abode of some tenant; and this is all that is aimed at by the analogy of worlds.
4. The author argues, that geology tells us that there was a period in our world's history when man did not exist, and when, possibly, no living creature existed upon the earth. Now, we admit the force of this argument so far. It shews us that we are not entitled to point to any planet, and say that it is at this moment inhabited; but surely the natural inference is, that if it is not now inhabited, it may in the course of time be inhabited. This is the conclusion to which the analogy of the earth leads.
The infidel objection of Paine is:—"Though it be not a direct article of the Christian faith that the world we inhabit is the whole of the habitable creation, yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of the story, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwise—that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars—renders the Christian faith at once little and ridiculous, and scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs cannot be held together in the same mind, and he who thinks he believes both has thought but little of either." The force of this argument is based on the contrast between man's littleness, and the greatness, first, of the material universe, and, secondly, of the number of spiritual intelligences in other parts of
