An astronomer imbued with Hebraic conceptions of the universe is poorly equipped to appreciate the arguments in favor of life in other worlds. He may be keen in perceiving lines in the spectrum, and the significance of their lateral displacement, but possessed with a belief--the result of early training--that a little two-legged human molecule could command the Sun and Moon to stand still, a realization of his own insignificance, or the possibility of intelligence in other worlds, must forever remain beyond his grasp. Emerson said "the dogmas shrivel as dry leaves at the door of the observatory." They never shrivel for such minds, but grow and flourish with a density that obscures by, its rankness every rational conception of the heavens above. As an illustration of the attitude of such mentalities we have to go back fifty years, for few survive to-day. Edward Hitchcock, Professor of Geology and Theology at Amherst, wrote a book just fifty years ago entitled "Plurality of Worlds," in which he denounces the idea; but observe the precise way in which he lays down the law: "The planets had no vital tendencies, they could have had such given only by an additional act or series of acts of creative power. As mere inert globes, they had no settled destiny to be the seats of life; they could have had such a destiny only by the appointment of Him who creates living things and puts them in the places which he chooses for them" (page 352). It may be objected that it is useless to bring up these old theological conceptions, as the world has happily gone beyond them, and only in an atavistic manner do we find a few still holding them; nevertheless it may be safely asserted that fifty years hence we shall look back upon the attitude of certain astronomers to-day with much the same pity and amusement which excites us when we regard the attitude of a similar class in the middle of the last century. Tyndall expresses the universal belief of thinkers in whatever line of work, that life is by no means confined to this Earth. He says: "Whether the other fixed stars have similar planetary companions or not is to us a matter of pure conjecture, which may or may not enter into our conception of the universe. But probably every thoughtful man believes, with regard to these distant Suns, that there is, in space, something besides our system on which they shine." One class of objectors to the idea that other worlds are inhabited endeavors to show that our position in the universe is unique, that the solar system itself is quite unlike anything existing elsewhere, and, to cap the climax, that our own little world has just the right amount of water, air, and gravitational force to enable it to be the abode of intelligent life, and nowhere else in the broad expanse of heaven can such physical habitudes be found as will enable life to originate or to exist!