The Heavenly Bodies; their Nature and Habitability

Abstract

FEW subjects could be mentioned more remote from the common interests and pursuits of life than what has been usually called the “plurality of worlds” an expression now so long restricted to one well-ascertained meaning as to have lost any ambiguity that might have been charged upon it. The question is one of mere curiosity, and leads to no direct result; but it has always carried with it an attraction irrespective of its unpractical nature, and has exercised the ingenuity of so many minds that its literature is of no inconsiderable extent. To this the book now in our hands is the most recent contribution. It is not the work of an astronomer, as the author himself has informed us; but as his profession leads him to the examination of evidence this need not be considered a material disadvantage. His position, however, in this respect would have been improved by a little more care in the collection of his data, which in some instances, such as Mädler's “central sun,” the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, the polar flattening of Mars, and the observations of Schiaparelli, are somewhat in arrear; and it may be the case that those more intimately conversant with the subject would estimate the comparative value of the evidence somewhat differently He has taken a very commendable degree of pains in collecting the opinions of former writers; though we have met with no notice of worthy old Derham, or the quick-eyed but fanciful Gruithuisen; but the natural result is the revival of a good deal of antiquated matter that can hardly claim a hearing before a modern tribunal; such as the assumptions of the Cosmotheoros (which by the way he invariably cites as “Cosmothereos”) or the affected niaiseries of Fontenelle. In fact, excepting for those who would find interest or amusement in specimens of almost all that has been said upon the subject, however absurdly nonsensical, or needlessly pugnacious, the book would gain by a process of winnowing and compression and “weighting,” if we may be permitted to use a technical expression. And there can be no question as to the advantage of a more careful revision of the press.

The Heavenly Bodies; their Nature and Habitability.

By W. Miller Edinburgh, Author of “Wintering in the Riviera.” Pp. 347. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1883.)