Show other worlds than ours 91 I 1 london the recent observations made on the planet venus during lier transit across the sun appear to confirm the impression derived from the last transit in V 1874 that ahe elie haa has an atmosphere mo sphere not less dense deuse than our own and aqueous s vapor and arid cloud within that atmosphere this conclusion would have grieved the late professor whewell who in his ingenious essay emay to disprove the plu bality of inhabited worlds took it for granted that wo we discern no traces of a gaseous or walteg watery atmosphere surrounding founding eur her venus enus and built huilton on this negative evidence one of his arguments to prove that in the whole universe the earth is not improbably the only inhabited test globe obe professor whewell did his best to show that the car earth th held ft at very singular place in what might beavery be a very unique solar ss tym that it occupied what h he e ed the temperate zone of its own suns system and that there is no particular ar reason to oil suppose appose that any 0 other lb er sun has planetary attendants at all in order to make out tho singular position of the earth in its own suns system professor whewell was con compelled spelled to make the most of tho the intensity of the light and tho the heat in mercury and venus and the most acain again comparative cold of 3 mars ars in point of fact however it is probable that a very slight modification of our human organization even ifancy if any structural modification if at all of that organization was necessary would enable crea tures of the tile same general structure and habits of man to live with easo ease in either odthe of the planets nearest the earth in either mars aars which should ci cleris be colder and darker or in venus which should be lighter and hotter than the earth we know to some extent the configuration of the continents in mars hars and our astronomers tron omers have at times watched the area of the polar snows of that planet increasing with the approach of winter and dwindling with the approach of summer of venus we know much less les 4 the intense I 1 brightness of her ed td light ou du ing a very unfavorable able condition for minute observations but the apparently clear evidence of an atmosphere ofa of a good deal of density and for the presence of cloud and aqueous vapor in that atmosphere here I 1 disposes completely of the F late te professor whewell Wh ewells ewels assumption that no creature resembling man n now ow has or could ever eyer have had his abode there there now seems no reason to doubt that in in venus the conditions 2 of physical existence are such that elt cither er there now may be there or may have been or may aft b in future a being whose physical existence elice might like that of in man an and animal natures nearest to man exist under something closely approaching to those of terrestrial life the length odthe of the day in venus is nearl nearly y tho the same the weight of any given mass is nearly the same the atmospheric conditions are probably not very ver y different from our own the only material differences being ably the length of the year which is not very much above the halfon half of oure ours or eay say about seven months instead of twelve and the amount 1 I of light and heat which anle s miti 1 gi gated ded by special atmospheric ic conditions 1 as they easily might b would woula probably be twice as intense as terrestrial re light and heat beat we insist on this analogy analog y however only for the sake of those who I 1 like ike the late dr Wh whewell evell made the argument from analogy so ull im 1 por tant though in relation to a question on which as it appears to U us the argument from analogy analogy haa bas really a very y slight glit bearing indeed there is no reason in the world why spiritual beings much more like to us in their thoughts than it is at all probable that birds and tortoises aro like us in their thoughts should not exist everywhere in in tho the pure ether in ill the hottest flames names of the sun in the dimness of the darkest recesses of space in tho the heat of the volcano in tho the depth of the ocean ignore the reasoning from analogy and we can cin hardly have a less secure basis for reasoning where observation is limited as it ii in this ease ease one corner of tile ur universe e and we alia shall 11 find no more inore reason reason why we should confine the creators power to fo working within conditions closely resembling resembling our own than there is why we lye should assume that lie ile will work at all in regions where we have no evidence eviden ct 0 of f that work |