Show Is the earth the only peopled planet the theory that our earth is the only inhabited world beet forth with the authority of dr alfred russel may well be said to have astonished the most eminent thinkers in modern science and the views now communicated to th daily mail by sir ehver lodge and other notable men will bo read with great interest mans place in the universe the book in which dr wallace expounded his theory was reviewed in jat these columns on the day of ita publication by the bishop of ripon and wo are ible to present our readers this morning iby a delightful letter from another M eminent dignitary in the english church bijj whose modesty however forbids our re aja acaling his identity here is hit view ot dr wallaces theory I 1 am absolutely incompetent in this matter ot speculation as to the position of the earth in the great world y I 1 suppose it la always fascinating to B put ones self in the centre point of the ab world I 1 am sure we are always doing it ra in the small circle in which we rotate but when he goes on to argue that the earth is probably the only inhabited planet in apace I 1 entirely fail to follow him it may indeed be the only inhabited planet of the solar system I 1 that i not improbable because be canse for by far the greater part even of the earths history it was in the human sense uninhabited planet of the eolar system thai ii it is comparatively short and BO it may he said bat taking any planet at random the probabilities are strongly against its being in a state at all corresponding to what may be called a hu man period but to suppose that of all the myriads of solid bodies in space this particular lump of matter is the only one inhabited by intelligent beings seems to me if with all due respect to 0 o great a man 1 may eo express it absurd I 1 eay nothing dr wallaces biological arguments but I 1 fed bound to say that his astronomical arguments appear to me to be of a futile description I 1 dare not do more than dream As also as he emphasizes emphasises es the fact thai we can now take our share in consciously improving the conditions and in providing ot only pure water but pure and smoke not air for every inhabitant of the british asle I 1 am heartily with him but here and in many other matters through which the earth had pone before mat result was achieved in so far the infinite geography of the stellar in finites BY SIR OLTER LODGE the views of the distinguished principal of birmingham university have a special valve and interest sir oliver todge writes in so far as dr alfred callae 0 pointy out the delicate planetary adjust for the support ot human life and the remarkable character of the long acca of preparation lord salisbury said of alarmiste alarmists alar mists years ago let them get some large maps and chati one was learning something from the milky way cluster or in some other part of it at the present time is a matter which makes no difference at all the only gravitation that we effectively feel is the gravitation of the earth j the only active radiation fi the radiation of the un and what our relation may be to the almost distant stellar components of our cluster is absolutely beside the mark jn my judgment ainoo they exert no perceptible influence at all except on our minds and intelligence and their influence there is to suggest possibilities of other existences than our own OLIVER LODGE byar H G WELLS mr wells the master spirit of anticipation has no belief at all in the new theory he says the question dr wallace raises is altogether too fantastic for me I 1 know of no facts upon which a man can base belief or denial in the matter dr wallace neither proves nor disproves anything and for my own part I 1 am quite content to go on neither hold ins nor contradicting anything of tho sort it seems to we that it would be equally profitable ato debate whether the general outline of tho material universe is or la not exactly that of a common metal button or of a saucepan lid and whether one could find anything precisely like a watch key in extraterrestrial extra terrestrial space they did this sort of thing very much better in the middle ages when they would bring all the resources ot science to determine how many angels can stand upon the point of a needle II 11 G WELLS rr SIR WILLIAM sir william ramsay professor of chemistry at university college london writes I 1 do not see the use of arguments where facts the only possible premise arc wholly lacking but perhaps the following considers tiona may interest your readers animal organisms mostly cl carbon hydrogen nitrogen oxygen phosphorous calcium and sulphur fhe compound which these elements bund up in living pound which these elements enild up matter are conditioned so as to be moderately stable in a moist atmosphere that is in presence of oxygen and water the spectroscope tells us that the eun consists generally speaking of the same alementa ele menta as those of which the planets are built and we have also spectroscopic evidence that some stars other than the sun consist of nearly the same elements it may be inferred that their planets are more or less like our earth it Is also likely that many of them among the legions which doubtless exist have a temperature comparable with that of our earth and if so they may well be inhabited by organisms like our animals and man on the whole the probability is in favor of this notion it is by no means absurd again we know of consciousness only in association with carbon compounds such as we and our fellow creatures in the widest sense of fr havord consist of but K there anything to hinder consciousness ness from being associated with beings construct edof compounds of other elements capable of existing at temperatures at which we should ce to exist and again is there anything abard in supposing that consciousness may exist associated with forms of matter the exia tance of which we are jusic beginning to suspect T the fact ia we know next to nothing moreover all we know is necessarily related to ourselves in so far as it is a formation of our own minds as well as of objects exter nalto us er objects donld appear tha ame to minds differently constructed with sense channels which we do not possess 19 a question which may well bp raised imagine a being with awes capable of recognizing and interpreting longer or shorter ethereal waves than those which we react to what could the world and nature appear to such a one totally different yet it it quite within tho bound of possibility that organisms formea of elc other than those we arc made of might be capable of existence with different sense channels I 1 should have thought that dr wallace whose belief in an universe is well know would have been the last man to write auch abood as mans place in the universe WILLIAM RAMSAY BY PROFESSOR TURNER Prof casor turner wor of astron omy at osford declared his views in alie fortnightly review before the appearance of fr wallaces book and bis main points are 1 I that the limitation of the universe is not proved the view had the support so lately as the middle of 1901 of so high an authority as professor simon newcomb yew comb but even in the intervening eighteen months a new fact has come to light which weakens his arguments 2 stat there is no true centre of the universe even it limited and even if there were we could not occupy it for long the path of the solar system in millions of years would be a large fraction of the dimensions suggested for the united universe 3 that no reason whatever haa been riven why life should not be developed in any part of the interior of c yan a limited universe and that home reasons in for doubting whether it could be developed near the boundaries are not in accordance with accepted facts the great weight of authority dr wallace himself would probably admit is clearly against the theory that alie world was made for ourselves and our earthly 1 ar y t this dimple i of white V croatian cro etian cleth wath front 4 7 of the same this as also the feather a hig is done in thick blue silk pearl buttons are used from the holly manof fracturing fac turing co this waist of alite de crepe h as the fronts and blare very fully sherred shirred on to yoke and sleeve caps of silk cut work end lace crochet buttons and trim the fronts and abbe it fastens invisibly under thi folds |