SIXTH EVENING.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS IN CONFIRMATION OF THOSE IN THE PRECEDING CONVERSATIONS.—DISCOVERIES THAT HAVE BEEN LATELY MADE IN THE HEAVENS.
For a long time the Marchioness and I said nothing about the plurality of worlds, we had apparently forgotten that we had ever talked on the subject. I went one day to her house, and just as I entered, two men of some talents and celebrity were going out. You see, said she, what visitors I have had; I assure you they are gone away with a suspicion that you have turned my brain. I should be very proud of such an achievement answered I; it would shew my power, for I think one could not devise a more difficult undertaking. Well, replied she, I am afraid you have accomplished it. I don't know how it happened, but whilst my two friends, whom you met at the door, were here, the conversation turned on the plurality of worlds; perhaps they had an invidious design in directing it to that subject. I immediately told them allthe planets were inhabited. One of them said he was certain I could not be of that opinion: in the most unaffected manner, I maintained my sincerity; he continued to think I was only feigning, and I believe he had too great a regard for me to admit the possibility of my having really adopted so extravagant an opinion. The other, from esteeming me less, did not doubt my veracity. Why have you made me obstinately adhere to sentiments which people who have the greatest friendship for me will not suffer themselves to believe me possessed with? But, madam, answered I, why did you maintain these opinions seriously, when talking with persons that I am sure would not gravely argue on any subject? Should we thus trifle with the inhabitants of the planets? Let us, who believe their existence, be content to remain a little select band, and not disclose our mysteries to the vulgar. Vulgar! exclaimed she; do you reckon those two men among the vulgar? They have good understandings, said I; but they never reason. Grave reasoners, who are austere people, would not hesitate to place them in that class. They however take their revenge by ridiculing the reasoners. We should if possible accommodate ourselves to persons of both characters; it would have been better to speak jestingly of the planetary inhabitants to such men as your two friends, since they are accustomed to pleasantry, than to enter on anargument, for which they have no talents. You would have retained their good opinion without depriving the planets of a single inhabitant. Would you have meanly sacrificed the truth? answered she. Where is your conscience? I must own, I replied, I have not much zeal for truths of this nature; I would readily forbear to maintain them if it suited my convenience.
The cause which prevents people from believing the planets to be inhabited is, that they appear to them only bodies placed in the heavens to give light, instead of globes consisting of meadows and fruitful countries. We readily believe that meadows and fields are inhabited, but it is thought ridiculous to assert that mere luminous bodies are. 'Tis in vain that reason informs us of fields in the planets; reason comes too late, the first coup-d'œil has impressed our minds before-hand, and this impression is not willingly parted with. The planets, 'tis said, are only luminous bodies; what sort of inhabitants then can they have? Our imaginations do not enable us to distinguish their figures, therefore it is the shortest way to deny their existence. Would you require me, for the sake of establishing the idea of these inhabitants, whose interest cannot be very dear to me, to attack all the powers of the senses and the imagination? Such an enterprize would demand a vast deal of courage. Men are not easily persuaded to seethrough their reason, rather than their eyes. Some few persons are rational enough to believe, after a thousand proofs have been given them, that the planets are worlds like ours, but they do not believe it in the same way they would do, if they had not seen them apparently so different; they always recur to the first idea they had formed, and can never wholly divest themselves of it. These people seem tocondescendto our opinion, and only patronize it from a love of singularity.
