Sir David Brewster has well said,[530] “Isaiah furnishes us with a striking passage, in which the occupants of the earth and the heavens are separately described, ‘I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded’ (Isaiah xlv. 12). But in addition to these obvious references to life and things pertaining to life, we find in Isaiah the following remarkable passage: ‘For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not IN VAIN, He formed it to be inhabited’ (Isaiah xlv. 18). Here we have a distinct declaration from the inspired prophet that the earth would have been created IN VAIN if it had not been formed to be inhabited; and hence we draw the conclusion that as the Creator cannot be supposed to have made the worlds of our system and those in the sidereal system in vain, they must have been formed to be inhabited.” This seems to the present writer to be a good and sufficient reply to Dr. Wallace’s theory that our earth is the only inhabited world in the Universe![531] Such a theory seems incredible.

The recent discovery made by Prof. Kapteyn, and confirmed by Mr. Eddington, of two drifts of stars, indicating the existence of two universes, seems to render untenable Dr. Wallace’s hypothesis of the earth’s central position in a single universe.[531]

Note added in the Press.

While these pages were in the Press, it was announced, by Dr. Max Wolf of Heidelberg, that he found Halley’s comet on a photograph taken on the early morning of September 12, 1909. The discovery has been confirmed at Greenwich Observatory. The comet was close to the position predicted by the calculations of Messrs. Cowell and Crommelin of Greenwich Observatory (Nature, September 16, 1908).

