64-(34) ARE OTHER WORLDS INHABITED 1 



There are, I doubt not, spiritual beings. They may, 

 for aught I know, dwell in the sun and stars, or perhaps 

 they are not confined to those globes of gross matter, but 

 exult in the freedom of the boundless ether. They may 

 go from star to star, from system to system, or, if they 

 know what weariness is, may be waf ted along on some of 

 those comets which, astronomers tell us, are ever travel- 

 ling from sun to sun. Discussion as to spiritual beings 

 is useless, for science has no facts of its own about them, 

 and its votaries refuse to look for information into the 

 only book whose Author has had access to the regions 

 where they dwell. 



It must be borne in mind, therefore, that the only 

 question to be discussed in this paper refers to beings so 

 far like ourselves as to possess bodies of flesh and blood, 

 and must be decided by the study of the physical condi- 

 tions which exist in other worlds. Do these conditions 

 forbid plants and animals essentially like those on the 

 earth to live in them % 



( lommencing, therefore, at the Sun, what are the life 

 conditions there '. Physicists tell us that the heat at its 

 sm face is so great that it would melt, in a moment, the 

 most refractory substances known to chemists. The most 

 intense artificial heat is cold in comparison. It is self- 

 evident that no beings of flesh and blood could exist 

 there. But to this it has been answered, that very pos- 

 sibly, and indeed,' probably, a dense layer of clouds 

 separates the intensely hot outer surface from the solid 

 body of the sun, and that, protected by its friendly 

 shade, a race of beings there enjoy a perpetual and 

 equable spring. In proof of a cloud envelope, and of a 

 non-luminous nucleus, the fact was pointed out that the- 

 solar spots are depressions, or. openings, in the bright 

 surface, now called the photosphere ; and that, whatever 

 their form, a dark central spot is seen in each, and 

 what, it was asked, is more reasonable, than that Ave see 

 th rough the opening to the non-luminous, solid body with- 

 in I But the knowledge of the sun has so greatly increased 

 within a few years, that many beliefs which prevailed 

 when the most of us studied our elementary astronomy, 

 have been exploded. Instead of a region of calm and 

 transcendent beauty, the spectroscope, by which the 

 astronomer is enabled to look through the dazzling 



