Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven Part 3

We can believe that, so far as a judgment is concerned, the a.n.a.logies cited would be all the more capable of rendering the mechanistic origin of the planetary system worthy of adopting if certain reasons derived from the very nature of the subject did not still seem to contradict this theory completely.

Celestial s.p.a.ce, as has already been mentioned several times, is empty, or at least filled with infinitely spa.r.s.e material, which, as a result, can provide no means of impressing the common motions on celestial bodies. This difficulty is so significant and valid that Newton, who had reason to trust the insights of his philosophy as much as any other mortal, saw himself compelled here to abandon the hope of resolving through natural law and material forces the transmission of the orbital forces present in the planets, in spite of all the harmony which indicated a mechanistic origin. It is a troubling conclusion for a philosopher to give up the effort of an investigation in the case of a compound phenomenon which is still remote from the simple basic laws and to be satisfied with a reference to the unmediated hand of G.o.d. Nevertheless, Newton acknowledged here the dividing line separating from each other nature and the finger of G.o.d, the pattern of set laws of the former and the hint of the latter.

After the doubt of such a great philosopher, it may appear presumptuous still to hope for some fortunate progress in a matter of such difficulty.

But this very difficulty which deprived Newton of the hope of understanding on the basis of natural forces the orbital forces allotted to the planets, whose direction and arrangement make the planetary structure a system, was the origin of the theory which we have presented in the previous sections. It forms the basis of a mechanical theory, but one which is far from the one which Newton found unsatisfactory and on account of which he rejected all basic causes, because, if I may be so bold as to say it, he made a mistake in maintaining that his doctrine was the only possible one of its kind. It is quite easy and natural, thanks to Newton's difficulty, from a short and basic set of conclusions, to reach certainty in the mechanistic style of explanation which we have set down in this treatise. If we presuppose (and we cannot do otherwise than acknowledge the fact) that the previous a.n.a.logies establish with the greatest certainty that the harmonious and well-ordered interrelated movements and orbits of the celestial bodies point to their origin in a natural cause, then this cause cannot be the same material which now fills celestial s.p.a.ce.

Thus, the movements of the material which earlier filled these expanses have caused the present orbits of the celestial bodies, after matter a.s.sembled together in these spheres and thus unified the s.p.a.ces which we now perceive as empty, or, a fact which flows directly form this, the materials themselves out of which the planets, the comets, and even the sun are made up must at the start have been spread out in the s.p.a.ce of the planetary system and, in this condition, have set themselves in the motions which they maintained when they united in particular cl.u.s.ters and developed the celestial bodies which contain in themselves all the previously scattered matter making up the worlds. We have little difficulty seeing in this idea the mechanical impulse which might have set in motion this material of self-developing nature. The very impulse which brought about the union of matter is the force of attraction, inherently present in matter; thus with the first stirring of nature, it serves as well to cause motion and is, in fact, its origin. The fact that this force always sets a direction straight to the mid-point here creates no problem. For it is certain that the fine material of the scattered elements in its vertical motion downward must have developed motion in different directions both through the heterogeneity of the points of attraction and through the obstacles which their intersecting vectors create for each other. Among these motions the certain natural law which causes all materials restricting each other through reciprocal interaction finally to be brought to a condition where they influence each other as little as possible produces both the uniformity in the direction and the appropriate levels of velocity, measured out according to the centripetal force for each distance away. Through the combination of these, the elements do not manage to deviate either above or below, for all the elements thus have been made to run, not just in one direction, but also in almost parallel free circles around the common point of downward motion in the spa.r.s.ely furnished celestial s.p.a.ce. These movements of the particles must endure from this time on, once the planetary spheres have developed out of them, and remain in place now, through the combination of the sideways momentum implanted once and the centripetal force, for an unrestricted future period. On this basic principle, so easy to grasp, rest the uniformity in the directions of the planetary orbits, the precise relationship to a common plane, the amount of the projectile momentum appropriate to the power of attraction at that location, the decreasing precision of these a.n.a.logies over distance, and the free deviation of the outermost celestial bodies on both sides as well as in the opposite direction.

If these indications of the reciprocal dependency in the development ill.u.s.trate with open certainty moving matter originally distributed through all s.p.a.ce, then the total lack of all materials in this now empty celestial s.p.a.ce (except for what the bodies of the planets, the sun, and the comets are composed of) proves that this very material would have had to have been at the start in a condition of being spread out. The ease and correctness with which all the phenomena of the planetary structure have been derived from the a.s.sumption of these basic principles in the previous sections is the completion of such a conjecture and gives it a value which is no longer arbitrary.

The certainty of a mechanistic theory for the origin of the planetary structure, particularly of ours, will be elevated to the highest peak of conviction if we consider the development of the celestial bodies themselves and the importance and size of their ma.s.ses, according to the relationship which they have with respect to their distance from the central point of gravitation. For in the first place, the density of their material, when we consider them as a total cl.u.s.ter, decreases in constant stages with distances from the sun, a fixed condition which points so clearly to the mechanical arrangements of the first development that we can demand no more. They are put together out of materials in such a way that those of the heavier sort have reached a deeper position in relation to the common point of downward motion and, by contrast, the lighter sort a distance further away. This arrangement is necessary in any sort of natural development. But with an arrangement issuing from the unmediated will of G.o.d, there is not the slightest reason to encounter the relationships mentioned above. For although it might immediately seem that spheres further away must consist of lighter materials so that they could not notice the necessary effect of the diminished force of the sun's rays, this purpose pertains only to the composition of the material located on the outer surface and not to the deeper varieties on the inside of its cl.u.s.ter. The heat of the sun never has any effect on these inner materials, which serve only to make effective the planet's power of attraction which is to make the bodies moving around it sink down towards it.

