Produced by Charlene Taylor, Mark Young and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) MAN'S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE MAN'S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds BY ALFRED R. WALLACE LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., ETC. 'O, glittering host! O, golden line! I would I had an angel's ken, Your deepest secrets to divine, And read your mysteries to men.' _THIRD EDITION_ LONDON CHAPMAN AND HALL LIMITED 1904 'I said unto my inmost heart, Shall I don corslet, helm, and shield, And shall I with a Giant strive, And charge a Dragon on the field?' J.H. DELL. PREFACE This work has been written in consequence of the great interest excited by my article, under the same title, which appeared simultaneously in _The Fortnightly Review_ and the _New York Independent_. Two friends who read the manuscript were of opinion that a volume, in which the evidence could be given much more fully, would be desirable, and the result of the publication of the article confirmed their view. I was led to a study of the subject when writing four new chapters on Astronomy for a new edition of _The Wonderful Century_. I then found that almost all writers on general astronomy, from Sir John Herschel to Professor Simon Newcomb and Sir Norman Lockyer, stated, as an indisputable fact, that our sun is situated _in_ the plane of the great ring of the Milky Way, and also very nearly in the centre of that ring. The most recent researches also showed that there was little or no proof of there being any stars or nebulæ very far beyond the Milky Way, which thus seemed to be the limit, in that direction, of the stellar universe. Turning to the earth and the other planets of the Solar System, I found that the most recent researches led to the conclusion that no other planet was likely to be the seat of organic life, unless perhaps of a very low type. For many years I had paid special attention to the problem of the measurement of geological time, and also that of the mild climates and generally uniform conditions that had prevailed throughout all geological epochs; and on considering the number of concurrent causes and the delicate balance of conditions required to maintain such uniformity, I became still more convinced that the evidence was exceedingly strong against the probability or possibility of any other planet being inhabited.