If the plurality of worlds be admitted without difficulty; if the planets are believed to be inhabited, it is because the earth is considered merely as a habitation for man, from which it is inferred that were the planets uninhabited they would be useless: but I will venture to assert that such a mode of reasoning is confined, unphilosophic, and at the same time, presumptuous. What are we in comparison of the universe? Do we know the extent, the properties, the destination, and the connexions of nature? Is our existence, formed as we are, of a few frail atoms, to be considered any thing when we think of the greatness of the whole? Can _we_ add to the perfection and grandeur of the universe? These ideas are expressed by Saussure, who in speaking of a traveller to Mont-blanc says: "if, during his meditations, the thought of the insignificant beings that move on the face of the earth offers itself to his mind, if he compares their duration with the grand epochs of nature, how great will be his astonishment that man, occupying so small a space, existing so short a time, can ever imagine that his being is the only end for which the universe was created." From these considerations d'Alembert, in the Encyclopedia, (art. World) after examining the arguments for supposing the planets inhabited, concludes by saying: _the subject is enveloped in total obscurity_. But Buffon affirms that wherever there is a certain degree of heat, the motion produces organized beings; we need not enquire in what way, but imagine these to be the inhabitants of the planets: if that should be the case, we may conclude it highly probable that they are inhabited, notwithstanding the preceding objections. _LA LANDE._ 1802. _LINES ON FONTENELLE._ [Illustration] Muse! if thou canst, this picture's truth excel; Strive to pourtray the _soul_ of Fontenelle: Him, to whose works, with wit and judgment warm, Indulgent Nature, gave a magic charm.-- 'Twas his to strew with flowers the toilsome road, Which leads to Science in her dark abode; And while he touch'd the pastoral reed, to prove, That courtly pomp, must yield to rural love. A Lucian rising from the silent tomb, 'Twas his, to pierce through Error's doubtful gloom; And, with resistless eye, at once to dart Full on the hidden secrets of the heart.-- Union divine!--in Fontenelle we find A glowing genius, and a gentle mind! _PREFACE_ BY BERNARD DE FONTENELLE.