{"product_id":"2940015735154","title":"Are the Planets Inhabited?","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  CHAPTER                                           PAGE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I. THE QUESTION STATED                            1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    II. THE LIVING ORGANISM                            6\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   III. THE SUN                                       20\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    IV. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS IN SPACE     33\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     V. THE MOON                                      43\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    VI. THE CANALS OF MARS                            57\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   VII. THE CONDITION OF MARS                         71\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  VIII. THE ILLUSIONS OF MARS                         96\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    IX. VENUS, MERCURY AND THE ASTEROIDS             111\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     X. THE MAJOR PLANETS                            122\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XI. WHEN THE MAJOR PLANETS COOL                  133\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   XII. THE FINAL QUESTION                           143\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e        INDEX                                        163\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eARE THE PLANETS INHABITED?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE QUESTION STATED\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first thought that men had concerning the heavenly bodies was an\u003cbr\u003eobvious one: they were lights. There was a greater light to rule the day;\u003cbr\u003ea lesser light to rule the night; and there were the stars also.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn those days there seemed an immense difference between the earth upon\u003cbr\u003ewhich men stood, and the bright objects that shone down upon it from the\u003cbr\u003eheavens above. The earth seemed to be vast, dark, and motionless; the\u003cbr\u003ecelestial lights seemed to be small, and moved, and shone. The earth was\u003cbr\u003ethen regarded as the fixed centre of the universe, but the Copernican\u003cbr\u003etheory has since deprived it of this pride of place. Yet from another\u003cbr\u003epoint of view the new conception of its position involves a promotion,\u003cbr\u003esince the earth itself is now regarded as a heavenly body of the same\u003cbr\u003eorder as some of those which shine down upon us. It is amongst them, and\u003cbr\u003eit too moves and shines--shines, as some of them do, by reflecting the\u003cbr\u003elight of the sun. Could we transport ourselves to a neighbouring world,\u003cbr\u003ethe earth would seem a star, not distinguishable in kind from the rest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut as men realized this, they began to ask: \"Since this world from a\u003cbr\u003edistant standpoint must appear as a star, would not a star, if we could\u003cbr\u003eget near enough to it, show itself also as a world? This world teems with\u003cbr\u003elife; above all, it is the home of human life. Men and women, gifted with\u003cbr\u003efeeling, intelligence, and character, look upward from its surface and\u003cbr\u003ewatch the shining members of the heavenly host. Are none of these the home\u003cbr\u003eof beings gifted with like powers, who watch in their turn the movements\u003cbr\u003eof that shining point which is our world?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the meaning of the controversy on the Plurality of Worlds which\u003cbr\u003eexcited so much interest some sixty years ago, and has been with us more\u003cbr\u003eor less ever since. It is the desire to recognize the presence in the orbs\u003cbr\u003earound us of beings like ourselves, possessed of personality and\u003cbr\u003eintelligence, lodged in an organic body.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is what is meant when we speak of a world being \"inhabited.\" It would\u003cbr\u003enot, for example, at all content us if we could ascertain that Jupiter was\u003cbr\u003ecovered by a shoreless ocean, rich in every variety of fish; or that the\u003cbr\u003ehard rocks of the Moon were delicately veiled by lichens. Just as no\u003cbr\u003erichness of vegetation and no fulness and complexity of animal life would\u003cbr\u003ejustify an explorer in describing some land that he had discovered as\u003cbr\u003ebeing \"inhabited\" if no men were there, so we cannot rightly speak of any\u003cbr\u003eother world as being \"inhabited\" if it is not the home of intelligent\u003cbr\u003elife. If the life did not rise above the level of algæ or oysters, the\u003cbr\u003eglobe on which they flourish would be uninhabited in our estimation, and\u003cbr\u003eits chief interest would lie in the possibility that in the course of ages\u003cbr\u003elife might change its forms and develop hereafter into manifestations with\u003cbr\u003ewhich we could claim a nearer kinship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the other hand, of necessity we are precluded from extending our\u003cbr\u003eenquiry to the case of disembodied intelligences, if such be conceived\u003cbr\u003epossible. All created existences must be conditioned, but if we have no\u003cbr\u003eknowledge of what those conditions may be, or means for attaining such\u003cbr\u003eknowledge, we cannot discuss them. Nothing can be affirmed, nothing\u003cbr\u003edenied, concerning the possibility of intelligences existing on the Moon\u003cbr\u003eor even in the Sun if we are unable to ascertain under what limitations\u003cbr\u003ethose particular intelligences subsist. Gnomes, sylphs, elves, and\u003cbr\u003efairies, and all similar conceptions, escape the possibility of discussion\u003cbr\u003eby our ignorance of their properties. As nothing can be asserted of them\u003cbr\u003ethey remain beyond investigation, as they are beyond sight and touch.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146473193712,"sku":"2940015735154","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015735154","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}