ut I should be much surprised if, on going to one of
them, I should find it otherwise. The whole dispute tacitly assumes that,
if the stars and planets be inhabited, it must be by things of which we can
form some idea. But for aught we know, what number of such bodies there
are, so many organisms may there be, of which we have no way of thinking
nor of speaking. This is seldom remembered. In like manner it is usually
forgotten that the _matter_ of other planets may be of different chemistry
from ours. There may be no oxygen and hydrogen in Jupiter, which may have
_gens_ of its own.[173] But this must not be said: it would limit the
omniscience of the _a priori_ school of physical inquirers, the larger half
of the whole, and would be very _unphilosophical_. Nine-tenths of my best
paradoxers come out from among this larger half, because they are just a
little more than of it at their entrance.

There was a discussion on the subject some years ago, which began with

The plurality of worlds: an Essay. London, 1853, 8vo. [By Dr. Wm.
Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge]. A dialogue on the
plurality of worlds, being a supplement to the Essay on that subject.
[First found in the second edition, 1854; removed to the end in
subsequent editions, and separate copies issued.][174]

A work of skeptical character, insisting on analogies which prohibit the
positive conclusion that the planets, stars, etc., are what we should call
_inhabited_ worlds. It produced {102} several works and a large amount of
controversy in reviews. The last predecessor of whom I know was

Plurality of Worlds.... By Alexander Maxwell. Second Edition. London,
1820, 8vo.

This work is directed against the plurality by an author who does not admit
modern astronomy. It was occasioned by Dr. Chalmers's[175] celebrated
discourses on religion in connection with astronomy. The notes contain many
citations on the gravity controversy, from authors now very little read:
and this is its present value. I find no mention of Maxwell, not even in
Watt.[176] He communicated with mankind without the medium of a publisher;
and, from Vieta till now, this method has always been favorable to loss of
books.

A correspondent informs me that Alex. Maxwell, who wrote on the plurality
of worlds, in 1820, was a law-bookseller and publisher (probably his own
publisher) in Bell Yard. He had peculiar notions, which he was fond of
discussing with h