INDEX

A
Aboukir, [287]
Aboul Hassan, [221]
Abu Ali al Farisi, [225]
Abu-Hanifa, [233], [234]
Abul-fadl, [236]
Accadians, [250], [252]
Achernar, [275]
Aclian, [282]
Adam, [96], [347]
Adhad-al-Davlat, [225], [236]
Adonis, [261]
Adreaansz, [342]
Airy, Sir G. B., [87], [140], [347], [357]
Aitken, [160]
Al-Battani, [232], [233]
Albrecht, [173]
Albufaragius, [283]
Alcor, [241]
Alcyone, [137]
Aldebaran, [60], [156], [236], [252], [257], [310], [311]
Alfard, [236], [289]
Alfargani, [286]
Alfraganus, [281]
Almagest, [281]
Al-Sufi, [47], [149], [179], [189], [221], [224], [225-238], [244], [246], [250], [251], [253], [254], [261], [263], [264], [266-270], [272], [274-278], [285], [287], [289], [290], [293], [298], [300-302], [304], [307]
Altair, [246]
Ampelius, [262]
Amphion, [257]
Ancient eclipses, [52], [53]
Anderson, [120], [277]
Andromeda nebula, [198-206], [231]
Annals of Ulster, [332]
Antares, [60], [179], [310], [311]
Anthelm, [300]
Antinous, [248]
Antlia, [302]
Apollo, [257]
Apparent diameter of moon, [49]
Apple, [79]
“Apples, golden,” [258]
Apus, [306]
Aquarius, [268]
Aquila, [246]
Aquillus, [220]
Ara [295]
Arago, [26], [30], [57], [116], [193], [331]
Aratus, [219], [242], [245], [250], [255], [256], [261], [263], [272]
Archimedes, [346], [354]
Arcturus, [148], [188], [244]
Argelander, [29], [227], [229], [230], [240]
Argo, [285-288], [305]
Argon in sun, [4]
Argonauts, [243], [250]
Aries, [250]
Aristotle, [49], [67]
Arrhenius, [4], [8], [22], [45], [66]
Ashtoreth, [260]
Astra Borbonia, [4]
Astræa, [263]
Astronomy, Laplace on, [44]
Astro Theology, [23]
Atarid, [232], [233]
Atmosphere, height of, [33]
Augean stables, [269]
Augustus, [262]
Auriga, [245]
Aurora, [33], [41], [42]
Auwers, [206]
Axis of Mars, [59]
B
Babilu, [267]
Baily, [137], [144]
Baker, [183]
Ball, Sir Robert, [6], [355]
Barnard, Prof., [29], [54], [57], [79], [80], [81], [85], [86], [91], [93], [103], [104], [114], [130], [132], [139], [192], [213], [316], [317], [350]
Barnes, [78], [79]
Bartlett, [35], [36]
Bartschius, [296], [298]
Bauschingen, [69], [70]
Bayer, [179], [221], [272], [284], [309], [310]
Bayeux Tapestry, [105]
Becquerel, [8]
“Beehive,” [259]
Beer, [20]
Bel, [250]
Bellatrix, [253]
Benoit, [22]
Berenice, [297]
Berry, [25]
Bessel, [339]
Betelgeuse, [179], [222], [264]
Bianchini, [21], [22], [77]
Biela’s comet, [99]
Bifornis, [268]
Binary stars, [162]
Birmingham, [5], [114]
“Black body,” [3]
“Blackness” of sun-spots, [6]
“Blaze star,” [180], [184]
Bode, [276]
Bohlin, [199], [200]
Bond, [85]
Bond (Jun.), [74]
Book of the Dead, [264], [274]
Borelly, [103]
Boserup, [28]
Boss, [152]
Brahé, Tycho. See [Tycho Brahé]
Brauner, [211]
Bravais, [42]
Bredikhin, [76]
Bremiker, [94]
Brenner, Léo, [13], [22], [87], [91], [133]
Brewster, [356]
Brightness of Mercury, [10-12]
"of nebulæ, [193]
"of sun, [1], [2], [3]
"of Venus, [14], [17], [19], [31]
Bright clouds, [33], [34]
"night, [45]
"stars, [278]
Brooks, [118]
Brown, [218], [219], [248], [255], [260], [267], [272], [279], [281], [291], [295]
Browning, [25]
Brugsch, [127]
Buddha, [256]
Bull, Pope’s, [107]
“Bull’s foot,” [253]
Buonaparte, [30]
Burnham, [160], [165-167], [180], [184], [260], [350], [351]
Burns, [130]
Buss, [4]
C
Caaba, [125]
Cacciatore, [72]
Cælum, [302]
Callimachus, [297]
Callixtus III., [107]
Calvisius, [53]
Camelopardalis, [296]
Cameron, [18]
Campbell, [85], [153], [159], [178]
“Canals” on Mars, [61-63]
Cancer, [258], [259]
Canes Venatici, [296]
Canicula, [280]
Canis Major, [279]
"Minor, [284]
Canopus, [157], [286], [344]
Capella, [156], [164], [189], [236], [245], [246]
Capricornus, [267], [268]
“Capture” of satellites, [58]
Carbonic acid, [66]
Cassini, [20], [22], [74], [78], [358]
Cassiopeia’s Chair, [244]
Castor, [160], [257]
Caswell, [52]
Catullus, [297]
Caussin, [225]
Cecrops, [268]
“Celestial Rivers,” [308]
Celoria, [324], [326]
Centaurus, [292], [293]
Centre of gravity, [8]
Cephalus, [279]
Cepheid variables, [187]
Ceraski, [2], [176]
Cerberus, [243], [257]
Ceres, [260]
Cerulli, [22], [62]
Cetus, [272]
Chacornac, [18], [84]
Chamælion, [305]
Chamberlin, [194]
Chambers, [72]
“Charles’ Wain,” [240]
Chinese Annals, [19], [30], [105], [186], [223], [267], [330]
Childrey, [128]
Chiron, [295]
Christmann, [281]
Chromosphere, sun’s, [4]
Cicero, [49], [262], [280], [355]
Circinus, [307]
Clavius, [334]
Climate, [45]
“Coal Sack,” [293], [320]
Cobham, [88], [102]
Colbert, [175]
Colours of stars, [140], [141], [188-190]
Coma Berenices, [297], [298]
Comets, number of, [98]
"tails of, [115], [116]
Comet years, [104]
Comiers, [99]
Comstock, [90], [146]
Condamine, [257]
Conon, [297]
Coon Butte mountain, [120], [121]
Cooper, [3]
Copeland, [76], [157]
Corona, sun’s, [1], [334]
"round moon, [35], [36]
Corona Australis, [295]
Corvinus, [292]
Corvus, [292]
Cotsworth, [46]
Cowell, [105]
Crabtree, [337]
Crater, [291]
Craters on moon, [55], [56]
Crawford, [348]
Crecy, Battle of, [333]
Crescent of Venus, [19], [20]
Crommelin, [105], [111]
Crucifixion, [18]
Curtis, [344]
Cusps of Venus, [20]
Cygnus, (61), [155]
Cynocephalus, [222]
D
Dante, [156], [258], [265]
Dark shade on moon, [333]
D’Arrest, [94]
Darwin, Sir George, [158], [319]
“David’s Chariot,” [241]
Davis, [155]
Dawes, [168]
“Dawn proclaimer,” [251]
Delambre, [185]
Delauney, [347]
Dembowski, [190]
Demetrius, [111]
Denning, [11], [74], [77], [84], [86], [87], [89], [99], [118], [340]
Derham, [21], [23]
Deucalion, [268]
De Vico, [21], [22]
Diamonds in meteorites, [127]
Dilkur, [251]
Diodorus Siculus, [127]
Diogenes Laertius, [41]
Diomed, [272]
Dione, [89]
“Dipper,” [241]
Doberck, [160]
Dollond, [24]
Domitian, [334]
Donati’s comet, [100]
Dorado, [304]
Dordona, [256]
Dorn, [245]
Douglass, [81]
Dragon, [242]
Draper, [75]
Drayton, [156]
Dreyer, [115]
Drifting stars, [152]
Dryden, [242]
Duncan, [187]
Dunlop, [264]
Dupret, [83]
Dupuis, [245], [252], [257], [258], [259], [266], [267], [268]
“Dusky star,” [272]
E
“Earthen jar,” [247]
Earth’s attraction on moon, [55]
Earth’s motions, [39]
"rotation, [46]
"surface, [32]
“Earthshine” on moon, [51], [52], [56], [57]
Eastmann, [316]
Easton, [323], [324], [325]
Eclipses, ancient, [52], [53],

