alogies, are "the hierophants of an unapprehended
inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts
upon the present." [461] Equally noble with the language of
Chalmers is a paragraph which we have extracted from a work by
that scholarly writer, Isaac Taylor. He says: "There are two facts,
each of which is significant in relation to our present subject, and of
which the first has long been understood, while the latter (only of
late ascertained) is every day receiving new illustrations; namely,
that our planet is, in no sense, of primary importance in the general
system, or entitled, by its magnitude, or its position, or its
constitution, to be considered as exerting any peculiar influence
over others, or as the object of more regard than any others. This
knowledge of our real place and value in the universe is a very
important consequence of our modern astronomy, and should not be
lost sight of in any of our speculations. But then it is also now
ascertained that the great laws of our own planet, and of the solar
system to which it belongs, prevail in all other and the most remote
systems, so as to make the visible universe, in the strictest sense,
ONE SYSTEM--indicating one origin and showing the presence of
one Controlling Power. Thus the law of gravitation, with all the
conditions it implies, and the laws of light, are demonstrated to be in
operation in regions incalculably remote; and just so far as the
physical constitution of the other planets of our system can be either
traced, or reasonably conjectured, it appears that, amid great
diversities of constitution, the same great principles prevail in all;
and therefore our further conjecture concerning the existence of
sentient and rational life in other worlds is borne out by every sort
of analogy, abstract and physical; and this same rule of analogy
impels us to suppose that rational and moral agents, in whatever
world found, and whatever diversity of form may distinguish them,
would be such that we should soon feel at home in their society, and
able to confer with them, to communicate knowledge to them, and
to receive knowledge from them. Neither truth nor virtue is local;
nor can there be wisdom and goodness in one planet, which is not
wisdom and goodness in every other." [462] The writer of the
_Plurality of Worlds_, a little work distinct from the essay already
quoted, vigorously vindicates "the deeply cherished belief of some
philosophers, a