To conjecture is all that we can do; yet even by the perception of such a possibility, our view of the domain of nature is enlarged and elevated.” Speaking again of the stars, and supposing them suns, with planets revolving round them, he adds, “And these may, like our planet, be the seats of vegetable, animal, and rational life. We may thus have in the universe, worlds, no one knows how many, no one can guess how varied.” And, finally, in the ensuing chapter, “On man’s place in the Universe,” he says: “We thus find that a few of the shining spots which we see scattered on the face of the sky in such profusion, appear to be of the same nature as the earth; and may, perhaps, as analogy would suggest, be, like the earth, the habitations of organised beings.” Undoubtedly these remarks are penned in a cautious and philosophic spirit; and upwards of twenty years’ subsequent reflection, by the light of various splendid astronomical discoveries during that interval, is now announced to have so far shaken Dr Whewell’s faith in such “conjectures,” as to induce him, “in all sincerity and simplicity,” to submit “to the public the arguments, strong or weak,” which had occurred to him on the subject; “and which, when he proceeded to write the _Essay_, assumed, by being fully unfolded, greater strength than he had expected.” He is now disposed to regard a belief in the plurality of worlds “to have been really produced by a guess, lightly made at first, quite unsupported by subsequent discoveries, and discountenanced by the most recent observations, though too remote from knowledge to be either proved or disproved.” And further, he thus indicates the grand scope of the entire inquiry: “I do not attempt to disprove the plurality of worlds, by taking for granted the truths of Revealed Religion; but I say that the teaching of Religion may, to a candid inquirer, suggest the wisdom of not taking for granted the Plurality of Worlds. Religion seems, at first sight at least, to represent Man’s history and position as unique. Astronomy, some think, suggests the contrary. I examine the force of this latter suggestion, and it seems to me to amount to little or nothing.” In the tenth and eleventh chapters of the _Essay_, Dr Whewell thus speaks, in two passages (§§ 12, 20), which appear to us to indicate at once the spirit in which he offers his speculations, and his apprehension as to the reception with which they might meet. In the former, he owns that his “views are so different from those hitherto generally entertained, and considered as having a sort of religious dignity belonging to them, that we may fear, at first at least, they will appear to many rash and fanciful, and almost, as we have said, irreverent.” In the latter he speaks thus:—