Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds, 3rd Edition — John Shaqi
Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds, 3rd EditionWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds, 3rd Edition
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Life; Plurality of worlds; Stars
His concluding argument, and perhaps one of his strongest, is that founded
upon the dignity of man, as conferring a pre-eminence upon the planet which
has produced him. 'If,' he says, 'man be not merely capable of Virtue and
Duty, of universal Love and Self-Devotion, but be also immortal; if his
being be of infinite duration, his soul created never to die; then, indeed,
we may well say that one soul outweighs the whole unintelligent creation.'
And then, addressing the religious world, he urges that, if, as they
believe, God _has_ redeemed man by the sacrifice of His Son, and _has_
given to him a revelation of His will, then indeed no other conception is
possible than that he is the sole and highest product of the universe.
'The elevation of millions of intellectual, moral, religious, spiritual
creatures, to a destiny so prepared, consummated, and developed, is no
unworthy occupation of all the capacities of space, time, and matter.' Then
with a chapter on 'The Unity of the World,' and one on 'The Future,'
neither of which contains anything which adds to the force of his argument,
the book ends.
The publication of this able if rather vague and diffuse work, contesting
popular opinions, was followed by a burst of indignant criticism on the
part of a man of considerable eminence in some branches of physics--Sir
David Brewster, but who was very inferior, both in general knowledge of
science and in literary skill, to the writer whose views he opposed. The
purport of the book in which he set forth his objections is indicated by
its title--_More Worlds than One, the Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope
of the Christian_. Though written with much force and conviction it appeals
mainly to religious prejudices, and assumes throughout that every planet
and star is a special creation, and that the peculiarities of each were
designed for some special purpose. 'If,' he says, 'the moon had been
destined to be merely a lamp to our earth, there was no occasion to
variegate its surface with lofty mountains and extinct volcanoes, and cover
it with large patches of matter that reflect different quantities of light
and give its surface the appearance of continents and seas. It would have
been a better lamp had it been a smooth piece of lime or of chalk.' It is,
therefore, he thinks, prepared for inhabitants; and then he argues that all
the other satellites are also inhabited. Again he says that 'when it was
found that Venus was about the same size as the Earth, with mountains and
valleys, days and nights, and years analogous to our own, the _absurdity_
of believing that she had no inhabitants, when no other rational purpose
could be assigned for her creation, became an argument of a certain amount
that she was, like the Earth, the seat of animal and vegetable life.' Then,
when it was found that Jupiter was so gigantic 'as to require four moons to
give him light, the argument from analogy that _he_ was inhabited became
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