C. B. WARRING. 67-(37) 



need this surprise us, for undoubtedly all the planets 

 in their passage from nebulous matter to their present 

 condition must at some time have been self-luminous. 



Neptune, farthest distant from the sun, but next in 

 size to Saturn, has a surface whose area is measured by 

 four billion two hundred million square miles. So far 

 as known, it has but one satellite, and no rings. Its 

 immense distance renders any satisfactory study of it 

 impossible. Its density, however, has been determined, 

 and that is less than either Jupiter's or the sun's. This 

 fact together with its apparently emitting light, shows 

 that Neptune is in the same state of great heat and non- 

 solidity as Jupiter, Saturn and the sun. Life there, too. 

 seems impossible. 



Uranus is somewhat smaller than Neptune, — a trine of 

 seven hundred million, or so, less than that planet. It has 

 four moons. In levity and other characteristics it so 

 resembles the others of the outer group of planets, that 

 we may consider it, like them, hot, non-solid, and conse- 

 quently uninhabited. 



We have now inquired as to the possibility of life in 

 the sun and in the four outer planets. Their combined 

 area amounts in round numbers to twenty-three hundred 

 billion square miles. The rest of the solar system is as 

 nothing in comparison. The combined area of the three 

 remaining planets. Mercury, Venus and Mars, is only 

 twelve one-thousandths of one per cent, as great. 



Surely all force is gone from the argument that other 

 worlds are inhabited because, if they are not inhabited, 

 there appears to be such a waste of creative energy. 

 But small as are the planets of the inner group, are they 

 not the abode of beings clothed like ourselves in bodies 

 of flesh and blood \ 



Perhaps no object in the heavens is more difficult to 

 examine than the planet Mercury. It is commonly so 

 near the horizon and the sun, as to be lost in the vapors 

 which are seen in that direction. The length of its day 

 and the inclination of it; axis are involved in great 

 doubt. It is very questionable, also, according to Zoll- 

 ner, as approvingly quoted by Prof. Newcomb, whether 

 it has any atmosphere. The only fact important to the 

 present discussion, known with certainty, is its nearness 

 to the sun. According to the laws of radiant heat this 



