in the drama of the worlds.

"How many planets, how many suns, how many milky ways are there?" you
ask in one breath. Speaking alone of our own universe, of which the
Milky Way is the backbone, I estimate that if we multiply the number of
stars by forty-nine, we shall have the approximate number of worlds that
are large enough to be classed with the family of inhabited planets.

In our immediate universe there are at least one hundred million stars,
a number of which have over five hundred worlds revolving around them;
others have only six or ten. The average, as above stated, is estimated
at forty-nine. Then, also, far out in the depths of space, there are
nebulous spots visible only through the most searching lenses. These are
new systems of milky ways or new universes, so immensely distant that
our most powerful telescopes cannot even resolve them into stars.

There are inhabited worlds so far from us that, if one could travel the
distance around our Earth in one second, he could proceed in one
direction, at this rate of speed, for twenty million years and yet see
far ahead of him the flickering lights of numberless other inviting
suns and worlds.

We cannot possibly grasp an idea of such infinite distances, neither can
we form any adequate conception of the long, long stretches between star
and star, which is the same as saying, between solar system and solar
system. In our Milky Way the stars seem to be crushed together into a
whitish jelly, but the awful truth looms up before us with all sublimity
that, although these stars seem to lie one upon another, they are
millions and trillions of miles apart.

In regard to our own solar system much speculation is rife as to the
existence of human creatures on the several larger planets. Theories of
all kinds have been advanced; some speculative or absurd, others so
plausible as to give rise to interesting questions, such as
communicating with Mars, and perhaps of taking a journey to the Moon.
These suggestions, while fanciful, awaken our interest and excite our
curiosity. Can any one predict the excitement that would prevail in our
world if a human creature from some other planet were suddenly to set
foot upon our soil? We would fling a thousand questions at him to learn
something of the strange realm from which he came.

And how great would be our amazement if we were to have the exalted
privilege of journeying to other worlds, seeing the types of human
creatures li