Is not that enough, said she; for an opinion that is merely probable? You would be astonished, answered I, if I told you the word probable was too modest for the occasion. Is it merely probable that Alexander has been in existence? No, you consider it certain; and what is the ground of your certainty? Is it not that you have had every proof that such a subject requires, and that no circumstance leads you to doubt the fact? You have never seen Alexander, nor have you any mathematical demonstration of his existence. What would you say if this were the case with respect to the inhabitants of the planets? We cannot shew them to you, nor can you require us to demonstrate their being, in a mathematical way; but you have all the evidence that can be desired: the entire resemblance between the planets and the inhabited earth; the impossibility of imagining any other use for which they could be created; the fruitfulnessand magnificence of nature; the attention she seems to have paid to the wants of their inhabitants, such as giving moons to those planets that were very remote from the sun, and the greatest number of moons to the most distant: and it is an important consideration that every thing is on that side of the question, without any objections to counterbalance it; you cannot for a moment doubt unless you resume the vulgar mode of seeing and thinking. In fact it is impossible to have more evidence, and evidence of a more determinate kind; how then can you treat this opinion as a mere probability? But do you think, said she, I can feel as certain that the planets are inhabited, as that Alexander has been in existence? By no means, I replied; for although, on the subject we are speaking of we have as many proofs as in our situation we can receive, yet these proofs are not numerous. I protest, exclaimed she, I'll renounce these planetary inhabitants, for I don't know whether to believe there are any or not—it is not certain, yet it is more than possible—I am quite perplexed. Do not be discouraged, madam, I replied. Clocks that are made in the most common manner shew the hour; those only that are made with more exquisite art, indicate the minutes; in like manner common minds see a great difference between probability and absolute certainty; but it is only superior understandings that ascertain the degreesof certainty or of probability, and who, if I may use the expression, can tell the minutes as well as the hours. Place the inhabitants of the planets a little below Alexander in point of certainty, but above a vast number of historical relations which are not entirely proved; I think that is their proper place. I love order, said she, you do me a kindness in giving arrangement to my ideas: why did you not do this before? Because, answered I, whether you attribute to this idea a little more, or a little less certainty than it possesses is not of much consequence. I am certain you do not feel so assured as you ought to do of the earth's motion: are you the less happy on that account? Oh! as to that opinion, I am sure I do my duty; you have no right to complain of me, for I firmly believe that the earth turns. Yet I have not given you the most convincing proof of it, answered I. You use me very ill, said she, to make one believe things without sufficient reason; am I unworthy to hear the best arguments? I wished to prove my opinions, I replied, by easy, entertaining arguments; would you have had me make use of such solid, sturdy ones as I should have attacked a doctor with? Certainly, said she; now fancy me a doctor, and let me have this new proof of the earth's motion.
With all my heart, answered I; it is this, and I am vastly pleased with it, because I think Ifound it out myself; but it is so good and so natural that I can hardly hope to have been the inventor. I am sure an obstinate learned man who wished to oppose it, would be forced to talk a great deal on the occasion; and that is the only way in which a scholar can be overcome. It is evident either that all the heavenly bodies go round the earth in four-and-twenty hours, or the earth, turning on her axis, only imagines the motion in them. It is the most improbable thing in the world that they should in reality go round the earth in that short space of time, though we are not at first aware of the absurdity of such an opinion. All the planets certainly revolve round the sun: but these revolutions are unequal from the unequal distances at which they are placed from the sun: the most remote, as we might naturally suppose, take a longer time than the rest. This order is observed even in the satellites that go round a large planet. Jupiter's four moons, and the five belonging to Saturn, require a longer or shorter time to move round their planet according to their distance from it. It is further ascertained that the planets have a rotation on their own axis; the time of this is likewise unequal; we cannot tell the cause of such inequality, whether it depends on the different size, or the degree of solidity of the planets, or on the different degrees of rapidity of the vortices in which they are enclosed, and the liquid matterby which they are carried along;[57]this inequality however is certain, and in general we find that the order of nature is such as to admit of particular variations in things that are regulated by the same rules.
[57]We can assign no reason; the irregularity depends on the original cause, whatever that cause may be, which at first determined their motions.
[57]We can assign no reason; the irregularity depends on the original cause, whatever that cause may be, which at first determined their motions.