[57], [58]
"dark, of moon, [53], [57], [58]
Ecliptic, obliquity of, [47]
Eddington, [357]
Electra, [19]
Elster, [39]
Emerson, [353]
Enceladus, [89]
Encke, [113], [116], [240]
Ennis, [189]
Eratosthenes, [250], [297], [345]
Eridanus, [274-278]
Eros, [69], [70], [71]
Eta Argus, [177], [287]
Eudemus, [47]
Eudoxus, [218], [219], [223]
Euler, [56]
Eunomia, [71]
Europa, [252]
F
Fabritius, [4], [101]
Fabry, [1]
Faint stars in telescope, [176]
“False Cross,” [156]
“Famous stars,” [246]
Fath, [130], [213]
Faye, [100]
February, Five Sundays in, [36]
Fergani, [189]
“Fisher Stars,” [256]
“Fishes in Andromeda,” [249]
Fitzgerald, [127]
Flammarion, [22], [26], [50], [138], [255], [265], [276]
Flamsteed, [348]
“Flat earth” theory, [32]
Fomalhaut, [271], [309], [310]
Fontana, [20]
Fontenelle, [357]
Forbes, [82], [95], [96]
Fornax, [301]
Fournier, [87]
Fovea, [284]
Freeman, [88]
Fréret, [222]
Frisby, [101]
Fritsch, [21]
Furner, [163]
G
Gale, [78]
Galileo, [3], [4], [80], [82]
Galle, [94], [341]
Ganymede, [268]
Gaseous nebula, spectra of, [195-198], [212]
Gassendi, [14], [139]
Gathman, [118]
Gaubil, [99]
Gauthier, [103]
Gegenschein, [131]
Gemini, [257], [258]
Geminid variables, [187]
Gentil, Le, [338], [339]
Gertel, [39]
Ghizeh, Pyramids of, [353]
Gibbous phase of Jupiter, [75]
Gill, Sir David, [118], [215], [216], [346]
Glacial epoch, [42]
Gledhill, [76]
Globular clusters, [214], [215]
Goad, [12]
Goatcher, [179]
“Golden apples,” [258]
Golius, [281]
Gould, [229], [278], [301], [304], [309], [310], [326]
Grant, [82], [96], [345]
Gravitation, Law of, [15], [40]
Greely, [186]
Greisbach, [80]
Groombridge 1830, [159]
Grubb, Sir Howard, [164]
Gruithuisen, [21], [25], [26], [28]
Gruson, [127]
Guillaume, [331]
Guthrie, [25]
H
Habitability of Mars, [63-66]
"of planets, [40]
Hadrian, [248]
Halbert, [78]
Hale, [148], [150]
Hall, [15], [131]
Halley, [14], [17], [99], [105], [106], [108], [109], [116], [143], [145], [276]
Halm, [122]
Halo, [35], [36]
Hanouman, [284]
Hansen, [351]
Hansky, [27]
Harding, [25], [26], [94]
“Harris, Mrs.,” [90]
Hartwig, [88], [173]
Harvests, [104]
Heat of sun, [2], [3], [7]
Height of atmosphere, [33]
Heis, [132], [175], [189], [227], [229], [344]
Helium, [4]
Hepidanus, [267], [348]
Hercules, [243], [259], [268]
Herod, [18], [53]
Herschel, Miss Caroline, [193], [194], [324], [357]
Herschel, Sir John, [112], [177], [190], [207], [209], [210], [215], [289], [314], [346], [353]
Herschel, Sir Wm., [3], [24], [80], [112], [114], [115], [116], [171], [178], [179], [190], [324], [325]
Hesiod, [17], [220]
Hesperus, [256]
Hevelius, [99], [116], [221], [296], [299], [300]
Hill, [87], [355]
Hind, [19], [30], [54], [105], [111], [180]
Hipparchus, [135], [221-223], [226], [250], [278], [281], [293], [329]
Hippocrates, [258]
Hirst, [333]
Holetschak, [108]
Homer, [17]
Honorat, [84]
Hooke, [74], [128]
Horace, [280]
Horologium, [303]
Horus, [145], [258]
Horrebow, [29]
Horrocks, [337]
Hortensus, Martinus, [139]
Hough, [76]
Houzeau, [227], [229], [262], [274], [344]
Hovedin, Roger de, [53]
Hubbard, [100]
Huggins, Sir Wm., [91], [148], [180]
Humboldt, [30], [82], [83], [124], [128], [134], [154], [157], [342], [352], [357]
Hussey, [88]
Hyades, [157], [252], [253], [257]
Hydra, [288]
Hydrus, [303]
Hyperion, [88], [90]
I
Ibn al-Aalam, [225]
Ibn Alraqqa, [281]
Icarus, [284]
Indus, [307]
Inhabited worlds, [328], [357]
Innes, [78], [168]
Intra-Mercurial planet, [14], [15], [29]
Invention of telescope, [342]
Io, [252]
Ions, [27]
Iris, [71]
Isaiah, [17], [356]
Isis, [252], [261], [282], [283]
Istar, [260]
J
Jansen, [342]
Japetus, [89], [90]
Jason, [257], [285]
Johnson, Rev. S. J., [19]
Jonckheere, [15]
Jones, [129]
Jordan, [174]
Jupiter, [chap. viii.]
"gibbous form of, [75]
"and sun, [8]
K
Kalevala, [240]
Kapteyn, [314], [316], [321], [322], [326], [357]
Kazemerski, [244]
Keeler, [86], [215]
Kelvin, Lord, [206], [315], [316]
Kempf, [174]
Kepler, [52], [57], [298], [340], [341], [351]
Khayyam, Omar, [127]
Kimah, [255]
Kimball, [51]
Kimta, [255]
Kirch, [23], [115]
Kirkwood, [6]
Kleiber, [123]
Klein, [114], [183]
Knobel, [238], [263]
Konkoly, [183]
Koran, [127], [270]
Kreusler, [4]
Kreutz, [101], [112]
L
Lacaille, [294], [301], [302]
Lacerta, [300]
Lagrange, [345]
La Hire, [20], [21]
Lalande, [143], [144], [284]
Landerer, [52]
Langdon, [25]
Langley, Prof., [3]
Laplace, [43], [44], [98], [346], [351], [354]
Larkin, [65]
Lassell, [77], [128]
“Last in the River,” [275-298]
Last year of century, [37]