Therefore, they cannot have the slightest relationship to the strength or weakness of the sun's rays. If we then ask why the densities of the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn (as determined by the correct calculations of Newton) stand in relation to each other as 400 to 94.5 to 64, then it would be absurd to attribute the cause to G.o.d's apportioning the densities according to the degrees of solar heat. Our Earth can serve as a counterexample. In the case of the Earth, the sun only affects such a small part under the outer layer with its rays, that the part of the Earth's cl.u.s.ter which must have some relationship with these rays does not by a long way make up the millionth part of the total planet. And the remaining part is entirely indifferent in this matter. Also, if the material of which the celestial bodies consist has in itself a well-ordered relationship in harmony with the distances and if the planets cannot now restrict each other, separated as they are now from each other in empty s.p.a.ce, then their matter must have previously been in a condition where they were able to bring about a common effect on one another in order to limit them to locations proportional to their specific gravity. This could have happened only if their parts before development had been spread out in the entire s.p.a.ce of the system and if they took up locations appropriate to their densities, in accordance with the general laws of motion The relationship among the sizes of the planetary ma.s.ses, which increases with distances, is the second reason by which the mechanical development of the celestial bodies, and especially our theory of that, is clearly demonstrated.

Why do the ma.s.ses of the celestial bodies approximately increase with the distances? If we subscribe to a theory which a.s.signs everything to G.o.d's choice, then no purpose can be imagined why the further planets have to have larger ma.s.ses other than the fact that for this reason they could be able to hold onto one or several moons through the preponderant strength of their power of attraction within their sphere. The moons are to serve the inhabitants destined for the planets by making their stay comfortable. But this purpose could have been achieved just as well by a preponderant density in the interior of their cl.u.s.ters. And why then would the lightness in the material arising for special reasons, which goes against this relationship, have to remain, and why would the planets, because of the relatively large volume, become so excessive that the ma.s.s of the higher planets had to be more significant than the lower ones? When we do not take into account the manner of the natural development of these bodies, then we have difficulty being able to provide a reason for this relationship. But in the light of mechanistic theory nothing is easier to grasp than this arrangement. When the material of all planetary bodies was still spread out in the s.p.a.ce of the planetary system, the power of attraction developed spheres out of these particles. Undoubtedly the spheres must have been bigger the further the location of their developing globe was away from that common central body, which from the central point of the entire s.p.a.ce limited and hindered this combining as much as possible by means of its powerful force of attraction.

We will with satisfaction notice the manner of this development of the celestial bodies from basic material spread out at the start in the width of the intervening s.p.a.ces separating their orbits from each other. These, according to this concept, must be deemed empty sections from which the planets have appropriated the materials for their development. We perceive how these intervening s.p.a.ces between the orbits have a relationship to the size of the ma.s.ses which developed out of them. The width between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars is so large that the s.p.a.ce enclosed in it exceeds the plane of all the lower planetary orbits taken together. But it is worthy of the largest of all the planets, the one which has more ma.s.s than all the others collectively. We cannot attribute this distance of Jupiter from Mars to the intention that their powers of attraction were to interfere with each other as little as possible.

For according to such a principle, the planet between two orbits would always find itself closest to the planet whose power of attraction combined with its own could disturb their dual orbits around the sun as little as possible; as a result, the planet would be closer to the one with the smallest ma.s.s. Now, according to the correct calculations of Newton, the force with which Jupiter affects the orbit of Mars is related to the force which it exercises on Saturn through the combined forces of attraction is as 1/12512 to 1/200. So we can easily calculate by how much Jupiter would have to be closer to the orbit of Mars than to that of Saturn, if their distance had been determined with their external relationship in mind and not through their mutual development. However, this phenomenon is quite different. For in relation to the two orbits above and below it, a planetary orbit often stands further away from the one in which a smaller planet runs than from the path of the larger ma.s.s of the two. However, the extent of the s.p.a.ce around the orbit of a planet always has a correct relationship to its ma.s.s. Thus, it is clear that the form of the development must have established these relationships. Because these arrangements seem to be bound up with their causes and effects, we will in reality estimate it most correctly if we consider the s.p.a.ce included between the orbits as the container of that material out of which the planets were built. From this it immediately follows that the size of these s.p.a.ces must be proportional to their ma.s.ses.

However, this relationship will be augmented with the further planets because of the greater scattering of the basic material in their first state. Therefore, of two planets which are almost equal to each other in ma.s.s, the one further away must have a larger s.p.a.ce in which to develop, that is, a greater distance to the two nearest orbits, both because the material was of an inherently lighter sort and because it was more widely scattered than in the case of the planet which developed closer to the sun. Therefore, although the Earth together with the moon does not appear to be equal to Venus in its physical content, nevertheless, it required for itself a greater room for development, because it had to be built out of a more scattered material than this lower planet. For this reason, we can a.s.sume, so far as Saturn is concerned, that its sphere of development stretched much further on the distant side than on the side of the central point (as this holds true for almost all planets). Thus, the intervening s.p.a.ce between Saturn's...o...b..t and the path of the higher celestial body next to Saturn, which we can a.s.sume is above it, will be much wider than the s.p.a.ce between Saturn and Jupiter.

Thus, everything in the planetary structure proceeds in stages out into all limitless distances with an accurate relationship to the first force of development, which was more effective near the central point than at a distance.

The diminution of the impressed projectile motion, the deviation from the most precise agreement in the direction and the orientation of the orbits, the densities of the celestial bodies, the scarcity of nature in relation to the s.p.a.ce where they developed, everything diminishes stage by stage from the centre into the far distances. Everything shows that the first cause was bound up with the mechanical rules of movement and did not take place through a free choice.

