proved these; you have shown that if these distant spheres obey laws similar to those laws which operate upon our terrestrial globe, then it is probable, nay, almost certain, that reflecting beings, endowed with reason and with minds similar to our own, exist in these remote worlds, as their highest product, as the flowers of their life and laws, yes, that it is improbable that the great Creator there should have left his work more incomplete than upon this earth.
The same light, the same shadow! and I add, the same joy, the same tears, the same yearnings, the same hope, the same wants, the same faith, the same God, Creator, Mediator, Perfecter, yes, although under different circumstances and in different degrees of development, still individually the same for all, because the same normal process of life must avail for all. I do not know whether you go with me so far; but in one thing I believe that you will agree with me, because the thought is suggested by your work—namely—that there is not, in the whole universe, any place, not even the most remote star, which is altogether alien to this world, this earth upon which we live, and that reason which exists in us. From the wintry stillness of Urania to the glowing fervent life of Mercury, from the Nebula which slowly developes itself beneath the eye of the Creator in accordance with laws and powers similar to those of our earth, to the star which having attained the highest material perfectibility, producing harmonious communities of beautiful human beings and animal life, all conditions, all changes and scenes, all degrees of development and dissimilar associations of being in nature and spirit which the human life and human imagination can conceiveand far, far more still—for where is the human imagination that can extend to the peopling of the starry firmament, to the conception of all its forms?all this is nevertheless, in reality, human,—is the world of man;
