The Plurality of Worlds ...Gould and Lincoln, 1854 - 307 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Algol alogy analogy animals appear argument assumption astronomical believe bodies brute centre Chalmers clouds comet conceive condition conjecture creation creatures degree density difficulty discover discoveries distance Divine doctrine earth earth's orbit evidence existence fact fixed stars geological periods geologists geology globe God's ground habitation Herschel hypothesis immense inhabitants intellectual intelligent Jupiter kind knowledge least less light and heat living things luminous man's Mars mass material matter meteoric stones mind Moon moral motions nature nebulć Nebular Hypothesis Neptune objects occupied Old Red Sandstone organic peculiar perhaps period planetary planets population present probably produce progress purpose reason regard region Religion religious remark resemblance revolution satellites Saturn Sirius solar system solid space species speculations spiral spiral nebula strata suppose supposition surface telescope terrestrial thought thousand tion tribes truth universe Uranus vapor vast vegetable worlds zodiacal light
Popular passages
Page 272 - With half that kindling majesty dilate Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar's fate, Amid the crowd of patriots ; and his arm Aloft extending, like eternal Jove, When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, And bade the father of his country hail ? For lo ! the tyrant prostrate on the dust, And Rome again is free...
Page 277 - NATURE, we learn from the past history of our globe that she has advanced with slow and stately steps, guided by the archetypal light amidst the wreck of worlds, from the first embodiment of the vertebrate idea under its old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed in the glorious garb of the human form.
Page 271 - Look then abroad through nature, to the range Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, Wheeling unshaken through the void immense; And speak, O man ! does this capacious scene With half that kindling majesty dilate Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose Refulgent from the stroke of...
Page 128 - ... we discover : not the repetition of exactly similar cases, but a series of cases perpetually dissimilar, presents itself : not constancy, but change — perhaps advance ; not one permanent and pervading scheme, but preparation and completion of successive schemes : — not uniformity, and a fixed type of existences, but progression and a climax.
Page 270 - And perhaps, when the view of the universe which we here present has become familiar, men may be led to think that the aspect which it gives to the mode of working of the Creator is sufficiently grand and majestic. Instead of manufacturing a multitude of worlds on patterns more or less similar, He has been employed in one great work, which we cannot call imperfect, since it includes and suggests all that we can conceive of perfection. It may be that all the other bodies, which we can discover in...
Page 209 - But if life be there, it does not seem in any way likely, that the living things can be anything higher in the scale of being, than such boneless, watery, pulpy creatures as I have imagined.