But what ill.u.s.trates as clearly as anything else the natural development of the celestial bodies out of the basic material originally spread out in the now empty celestial s.p.a.ce is the agreement, which I take from Buffon (which however in his theory plays nowhere near the role that it does in ours). For, according to his observation, if we add up together the planets whose ma.s.ses we can determine by calculation, namely, Saturn, Jupiter, Earth, and the Moon, they give a cl.u.s.ter whose density stands in relation to the density of the body of the sun as 640 to 650. In this comparison, since these are the major parts of the planetary system, the remaining planets (Mars, Venus, and Mercury) hardly merit counting. Thus, we will easily be astonished at this remarkably equality governing the materials of the planetary structure collectively considered as a single united cl.u.s.ter and the ma.s.s of the sun. It would be an irresponsible foolishness to ascribe to chance this a.n.a.logy, which, among a variety of such infinitely different materials, a few of which, even on our Earth, are fifteen thousand times more dense than others, nevertheless comes so near a ratio of 1 to 1 in the total. And we must concede that, if we consider the sun as a mixture of all types of matter, which in the structure of the planets are separated from each other, all of them together seem to have developed in one s.p.a.ce, originally full of material uniformly spread out. These materials were collected on the central body without distinction; for the development of the planets, however, they were divided up in proportion to the alt.i.tudes. I leave it to those who cannot subscribe to the mechanical development of the celestial bodies to explain from the motives of G.o.d's choice such a remarkable arrangement as this, if they can. I will finally stop grounding with more proofs a matter of such convincing clarity as the development of the planetary structure out of the forces of nature. If people are in a position to remain unmoved in the midst of so many convincing details, then they must either lie far too deep in the bonds of prejudice or be entirely incapable of rising above the desert of received opinions to the observation of the purest truth of all. Meanwhile we can believe that n.o.body except the very foolish, on whose approval we may not count, can deny the correctness of this theory, if the harmonies which the planetary structure has with all its links to the benefits of reasoning creatures did not appear to have something more than general natural laws as its basis. We believe correctly that skillful arrangements which point to a worthy purpose must have as their originator a Wise Intelligence. And we will become completely satisfied when we consider that, since the natures of things acknowledge no other origin than just this, their essential and universal arrangements must have a natural inclination to proper and really harmonious consequences for each other. We will thus not allow ourselves to feel strange if we become aware of the arrangements of the planetary structure rich in changing advantages for creatures and attribute these to a natural consequence of the general laws of nature. For what issues from these is not the effect of blind accident or of unreasoning necessity. It is, in the last a.n.a.lysis, based upon the Highest Wisdom from which the universal arrangements derive their harmony. One conclusion is entirely correct: If, in the arrangement of the world, order and beauty shine forth, then there is a G.o.d. But another is no less well grounded: If this order could have emerged from the general natural laws, then all of nature is necessarily the work of the Highest Wisdom.

If people nevertheless let themselves absolutely at their own discretion acknowledge the unmediated application of the Divine Wisdom in all the ordering of nature, including in itself all harmony and beneficial purposes, since they do not credit the development out of general laws of motion with any harmonious consequences, then I will advise them in the contemplation of the planetary structure to direct their eyes not to a single one celestial body but to the totality in order to tear themselves immediately away from this delusion. If the steep inclination of the Earth's axis in relation to its annual orbit is to be a proof of the unmediated hand of G.o.d because of the well loved changes in the seasons, then people should insist on this relationship in connection with the other celestial bodies. Then they will become aware that it is different in each one and that in this difference there are also some planets that do not have this feature at all, as, for example, Jupiter, whose axis is perpendicular to the plane of its...o...b..t, and Mars, whose axis is almost perpendicular. Both of these enjoy no difference in the seasons and are as much works of the Highest Wisdom as the others are. The satellites of Saturn, Jupiter, and the Earth would seem to be special configurations of the Highest Being, if the free departure from this purpose throughout the entire planetary system did not ill.u.s.trate that nature produced these arrangements without being disturbed by an extraordinary constraint in its free actions. Jupiter has four moons, Saturn five, the Earth one, and the other planets none at all, although it immediately seems that the other planets were in greater need of moons than the former group because of their longer nights. If we wonder about the proportional equilibrium of the projectile force impressed on the planets with the centripetal force at their distance as the reason why they run almost in circles around the sun and are adapted to be residences for reasoning creatures by means of the equality in the heat distributed in this way and look upon that as the unmediated finger of G.o.d, then we will be led back at once to the general laws of nature, when we consider that this planetary arrangement loses itself gradually with all grades of diminution in the depths of heaven and that even the Highest Wisdom which derived satisfaction from the regularity of planetary motion did not exclude deficiency with which the system ends, since it runs out in complete irregularity and disorder. Regardless of the fact that it is essentially established for perfection and order, nature includes in its full multiplicity all possible changes even right up to deficiency and deviation. Just this unlimited fecundity of nature has produced the inhabited celestial globes as well as the comets, the useful mountains and the harmful cliffs, the habitable landscapes and barren deserts, the virtues and vices.

Universal History of Nature and Theory of Heaven

Part Three

which contains in it an attempt, based on natural a.n.a.logies, at a comparison between the inhabitants of different planets.

He, who through vast immensity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compose one universe, Observe how system into system runs, What other planets circle other suns, What varied Being peoples every star, May tell why Heaven has made us as we are.

(Pope) Appendix In my view it is a disgrace to the nature of philosophy when we use it to maintain with a kind of flippancy free-wheeling witty displays having some apparent truth, unless we immediately explain that we are doing this only as an amus.e.m.e.nt (20). Thus, in the present essay I will not introduce any propositions except those which can really expand our understanding and which are at the same time so plausibly established that we can scarcely deny their validity.