Lau, [178], [183]
Leo, [259]
Leo Minor, [298]
Lepus, [278], [279]
Lernæan marsh, [258]
Leverrier, [44], [347], [351]
Lewis, [156], [162]
Lewis, Sir G. C., [17]
Lexell’s comet, [98]
Libra, [262]
Life, possible, in Mars, [63-65]
Light of full moon, [1], [51]
Lippershey, [342]
Littrow, [339]
Lockyer, Sir Norman, [144], [147]
Lodge, Sir Oliver, [55]
Long, [343], [357]
Longfellow, [156], [273]
Lottin, [42]
Lowell, [22], [43], [59], [61], [64], [88]
Lucifer, [17]
Lucretius, [320]
“Luminous clouds,” [33], [34]
Lunar craters, [55], [56]
"“mansions,” [251]
"mountains, [58]
"theory, [56]
Lunt, [179]
Lupus, [294]
Lyman, [25]
Lynn, [37], [38], [96], [106], [179], [243], [244], [310]
Lynx, [296]
Lyra, [243], [244], [266]
M
Maclear, [77]
Mädler, [20], [22]
Mæstlin, [341]
Magi, star of, [1], [18], [145]
Magnitudes, star, [311]
Maia, [19], [256]
Mairan, [357]
“Manger,” [259]
Manilius, [250], [259], [272]
Marius, Simon, [82], [83], [231]
Markree Castle, [3]
Marmol, [76]
Mars, [chap. vi.];
axis of [59];
red colour of, [60];
water vapour in, [60];
clouds in, [61];
“canals” in, [61]
Martial, [17]
Mascari, [22]
Ma-tuan-lin, [186], [267]
Mayer, [24]
May transits of Mercury, [15]
Maxwell, Clerk, [86]
McHarg, [16]
McKay, [286]
Medusa, [244]
Mee, [88]
Melotte, [82]
Mendelief, [212]
Mensa, [304]
Mercury, [chap, ii.], [258]
Merrill, [121]
Messier, [114]
Meteoric stones, [119]
Meteors, [33]
Metius, [342]
Microscopium, [302]
Milky Way, [320], [323], [325], [326], [328]
Milton, [263]