I understand, said the Marchioness; I am quite of your opinion; if the planets moved round the earth, the time employed by each would be different, according to their various distances, as is the case in their revolutions round the sun: is not that what you mean? Precisely so, madam, answered I; their unequal distances from the earth would produce an inequality in their revolutions round her: and the fixed stars, being so extremely remote from us, so far beyond all that could have a general movement round us, at least situated in a place where such a motion must be very feeble, is there any probability of their revolving round us in four-and-twenty hours, like the moon which is so near to us? Ought not the comets likewise which do not belong to our vortex, which have such irregular courses, and such different degrees of swiftness, to be exempted from performing this daily circle round our world? No, planets, fixed stars, and comets too, must all turn round the earth! Werethere but a few minutes difference in the time of their revolutions we might be satisfied with it; but they are all exactly equal, never varying in the slightest degree; surely this is a suspicious circumstance.
Oh! replied the Marchioness, I could venture to say this exactitude existed only in our imaginations. I am glad that any thing inconsistent with the genius of nature, which this equality in so many moving bodies would be, should depend on our motion, and she, even at our expense, be free from the charge of inconsistency. For my part, said I, I dislike a perfect regularity, and I don't approve of the earth's turning every day on her axis in exactly twenty-four hours; I am disposed to think the time varies. Varies! she exclaimed; do not our clocks shew that it is always equal? Oh! replied I, I don't depend on clocks, they cannot always be perfectly right; and should they be so, and sometimes shew that the earth has made a longer or shorter tour in four-and-twenty hours than usual, it would be thought that we ought rather to suspect them of being wrong than to attribute any irregularity to the revolutions of the earth. That is paying an extravagant respect to her, I should depend no more on the earth than on a clock; the one might be put out of sorts almost by the same causes as the other, only I think it would take longer time to produce a sensible irregularity in the earth;that is the only advantage I should allow her to have over a clock. Might not the earth by degrees get nearer to the sun, and then, finding herself in a situation where the matter was agitated with greater violence, perform her motion on her axis, and her revolution round the sun, in a shorter time? In that case the years would be shorter, and the days too, but we should not perceive the difference, for we should still divide the year into three hundred and sixty-five days, and the days into twenty-four hours. So that without living longer than we do now, we should live a greater number of years: and on the contrary, if the earth were to remove farther from the sun, we should live fewer years, although our lives would be as long. In all probability, said she, if that were possible, a long succession of ages would make but a trifling difference. True, I replied; nature does nothing abruptly, her method is to effect every alteration by such gentle gradations that it is scarcely perceptible to us. We hardly observe even the changes of seasons; others that are produced much more slowly must in general escape our notice. Nevertheless every thing is subject to mutability; even a certain lady who has been seen, through telescopes, in the moon for about forty years, appears considerably older. She used to be rather handsome; now her cheeks are fallen away, her nose and chin are beginning to meet; in short all her charmsare fled, and it is even feared that her life is near its close.[58]
[58]We are not assured that this alteration has taken place in the part of the moon that has some resemblance to a woman's head: but there must be changes, if we judge by the volcano which has been repeatedly observed. Astron. Art. 3339.
[58]We are not assured that this alteration has taken place in the part of the moon that has some resemblance to a woman's head: but there must be changes, if we judge by the volcano which has been repeatedly observed. Astron. Art. 3339.