It may appear that in this sort of subject the freedom to be poetical has no real limits, that in judging the make-up of those who live in distant worlds we could allow unbridled fantasy much more freely than a painter in an ill.u.s.tration of the flora and fauna of discovered countries, and that these very ideas could not be proved right or wrong. Nevertheless, we must admit that the distances of the celestial bodies from the sun involve certain relationships which bring with them a vital influence on the different characteristics of the thinking beings found on these very bodies. Their way of working and suffering is a.s.sociated with the composition of the material to which they are bound and depends upon the quant.i.ty of impressions which the world arouses in them, according to the relationship of their living environment with the centre of gravitational power and heat.

I believe that it is not necessary to a.s.sert that all planets must be inhabited.

However, it would at the same time be absurd to deny this claim with respect to all or even to most of them. Given the richness of Nature, where worlds and systems are only sunny dust specks compared to the totality of creation, there could in fact also be deserted and uninhabited regions with not the slightest function in Nature's purpose, namely, the contemplation by reasoning beings. It would be as if one wished to raise a doubt about the basis of G.o.d's wisdom by acknowledging that sandy and uninhabited deserts make up large stretches of the earth's surface and that there are in the earth's oceans abandoned islands where no human being is found. However, a planet is far less in relation to the totality of creation than is a desert or an island in relation to the earth's surface.

Perhaps all the celestial bodies have not yet completely developed. Hundreds and maybe thousands of years are necessary for a large celestial body to reach a stable material condition. Jupiter still appears to be in a state of development. The remarkable changes in its appearance at different moments have already led astronomers for a long time to a.s.sume that the planet must be experiencing large upheavals and is a long way from having a calm outer surface, a condition which must pertain for a planet to be inhabited. If Jupiter is uninhabited and even if it is never to have any inhabitants, what an infinitely small natural expenditure that would be compared to the immeasurable size of the total creation. If nature were carefully to display all her richness in every place, would that not be much more a sign of nature's poverty than of her abundance?

But it is more satisfying for us still to a.s.sume that if Jupiter is uninhabited right now, nonetheless the planet will be inhabited in the future, when it has had time to develop completely. Earth perhaps existed for a thousand years or more before it was in a condition to support human beings, animals, and plants.

The fact that a planet reaches this complete state only after some thousand years does nothing to detract from the reason for its existence. For this very reason the planet will be around for a longer time in the future in its state of complete development, once it has attained it. For there is a certain natural principle that everything which has a beginning gets steadily closer to its dissolution and that much closer to destruction the further it is from its origin.

One can only approve of the satirical portrayal by that witty person from the Hague who, after setting down the general news from the scientific world, could humorously present the imaginary picture of the necessary habitation of all planets. "These very creatures who live in the forests of a beggar's head [i.e., lice]," he says, "had for a long time thought of their dwelling place as an immeasurably large ball and themselves as the masterworks of creation. Then one of them, to whom Heaven had given a more refined soul, a small Fontenelle of his species, unexpectedly learned about a n.o.ble man's head. Immediately he a.s.sembled all the witty creatures of his region and told them with delight: We are not the only living beings in all nature. Look here at this new land. More creatures live here." If the last remark provokes laughter, that happens not because, as we judge the matter, it is far removed from human nature, but because that same mistake, which among human beings has basically a similar cause, seems more excusable in our case.

Let us judge in an unprejudiced manner. This insect, which in its way of living as well as in its lack of worth expresses very well the condition of most human beings, can be used for such a comparison with good results. According to the louse's imagination, nature is endlessly well suited to its existence. Thus, it considers irrelevant all the rest of nature which does not have a precise goal related to its species as the central purpose of nature. The human being, who similarly stands infinitely far from the highest stages of being, is sufficiently bold to flatter himself with the same imaginative picture of his existence as essential. The unlimited nature of creation contains within itself with equal necessity all creatures which its superbly fecund richness produces.

From the most refined cla.s.ses of thinking beings right down to the most despicable insect, no link is irrelevant to nature. And not a single one can fail to appear without in the process fracturing the beauty of the whole, which consists in the interrelatedness. Moreover, everything is determined by universal laws which nature effects through the combined forces planted in things at their origin. Because nature's actions produce only what is appropriate and ordered, no particular purpose must disturb and break her order.

In its initial development a planet's growth was only an infinitely small consequence of nature's fertility. Now, it would be somewhat absurd if nature's well-grounded laws should defer to the specific purposes of this atom. If the composition of a celestial body establishes natural barriers against its becoming inhabited, then it will not have inhabitants, even though in and of itself the planet would be more beautiful if it had its own creatures. The excellence of creation loses nothing in such a case, for among all large quant.i.ties the infinite is the one which is not diminished by the subtraction of a finite part. It would be as if one wished to complain that the s.p.a.ce between Jupiter and Mars was unnecessarily empty and that there are comets which are not populated. In fact, however insignificant that louse may appear to us, to Nature it is certainly more appropriate to maintaining its entire cla.s.s than a small number of more excellent creatures (of which there would nevertheless be infinitely many, even if one region or locale should lack them). Because Nature is endlessly fertile in producing both species, in their sustenance and their destruction we really see both equally abandoned disinterestedly to the universal laws. Indeed, has the possessor of the inhabited forests on the beggar's head ever created more disasters among the races of this colony than the son of Philip [Alexander the Great] brought about among the race of his fellow citizens, when his wicked genius gave him the idea that the world was created only for his sake?

