Are the Planets Inhabited?

by E. Walter Maunder

Once Life was not, yet Life came, and now, life is abundant, but abundant only in worlds quite exceptional in their conditions, and therefore few in number; it is even conceivable that this Earth of ours may be unique. But life as we know it, protoplasmic life, life dependent upon water, the life of intelligence united to the material organism, is under sentence of death. Has it any future beyond that veil? Is there any kind of life not subject to these narrow limitations; not under the inexorable decree?

To questions such as these Science has no reply to give; it is even more helpless to answer them than to determine how life first came; its experience does not reach so far. Science can examine the present conditions of physical life, but whether or no that life can undergo a change greater than that which passed upon the old inorganic world, it cannot determine. It has no experience.

But if Science is dumb, if the utmost exertion of human energy and power of research can throw no light on a future of which we have no experience, we are not left without an answer. A voice has been heard, the voice of the Son of God Himself:

“I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

And accepting His word, the Church in all ages, and among all nations, peoples, and tongues, has made reply:

“I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

---

INDEX

Abbot, C. G., [27], [34]
Albedo of Earth, [54], [81]
—— Jupiter, [127]
—— Mars, [81]
—— Moon, [54]
Albumin sol, [15]
Algol-type stars, [35], [144], [145]
Antares, [38]
Antoniadi, E. M., [97], [104]
Archangel, climate of, [87], [88]
Arcturus, [35], [37]
Aristarchus, lunar crater, [48]
“Astronomical unit,” [21]
Atmosphere of, Mars, [76]
——, Moon, [53]
——, Sun, [25]
——, Venus, [112]
Barnard, E. E., [89], [104]
Beer, [60], [97], [98]
Bond, G. P., [127], [128]
Brewster, Sir David, [4]
Calcium, [12], [36]
Callisto, satellite of Jupiter, [131]
Calory, [26]
Campbell, W. W., [145]
Carbon, [11], [34], [38], [39]
Carbonic acid, [11]
Cassini, [59], [60], [130]
Ceres, minor planet, [41], [120], [121], [122], [131]
Cerulli, V., [104], [108]
Chromosphere, [28], [29]
Cobalt, [33]
Comet, Encke’s, [119]
——, Halley’s, [119]
——, spectra, [38]
Copernican theory, [1]
Copper, [33]
Corona, [40]
Coxwell, [25], [75], [79]
Cyanogen, [37], [38]
Czapek, F., [11], [13]
Darwin, Sir G. H., [116]
Dawes, W. R., [60], [63], [97], [99]
Denning, W. F., [104]
Dispersion, anomalous, [28]
Doppelmayer, lunar crater, [52]
Dubois, Eugene, [155]
Eros, minor planet, [57]
Europa, satellite of Jupiter, [131]
Evans, J. E., [107]
Faculae, [29], [30]
Fauth, P., [50]
Flamsteed, lunar crater, [52]
Fluorine, [40]
Fraunhofer, [33]
Galileo, [51], [59], [131]
Ganymede, satellite of Jupiter, [131], [132]
Gay-Lussac, [75]
Glaisher, J., [25], [75], [79]
Goodacre, W., [49]
Green, N. E., [60], [62], [63]
Greenwich Hospital School, [107], [108]
“Gulliver’s Travels,” [82], [156]
Haeckel, E., [12]
Halogens, [36], [40]
“Harper’s Weekly,” [93]
Helium, [37]
Herschel, Sir J., [54]
—— Sir W., [20], [49], [59], [60], [61]
Hevelius, [51]
Hippalus, lunar crater, [52]
Hooke, R., [59], [60], [130]
Huyghens, [59]
Hydrocarbons, [38]
Hydrogen, [11], [36], [37], [38], [41], [81]
“Inhabitant,” [5]
“Inhabited” Worlds, [2], [3], [4]
Io, satellite of Jupiter, [131]
Iron, [12], [33], [36]
Jupiter, [122-32]
——, belts, [127], [129]
——, great red spot, [130]
——, proper motion of spots, [129]