What are you talking of? cried the Marchioness. I am not jesting, I replied. A figure has been observed in the moon which resembled a woman's head rising from among the rocks, and in that part an alteration is perceived. Some pieces have fallen off a mountain, and left the points which appear like the forehead, nose and chin of an old woman. Does it not seem, said she, as if some malignant power had a spite against beauty, since the young lady's head is the only spot in the moon that has undergone a change. Perhaps, answered I, to make amends, the alterations on our globe may give additional beauty to some face observed by the inhabitants of the moon, I mean some face formed like those of the people in that planet, for we always try to discover in distant objects, the resemblance of what we continually think of. Our astronomers discern young ladies' faces in the moon; probably if women were to examine it they would find handsome male faces. IfIto look, I don't know whether I should not see your likeness,madam. I must undoubtedly, said she, feel myself obliged to any body who could find me there; but let us return to what we were talking of just now; are there any considerable alterations on the earth? In all probability there are, answered I. Many high mountains, at a great distance from the sea, have on them beds of shells, which shew that they were formerly covered with water. Sometimes likewise, at a distance from the sea, are found stones containing petrified fishes. How could they have got to that place unless the water had been there? Fables tell us, that Hercules separated with his hands two mountains called Calpe and Abila, which being situated between Africa and Spain obstructed the ocean; and the sea immediately rushed in violently, and formed the great gulph that we call the Mediterranean. Fables are not altogether fabulous; they are histories of remote periods, disguised by two very ancient and common defects; ignorance, and a love of the marvellous. It is not very credible that Hercules separated the two mountains with his hands; but I can easily believe that in the time of some Hercules, (for there have been fifty), the ocean may have torn asunder, perhaps with the assistance of an earthquake, two mountains more feeble than the rest and have by that means rushed in between Europe and Africa. Then a new spot was discovered on our globe, by thepeople in the moon, for you recollect, madam, that the water forms a dark spot. It is the general opinion that Sicily has been separated from Italy, and Cyprus from Syria: new islands have sometimes been formed in the sea; earthquakes have ingulfed some mountains, and produced others, as well as changed the course of rivers. Philosophers give us reason to fear that the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, being over great subterranean vaults filled with sulphur, will some time or other fall in, when the vaults are no longer strong enough to resist the fires contained in them, which now have vent at such openings as Vesuvius and Ætna. All this will be sufficient to diversify a little the appearance we make to the inhabitants of the moon.
I would rather tire them said the Marchioness, with a monotonous appearance, than entertain them by the ruin of provinces.
That is nothing, answered I, to what takes place in Jupiter. He appears to be surrounded with belts, which are distinguished from each other, or from the spaces betwixt them, by their different degrees of light. These are land and seas—or at least parts of the planet differing in their nature. Sometimes these lands grow narrower, sometimes wider. New ones are formed in various parts, and some of the old ones disappear: and all these changes visible only through our best telescopes, are in themselves much moreconsiderable than if our ocean were to inundate all the land, and leave its own bed to form new continents. Unless the inhabitants of Jupiter are amphibious, and live with equal ease either on land or in water, I hardly know what can become of them.[59]We see likewise great alterations on the surface of Mars, even from one month to another. In that short time seas overflow large continents, and retire by a flux and reflux a thousand times more violent than ours; or if this be not the case, some change equivalent to it takes place. Our planet is very quiet compared with these; we have great reason to congratulate ourselves, especially if it is true that in Jupiter countries as extensive as Europe have been set on fire. Set on fire! cried the Marchioness; that would be a great piece of news there. It would indeed, answered I. We have observed in Jupiter, for perhaps twenty years, a long stream of light more brilliant than the rest of the planet.[60]We have had deluges here, but very seldom; perhaps in Jupiter they have now and then a large conflagration as well as frequent deluges. But be that as it may, the brilliant light I spoke of is very different fromanother, which apparently is as old as the world, though it has but lately been discovered.[61]How can a light be formed for concealment? said she, that is something quite out of the common way.
[59]These lands surrounding Jupiter, which are sometimes few, and sometimes in great numbers, are apparently clouds.[60]I don't know that this observation is authentic.[61]The zodiacal light. Astron. Art. 844.
[59]These lands surrounding Jupiter, which are sometimes few, and sometimes in great numbers, are apparently clouds.
[60]I don't know that this observation is authentic.
[61]The zodiacal light. Astron. Art. 844.
This light, I replied, is only visible at twilight, which is most frequently long enough, and of sufficient power to conceal it; and when it is not hid by the twilight, either the vapours of the horizon prevent us from seeing it, or without great attention we may even mistake it for twilight. However, about thirty years since it was discovered with certainty, and for some time gave great delight to the astronomers, whose curiosity wanted stimulating by something new. They might find as many new subaltern planets as they chose without feeling any interest in them. The two last moons of Saturn, for instance, did not enrapture them as Jupiter's satellites had done; custom destroys the power of every thing.