However, most of the planets are certainly inhabited, and those that are not will be in the future. Now, what sort of interconnections will occur among the different types of these inhabitants through the relationship between their place in the cosmic structure and the central point from which the warmth which nourishes all life extends outwards? For it is certain that, with the materials of these celestial bodies this heat will bring with it certain relationships in their composition proportional to the distance from the centre. In this comparison, the human being, who is, of all reasoning beings, the one we know most clearly, although at the same time his inner composition is still an unexplored problem, must serve as the common basic reference point. We do not wish here to comment on his moral characteristics or his physical structure. We want only to explore how the capacity to think rationally and the physical movement which obeys rational thought are limited by the material composition proportional to the solar distance. Regardless of the infinite distance encountered between the power of thought and the movement of matter, between the reasoning spirit and the body, it is nevertheless certain that a human being, who receives all his ideas and conceptions from impressions which the universe awakens in his soul by means of the body (both with respect to their clarity and to the skill of combining and comparing them, which we call the capacity for thought) is totally dependent on the composition of this material stuff to which the Creator has bound him.

The human being is made to take in the impressions and emotions which the world must create in him through that very body which is the perceptible part of his being. The body's material serves not only to impress on the imperceptible spirit which lives inside him the first ideas of the world outside but also is indispensable in its inner working to recall these impressions, to link them together, in short, to think (21). As a person's body grows, his intellectual capabilities also proportionally attain the appropriate stage of full development. He first acquires a calm and soberly mature capacity when the fibres of the corporeal machine have gained the strength and endurance which mark the completion of its development. These capabilities are set early enough within him, and with them he can cope sufficiently with the necessities of life to which he is bound by the dependence on external things. Some people's development remains at this level. The ability to combine abstract ideas and through a free use of one's understanding to gain control over pa.s.sionate tendencies comes late. Some never reach this state during their entire lives.

However, in all people this ability is weak; it serves the more primitive forces which it should govern. In the control of these lower forces consists the worth of a person's nature. When we consider the life of most people, it seems that these creatures have been created to absorb liquids, like a plant, to grow, to propagate the species, and finally to grow old and die. Among all creatures, human beings are the poorest at realizing the purpose of their existence, because they exhaust their excellent capabilities in those pursuits which other creatures, with far less capability, attain more confidently and conveniently.

The human being would be the most hateful of all creatures, at least from the point of view of true wisdom, if the hope for the future did not elevate him and if there was not awaiting him the time for a full development of the powers locked up inside him.

When we look for the cause of these obstacles which keep human nature so debased, we find it in the coa.r.s.eness of the material stuff in which his spiritual component is buried, in the stiffness of the fibres and the sluggishness and immobility of the fluids which should obey the movements of his spirit. The cerebral nerves and fluids provide him only crude and unclear ideas.

Because he cannot offset sensory stimulation in the inner workings of his thought process by means of sufficiently powerful ideas, he is taken over by his pa.s.sions and dulled and disturbed by the turmoil of elements which are the foundation of his mechanical body. The attempts of reason to stand up against this and to drive away the confusion with light from the power of judgment are like moments of sunshine when thick clouds constantly interrupt and darken their serenity.

This coa.r.s.eness in the stuff and fabric of the const.i.tution of human nature is the cause of the lethargy which keeps the soul's capabilities continually weak and powerless. Coping with reflections and ideas rationally is an exhausting condition. The soul cannot be placed in it without resistance. And the natural tendency of the mechanical body is to fall out of that state back into a condition of suffering as soon as sensory stimulations have a determining influence on and take over its behaviour.

This lethargy in the thought process, a consequence of the dependence on a crude and awkward material, is the source not only of vice but also of error. Because the soul is hindered by the difficulty involved in the attempt to scatter the clouds of confused notions and, by comparing ideas, to distinguish general knowledge from sense impressions, the soul prefers to bestow a quick approval on and is content with the possession of an opinion which the sluggishness of its nature and the resistance of the material scarcely allow it to see in perspective.

In this dependency, the spiritual capabilities disappear at the same time as the vitality of the body. When, on account of the weakened circulation of the fluids, extreme old age keeps warm only thick juices, when the flexibility of the fibres and the agility of movement decrease, then the powers of the spirit congeal in a similar fatigue. Rapidity of thought, clarity of ideas, liveliness of wit, and memory grow feeble and cold. The ideas which, through long experience, have been stored still compensate to some extent for the departure of these powers, and the understanding would betray its incapacity even more clearly, if the intensity of pa.s.sions, which require its rein, did not decline at the same time and even earlier.

From all this it is clear that the powers of the human soul are reduced and hemmed in by the obstacles of the coa.r.s.e material stuff to which they are innerly tied. But it is still more remarkable that the specific composition of the stuff is inherently related to the degree of the sun's influence. According to this principle, the sun's stimulation of the soul, which renders it capable of carrying out animal functions, is proportional to distance. The necessary connection with the light which spreads out from the centre of the planetary system so as to maintain the required motion in the material stuff is the basis for an a.n.a.logy which will be firmly established here between the different inhabitants of the planets. Thanks to this relationship, every single cla.s.s of these inhabitants is bound by its essential nature to the place which it has been allocated in the universe.

The inhabitants of Earth and Venus would not be able to exchange their living environments without the mutual destruction of both. The material out of which the inhabitants of Earth are made is proportional to the degree of heat for their distance from the sun. Thus, it is too light and volatile for an even greater heat, and in a hotter sphere it would suffer from violent movements and natural breakdown, arising from the scattering and drying up of the fluids and a powerful tension in its elastic fibres. The inhabitants of Venus, whose cruder structure and elemental sluggishness require a stronger solar influence, would in a cooler celestial region freeze and die from a lack of vitality. Hence, the body of an inhabitant of Jupiter would have to consist of far lighter and more volatile material, so that the very small motion which the sun can induce at this distance could move these machines just as powerfully as it does in the lower regions. I summarize all this in one general idea: The material stuff out of which the inhabitants of different planets (including the animals and plants) are made must, in general, be of a lighter and finer type and the elasticity of the fibres as well as the advantageous structural design must be more perfect in proportion to their distance away from the sun.

