings 
that offer up their daily prayers and adorations to the same Father 
and God whom we worship and serve? 
“* Each of these stars is a religious house : 
I saw their altars smoke, their incense rise, 
And I heard hosannas ring through every sphere.” 