We see, during a month before and after the equinox of March, when the sun is set and the twilight disappeared, a sort of whitish light resembling the tail of a comet. It is seen before the dawn and sun-rise, towards the equinox of September, and morning and night towards the winter solstice. At other times, as I have before said, the twilight conceals it; for we havereason to believe it always exists. It has lately been conjectured that it is produced by a large mass of matter, somewhat dense, which environs the sun for a certain extent. The greatest part of his rays penetrate this covering, and come to us in a straight line; but some of these rays by striking against the internal surface are reflected back to us, either before the direct rays can reach us in the morning, or after they have ceased to enlighten us in the evening. As these reflected rays come from a higher region than the direct ones, it is therefore earlier when we receive them, and later before we lose them.
On this ground I must retract what I said on the probability of the moon having no twilight, for want of a surrounding atmosphere as dense as that of the earth. She is no loser by it, if she can receive a twilight through this thick air which surrounds the sun, and reflects his light to places which could not have his direct rays. Then, enquired the Marchioness, will not this be a source of twilight to all the planets, without the necessity of a dense atmosphere to environ each, since that which surrounds the sun may produce the same effect for all the planets in the vortex? From the frugality of nature, I am disposed to believe she has effected the purpose by this means only. Yet, said I, in spite of this frugality, the earth would have two causes of twilight, one of which (the dense air before thesun), would be useless, and could only serve as an object of curiosity to the frequenters of the observatory: but it may be that the earth alone sends out exhalations sufficiently gross to produce twilight; and therefore a general resource has been provided for the other planets, if their evaporations are more pure and subtile. We, perhaps, of the inhabitants of all the worlds in our vortex breathe the grossest air; did the people of the other planets know that, with what contempt they would survey us!
That would be wrong, answered the Marchioness; we are not contemptible for being surrounded by a thick atmosphere since the sun himself is in the same situation. Tell me, is not this air produced by certain vapours that you formerly told me issued from the sun; and may it not be to moderate the power of the first rays which perhaps would otherwise be excessive? I think it probable that the sun may be thus veiled, to accommodate it to our use. That is a happy idea, madam, said I; you have founded a pretty little system. We may add that this vapour possibly falls back in a sort of rain to refresh the sun, in the same manner as we sometimes throw water into a forge when the fire becomes too fierce. We cannot attribute too much to the power of nature; but all her operations are not made visible to us, therefore we cannot feel assured of having discovered her designs, or hermanner of acting. We should not consider any new discovery a certain foundation for reasoning on, though we are very much inclined to do it: philosophers are like elephants, that in walking never put one foot to the ground till they feel the other firmly supported. That comparison, said she, is the more just because the merit either of elephants or philosophers does not consist in external charms; we shall however do well to imitate the superior judgment of both: inform me more of the new discoveries, and I promise not to be in a hurry again to form systems.
I have told you, I replied, all the news I have heard from the sky, and I believe no later intelligence has been received. I am sorry it is not so entertaining and wonderful as some observations I read the other day in an abridgment of the Annals of China, written in Latin. They there see a thousand stars at a time fall from the sky into the ocean with an amazing noise; or dissolve and disperse in rain. This has not merely been seen once in China; I have met with the same account given at two remote periods of time, besides that of a star which goes towards the east, and bursts with the noise of a gun. It is a pity such sights should be confined to China, while this part of the world is never favoured with them. It is not long since all our philosophers thought they had had sufficientexperience to pronounce the heavens and all the celestial bodies incorruptible and incapable of change; and at the same time people at the other end of the world were seeing stars dissolve by thousands: there appearance must have differed very much from ours. But, said she, I never heard that the Chinese were great astronomers. No, answered I, but the Chinese are gainers by being at so great a distance from us, as the Greeks and Romans were by being separated by a long space of time; whatever is remote assumes the right of imposing on us.
Really I am more and more of opinion that Europe is in possession of a degree of genius which has never extended to any other part of the globe, at least not to any distant part. It is not perhaps able to diffuse itself over a great proportion of the earth at once, and some invincible fatality prescribes to it very narrow bounds. Let us then make use of it while it is in our possession: and let us rejoice that it is not confined to science and dry speculations, but equally extended to objects of taste, in which I doubt whether any people can equal us. Such, madam, are the things that should engage your attention and constitute your philosophy.
THE END.