This relationship is so natural and well grounded that not only do the fundamental motives of its higher purpose (which in the study of nature are normally considered weak reasons) lead to it, but also at the same time the proportions of the specific composition of the material stuff making up the planets confirm it. These are derived from Newton's calculations as well as from the basic principles of cosmogony. According to these, the material stuff composing the celestial bodies is always of a lighter type in the more distant planets than in those closer to the sun. This point must necessarily bring with it a similar relationship for the creatures which develop and maintain themselves on the planets.

We have established a comparison between the material composition which reasoning creatures on the planets essentially have in common. Thus, following the introduction of this concept, it is easy to consider that these relationships will involve consequences so far as their spiritual capacities are concerned. For if these spiritual capacities are necessarily dependent on the mechanical material in which they live, we can conclude with more than probable a.s.surance that the excellence of thinking beings, the speed of their powers of organization, the clearness and vivacity of their ideas, which come to them from external stimuli, together with the ability to combine ideas, and finally, too, the rapidity in actual performance--in short the entire extent of their perfection--is governed by a particular rule according to which these characteristics will always be more excellent and perfect in proportion to the distance of their dwelling places from the sun.

Since this relationship is so plausible that it is almost a demonstrated certainty, we have an open field for pleasant speculations arising from the comparison of the characteristics of these different inhabitants. Human nature, which in the scale of being holds, as it were, the middle rung, is located between two absolute outer limits, equidistant from both. If the idea of the most sublime cla.s.ses of reasoning creatures living on Jupiter or Saturn makes human beings jealous and discourages them with the knowledge of their own humble position, a glance at the lower stages brings content and calms them again. The beings on the planets Venus and Mercury are far below the perfection of human nature. What a wonderful view! On one side we see thinking creatures among whom a Greenlander or a Hottentot would be a Newton; on the other side we see people who would wonder about Newton as if he were an ape.

Superior beings, when of late they saw A moral Man unfold all Nature's law, Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape, And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape.

(Pope) What an advance in knowledge will the insight of these blissful beings of the highest celestial spheres not attain! What beautiful results will this illumination of knowledge not have for their moral const.i.tution! When rational insights have the appropriate level of perfection and clarity, they have in themselves far more vital charm than the attractions of sense and are able to govern these successfully and tread them underfoot. How beautifully will Divinity itself, pictured in all creatures, present its own portrait in these thinking beings; like a sea unmoved by pa.s.sionate storms they will calmly receive and shine back its image. We will not extrapolate this a.s.sumption beyond the previously declared limits of a physical treatise; only we do again take note of the above mentioned a.n.a.logy that the perfection of the spiritual and the material worlds for all the planets from Mercury right up to Saturn, or perhaps beyond Saturn (if there are still other planets), grows and advances in an appropriate sequence of stages proportional to their distance from the sun.

To the extent that this a.n.a.logy flows naturally from the consequences of the physical interrelationship between the dwelling places and the centre of the system, it will be rightly accepted, in part. On the other hand, a real look at the most splendid habitations prepared for the superb perfection of these beings in the higher regions confirms this rule so clearly that it should almost compel a.s.sent. The active speed a.s.sociated with the merits of a lofty nature is better fitted to the rapidly changing time periods of the higher spheres than the slowness of lethargic and more imperfect creatures.

Telescopes teach us that the changes in day and night on Jupiter occur in 10 hours. What would an inhabitant of Earth really do with this division of time, if he were placed on this planet? The 10 hours would scarcely be sufficient for the rest this crude machine requires to recuperate in sleep. What would the preparations for going through waking up, getting dressed, and the time taken up with eating demand as a share of the available time? How would a creature whose activities occur so slowly not be rendered confused and incapable of anything effective when his 5 hours of business would be suddenly interrupted by an intervening period of darkness of exactly the same duration? However, if Jupiter is inhabited by more perfect beings who combine a more refined development and a greater agility in practice, then we can believe that these 5 hours are exactly equivalent to or more than the 12 hours of the day for the humble cla.s.s of human beings. We know temporal demands are somewhat relative. This cannot be known and understood except from a comparison of the size of the task to be done and the quickness with which it is carried out. Thus, the very same time which for one type of creature is, as it were, an instant can for another creature be a long period in which a large sequence of changes develops rapidly and efficiently.

According to the calculations of the probable axial rotation of Saturn, which we have dealt with above, the planet has a very much shorter division of day and night. It therefore allows us to a.s.sume even more advantageous capabilities in the nature of its inhabitants.

Finally, everything comes together to confirm the proposed principle. Nature has visibly distributed her goods as richly as possible to the far regions of the world. The moons, which compensate the active beings of these blissful regions for the loss of daylight with a sufficient subst.i.tute, are most liberally placed in that area. Nature appears to have taken care to provide her bounty fully and effectively, so that there may be scarcely any time when the inhabitants are prevented from making use of it. So far as Jupiter's moons are concerned, the planet has an obvious advantage over all the lower planets, and Saturn once again has the advantage over Jupiter. Saturn's dwelling places probably derive even greater advantages in the composition of the planet from the beautiful and useful ring surrounding it. By contrast, the lower planets, for whom this advantageous feature would be an unnecessary waste and whose cla.s.ses of inhabitants approach much more closely to irrationality, have either not been blessed at all with such a benefit or only very little.

However (and here I antic.i.p.ate an objection which could destroy all the agreement I have mentioned) it is possible to consider the greater distance from the sun, the source of light and life, as nothing but a drawback for which the s.p.a.ciousness of the dwelling places in the furthest planets is only a partially useful remedy. One could object that in fact the higher planets have a less advantageous situation in the cosmic structure, a position injurious to the perfection of those dwelling places, because they receive a weaker influence from the sun. Now, we know that the effect of light and heat are determined, not by their absolute intensity, but by the capacity of the material stuff which absorbs them and, to a greater or lesser extent, resists their impetus.