——, satellites of, [128], [131]
——, white spots, [128], [130]
Keeler, J. E., [122], [125]
Kies, lunar crater, [52]
Kirchhoff, [33]
Lacus Solis, [97], [98], [99]
Langley, S. P., [55]
Lilliputians, [82], [83]
Linné, lunar crater, [48]
Lockyer, J. N., [60]
Lowell, P., [65], [66], [67], [69], [71], [81], [97], [98], [99], [101], [103], [104], [105], [106], [108], [109], [110]
Lucifer, [111]
Mädler, [46], [48], [60], [97], [98]
Maginus, lunar crater, [46]
Magnesium, [12], [36]
Manganese, [33]
Mare Fecunditatis, [47]
—— Humerum, [52]
—— Nubium, [52]
—— Serenitatis, [48]
Mars, canals of, [57-70], [78], [101], [102]
——, conditions of, [71-95]
——, illusions of, [96-110]
——, meteorology of, [93-4]
——, oases of, [65], [98], [99], [101]
——, thermograph of, [91], [92]
——, winds of, [77]
Mendeléeff, [39]
Mercury, [114-18]
Messier, lunar crater, [47], [48]
Metabolism, [10], [11], [14], [15], [38]
Millechau, [104]
Milton, [51]
Mira Ceti, [150]
Molesworth, P. B., [49], [104]
Moon, [43-56]
——, “terminator” of, [51]
Mont Blanc, [25], [74], [80]
Mount Everest, [75], [80]
Nature of Vision, [99]
Nebulae, spectrum of, [38], [40]
Nebulium, [40]
Negative elements, [36]
Neison, E., [48], [53]
Neptune, [132], [141]
Newcomb, S., [93], [109]
Nicholson, J. W., [40]
Nickel, [33]
Nilosyrtis, “canal” on Mars, [89]
Nitrogen, [11], [37], [38], [39]
Observatory, Chicago, [44]
——, Harvard College, [127]
——, Lick, [122]
——, Paris, [44]
Occultation, [52], [53]
Organic Life, definition of, [15]
Organism, living, [6-19]
Organo-genetic elements, [12], [38], [39]
Osmosis, [15]
Oxygen, [11], [36], [37], [38], [41]
Periodic Law, Mendeléeff’s, [39]
Phillips, T. E. R., [104]
Phosphorus, [12]
Photosphere, [28], [33], [36]
Pickering, W. H., [47], [48], [53], [109]
Pithecanthropus, [155]
Planetary statistics, table of, [72], [73], [135]
Platinum, [36]
“Plurality of Worlds,” [2]
Pollock, Master, [109]
Potassium, [12]
Poynting, J. H., [86], [87], [89], [115]
Proctor, R. A., [34], [77]
Prominences, [29], [30], [37]
Protofluorine, [40]
Protonilus, “canal” on Mars, [89]
Protoplasm, [11], [12], [13], [15], [38], [40], [154]
Pyramid, Great, [45]
Refraction, anomalous, [28]
Reversing layer, [36]
“Rice-grains,” of Sun’s surface, [28], [29]
Ring Nebula in Lyra, [40]
Rosse, Lord, [55]
Ruskin, J., [19]
Saturn, [132]
——, Rings of, [138]
Schiaparelli, G. V., [61], [62], [63], [64], [66], [97], [99], [107], [108], [116], [117]
Schooling, T. Holt, [83]
“Scientia,” [66]
“Semi-suns,” [131], [132]
Serviss, Garrett P., [17]
Singapore, climate of, [87], [88]
Sinus Sabaeus, marking on Mars, [97], [99]
Sirius, [37]
Sodium, [33], [36]
“Solar Constant,” [26]
Spectroscopic binaries, [144], [145]
Spectrum, [53]
——, heat, [55]
“Spurious” disc, [103]
Stars, double, [35]
——, multiple, [35]
——, red, [38]
——, spectra of, [34], [38], [39]
Stefan’s Law, [85]
Stoney, G. Johnstone, [34]
“Streaming,” [15]
Sulphur, [11], [38]
Sun, [20-32]
Sunspots, [29], [30], [31], [38]
——, spectra of, [37]
Swift, Dean, [82], [156]
Table Mountain, [54]
Thermograph of Mars, [91], [92]
Titanium, [36], [37], [38]
Tornadoes, [31], [137]
“Twinkler,” [114]
Tycho, lunar crater, [46]
Uranus, [132], [140]
Venus, [57], [111-18]
Verworn, Max, [7]
Very, F. W., [55]
Vesper, [111]
“Victoria,” hypothetical planet, [83]
Wallace, A. R., [4]
“War of the Worlds,” [104], [156]
Waste, [151], [152]
Water, indispensable factor, [15], [41]
Wells, H. G., [104], [156]
Whewell, [4]
Williams, A. Stanley, [104]
Wolf, Max, [40]
Young, C. A., [26], [33]