The Plurality of Worlds ...Gould and Lincoln, 1854 - 307 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Algol alogy analogy animals appear argument ARNOLD GUYOT assumption astronomical believe bodies brute centre Chalmers clouds comet conceive condition conjecture creation creatures degree density difficulty discover discoveries distance Divine doctrine earth earth's orbit evidence existence fact fixed stars geological periods geologists geology globe God's ground habitation Herschel HUGH MILLER hypothesis immense inhabitants intellectual intelligent Jupiter kind knowledge least less light and heat living things luminous man's Mars mass material matter meteoric stones mind Moon moral motions nature nebulæ Nebular Hypothesis Neptune objects occupied Old Red Sandstone organic peculiar perhaps period planetary planets population present probably produce progress purpose reason regard region Religion religious remark resemblance revolution satellites Saturn Sirius solar system solid space species speculations spiral strata suppose supposition surface telescope terrestrial thought thousand tion tribes truth universe Uranus vapor vast vegetable
Popular passages
Page 23 - O rack me not to such a vast extent; Those distances belong to thee: The world's too little for thy tent, A grave too big for me.
Page 68 - Far other life you live, far other tongue You talk, far other thought, perhaps, you think, Than man. How various are the works of God! But say, what thought?
Page 270 - His mighty lathe : — the sparks which darted from His awful anvil when the solar system lay incandescent thereon ; — the curls of vapour which rose from the great cauldron of creation when its elements were separated. If even these superfluous portions of the material are marked with universal traces of regularity and order, this shows that universal rules are his implements, and that Order is the first and universal Law of the heavenly work.
Page 262 - Worlds roll in these distant regions ; and these worlds must be the mansions of life and intelligence. In yon gilded canopy of heaven we see the broad aspect of the universe, where each shining point presents us with a sun, and each sun with a system of worlds — where the Divinity reigns in all the grandeur of his attributes...
Page 128 - ... we discover : not the repetition of exactly similar cases, but a series of cases perpetually dissimilar, presents itself : not constancy, but change — perhaps advance ; not one permanent and pervading scheme, but preparation and completion of successive schemes : — not uniformity, and a fixed type of existences, but progression and a climax.