Therefore, the same distance at which we could designate a moderate climate for a coa.r.s.e type of material would destroy more subtle liquids with its damaging intensity. Thus, only a more refined material stuff composed of more mobile elements is appropriate to make the solar distances of Jupiter and Saturn fortunate habitations.

Finally, because of the physical composition of the beings in these higher celestial regions, their excellence seems to be closely a.s.sociated with an ability to last, as their merit deserves. Decay and death can afflict these excellent beings less than they do our humble natures. Exactly the same torpor and coa.r.s.eness in the material stuff, the specific principle in the degradation in the lower echelons, are the cause of the tendency to decay. When the juices which nourish the animal or human being and make it grow, as they are a.s.similated among the small fibres and increase its bulk, can no longer expand the spatial dimensions of their vessels and ca.n.a.ls, when growth is already complete, then these productive and nourishing liquids must, through the mechanical impulse which is used to feed the animal, constrict and block up the hollow sections of their vessels and destroy the structure of the entire machine with a gradually increasing paralysis. We can believe that, although mortality also eats away at the most perfect beings, nevertheless there is an advantage in the refined quality of the material stuff, in the elasticity of the vessels, and in the lightness and efficacy of the fluids which make up each more perfect ent.i.ty living in the distant planets. This benefit checks for a much longer time the frailty which results from the coa.r.s.e material and gives these creatures a life whose length is proportional to their perfection. Thus, the fragility of human life is appropriately linked to human baseness.

I cannot leave this observation without antic.i.p.ating a doubt about it, which could naturally arise from a comparison of these opinions with our previous principles. In dealing with the dwelling places in the planetary structure, we have acknowledged the wisdom of G.o.d in the number of satellites which illuminate the planets with the most distant orbits, in the velocity of their axial rotation, and in the composition of their material stuff, which is proportional to the effects of the sun. This Divine Wisdom has organized everything so beneficially for the advantage of reasoning beings who live on the planets. But how will we now reconcile the concept of intentionality with a mechanistic theory, so that what the Highest Wisdom itself devised is a.s.signed to raw material stuff and rule of providence is left to itself? Is the first not perhaps a confession that the organizing of the cosmic structure is not developed through the general laws of the latter?

We will soon dispose of this doubt if we only think back to what was cited previously in a similar case. Must not the mechanism of all natural movements have an essential tendency towards only such consequences as those which really coincide with the project of the Highest Reason in the full context of all interrelationships? How can they have erratic inclinations and an independent scattering originally, when all their characteristics, from which these consequences develop, are regulated by the eternal idea of the Divine Understanding, in which all things must necessarily interconnect with each other and fit together? When we think correctly, how can we justify the kind of judgment where we see nature as a disgusting subject which can be kept on a regular track and in communal harmony only through some kind of compulsion which sets limits to her free conduct, unless we maintain something to the effect that nature is a self-sufficient principle, whose characteristics acknowledge no cause and which G.o.d seeks to force according to His purposeful plan, to the extent that this is possible? The closer we come to getting to know nature, the more we realize that the universal ways in which things are made are not strange and separate from each other. We will be sufficiently convinced that they have essential connections, through which they are coordinated, to support each other in providing a perfect creation, in the reciprocal effects of the elements on the beauty of material things and at the same time for the benefit of the spiritual realm and that the single nature of things in the field of universal truths already make up amongst themselves, so to speak, a system, in which one is interrelated to another. We will also immediately realize that the connection between them in their common origin is unique to them and that from this they, as a totality, have created their essential harmony.

And now to apply this repeated observation to the proposed goal: the very same universal laws of motion which placed the highest planets far from the mid point of the power of attraction and the inertia in the planetary system have at the same time in this way set them in the most advantageous condition to develop themselves as far as possible from the point where they are connected to the coa.r.s.e material and indeed with greater freedom. However, these laws have also simultaneously set the distant planets in a rule-bound relationship to the influence of the heat which, in accordance with the same law, extends out from this mid-point. These very harmonies have now removed obstructions from the development of the cosmic bodies in these distant regions and made the production of movement, which is dependent upon this development, faster and, in brief, created a more firmly entrenched system. Since finally the spiritual beings necessarily depend upon the material stuff to which they are personally bound, it is no wonder that the perfection of nature is shaped by both points into a single coordinated system of causes and on the same principles. In a more precise view, this harmony is also not something sudden or unantic.i.p.ated.

Because through the same principle the spiritual beings have been infused into the common const.i.tution of matter, the spiritual world is more perfect in the distant spheres for exactly the same reasons that the physical world is.

Thus, everything in the total extent of nature holds together in an uninterrupted series of stages through the eternal harmony which makes all the steps related to each other. The perfections of G.o.d have clearly revealed themselves at our levels and are no less beautiful in the lowers cla.s.ses than in the more lofty ones.

Vast Chain of Being! Which from G.o.d began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, No gla.s.s can reach! From Infinite to thee, From thee to nothing.

(Pope) We have expanded the earlier conjectures, being faithful to the notion of physical relationships. This has kept them on a reasonably credible track. Shall we permit ourselves one more digression from this track into the field of fantasy? Who indicates to us the border where grounded probability stops and arbitrary poetry begins? Who is so bold to dare an answer to the question whether sin exercises its sway also in the other spheres of the cosmic structure or whether virtue alone has established her control there?

The stars perhaps enthrone the exalted soul As here vice rules, there virtue has control.

