re now, the brave American has discovered the Mariner whom
he sought, though sailing on far other seas, where there is no
destroying winter and no need of rescue.

In association with the measureless spaces and countless worlds
brought to light by astronomic science naturally arises the
question whether the other worlds are, like our earth, peopled
with responsible intelligences. In ancient times the stars were
not generally thought to be worlds, but to be persons, genii or
gods. At the dawn of creation "the morning stars sang together;"
that is, "the sons of God shouted for joy." The stars were the
living army of "Jehovah of hosts." At the time when the
theological dogmas now prevalent were first conceived, the
greatness and glory of the universe were supposed to centre on
this globe. The fortunes of man wellnigh absorbed, it was
imagined, the interest of angels and of God. The whole creation
was esteemed a temporary theatre for the enactment of the sublime
drama of the fall and redemption of man. The entire heavens with
all their host were thought to revolve in satellite dependence
around this stationary and regal planet. For God to hold long,
anxious, repeated councils to devise means to save us, was not
deemed out of keeping with the relative dignity of the earth and
the human race. But at length the progress of discovery put a
different aspect on the physical conditions of the problem. The
philosopher began to survey man's habitation and history, and to
estimate man's comparative rank and destiny, not from the stand
point of a solitary planet dating back only a few thousand years,
but in the light of millions of centuries of duration and from a
position among millions of crowded firmaments whence our sun
appears as a dim and motionless star. This new vision of science
required a new construction of theology. The petty and monstrous
notions of the ignorant superstition of the early age needed
rectification. In the minds of the wise and devout few this was
effected; but with the great majority the two sets of ideas
existed side by side in unreconciled confusion and contradiction,
as they even continue to do unto this day.

When it came to be believed that the universe teemed with suns,
moons, and planets, composed of material substances, subject to
day and night, and various other laws and changes, like our own
abode, it was natural to infer that these innumerable worlds were
also inhabited by rational creatures