(von Haller) Does not a certain middle position between wisdom and irrationality belong to the unfortunate capacity to sin? Who knows whether the inhabitants of those distant celestial bodies are not too refined and too wise to allow themselves to fall into the foolishness inherent in sin; whereas, the others who live in the lower planets adhere too firmly to material stuff and are provided with far too little spiritual capacity to have to drag their responsibility for their actions before the judgment seat of justice? With this in mind, would the Earth and perhaps even Mars (so that the painful consolation of having fellow sufferers in misfortune would not be taken from us) be in the dangerous middle path, where the experience of sensual charms has a powerful ability to divert from the ruling mastery of the spirit. The spirit, however, cannot deny its ability to resist, unless its inertia prefers to allow itself to be carried away by these charms. Here is also the dangerous transition point between weakness and the capacity to resist, for the very same advantages which raise the spirit above the lower cla.s.ses, set it up at a height from which it can again sink down infinitely deeper under them. Indeed, both planets, Earth and Mars, are the middle rungs of the planetary system, and we can a.s.sume perhaps with some probability a physical condition as well as a moral const.i.tution half way between the two end points. But I prefer to leave this thought to those who find in themselves more composure in dealing with unprovable knowledge and more motivation to set down an answer.

Conclusion We do not really know what the human being truly is today, although our awareness and understanding should instruct us in this matter. How much less would we be able to guess what a human being is to become in future. However, the curiosity of the human soul greedily grasps for this far distant subject and strives to put some light on such unilluminated knowledge.

Must the everlasting soul for the full eternity of its future existence, which the grave itself does not destroy but only changes, always remain fixed at this point of the cosmos, on our Earth? Must it never share a closer look at the rest of creation's wonders? Who knows whether it is destined that in future the soul will get to know at close quarters the cosmic structures and the excellence of the dwelling places in those distant spheres which already attract its curiosity from afar? Perhaps that is why some spheres of the planetary system are already developing, in order to prepare for us in other heavens new places to live after the completion of the time prescribed for our stay here on Earth. Who knows whether those satellites do not circle around Jupiter so as to provide light for us in the future?

It is permitted and appropriate to entertain ourselves up with ideas of this kind. But no one will ground future hope on such uncertain imaginary pictures.

When vanity has demanded its share of human nature, then will the immortal spirit swiftly raise itself up above everything mortal, and further develop its existence in a new relationship with the totality of nature, which arises out of closer ties with the Highest Being. From this time on, this lofty Nature, which in itself contains the origin of happiness, will no longer be scattered among external objects in order to seek out a quiet place among them. The collective totality of creatures, which has a necessary harmony with the pleasure of the Highest Original Being, must also have this harmony for its own pleasure and will light upon it only in perpetual contentment.

In fact, when we have completely filled our minds with such observations and with what has been brought out previously, then the sight of a starry heaven on a clear night gives a kind of pleasure which only n.o.ble souls experience. In the universal stillness of nature and the tranquillity of the mind, the hidden capacity to know speaks the unnamable language of the immortal soul and provides inchoate ideas which are certainly felt but are incapable of being described. If among thinking creatures of this planet there are lower beings who, regardless of all incitements which such a great subject can offer, are nevertheless in the state of being stuck firmly in the service of vanity, how unfortunate this sphere is that it could produce such miserable creatures. But, on the other hand, how lucky they are that there is a way, one supremely worthy of following, for them to reach a spiritual happiness and n.o.bility, something infinitely far above the advantages which the most beneficial of all nature's arrangements in all planetary bodies can attain!

The End

Footnotes Part Section 88 [Back to Text]

Because I do not have available the treatise mentioned above I will here include what is relevant to this matter in a quotation from the Ouvrages diverses of Maupertuis in Actis Erud. 1745. The first phenomena are those bright stars in heaven which are called nebulous stars and which are considered a dense crowd of fixed stars. But the astronomers, with the help of excellent telescopes, saw them only as large oval areas which were somewhat lighter than the other parts of the heavens. Huygens first came across one in Orion. In the Anglical. Trans. Halley speculates about six such small areas:1.

in the sword of Orion, 2. in Sagittarius, 3. in the Centaur, 4. in front of the right foot of Antinoous, 5. in Hercules, 6. in the girdle of Andromeda.

Observing through an 8-foot reflecting telescope, people saw that only the fourth of these can be considered a collection of stars. The remainder displayed only small white areas without much difference, other than the fact that one is more circular in shape, another, by contrast, is more elongated.

It also seems that in the first group the small stars visible through the telescope could not cause the white glow. Halley believes that from this appearance we can explain just what we meet at the start of the Mosaic creation story, namely, that light was created before the sun. Derham compares them to openings through which shines another immeasurable region and perhaps the fire of heaven. He maintains he has been able to observe that the stars seen near these small regions are much closer to us than the bright stars. To this the author adds a catalogue of the nebulous stars taken from Hevelius. He thinks of these phenomena as huge bright ma.s.ses, which through a powerful rotating motion have been flattened. If they were to have the same power of illumination as the remaining stars, the material which makes them up would have to be ma.s.sive, so that when they are seen from a much greater distance than that of the stars, they could appear through the telescope with a distinct shape and size. However, if they were approximately the same size as the rest of the fixed stars, they must not only be much closer to us, but also at the same time have a much weaker light, because at such a close distance and with such a discernible shape they display such a pale glow. It would be valuable to discover their parallax, to the extent that they have one. For those who say they have no parallax perhaps came to that conclusion about all of them from only some of them. The small stars which we come across in the middle of these limited areas, as in Orion (or even more beautifully in the area in front of the right foot of Antinous, which looks just like a fixed star surrounded with a mist) would, if they were closer to us, be seen either as a sort of projection onto the area or would appear through that ma.s.s of stars, exactly as they do through the tail of a comet. [Back to Text]

See Gellert's fable , Hans Nord. [Translator's Note: Hans Nord was a fictional confidence trickster who collected money for a public display only to abscond with the money (see Jacki 252)] [Back to text].

This short introduction, perhaps unnecessary for most readers, I wanted to set down for those who are in some way insufficiently knowledgeable about Newtonian principles as a preparation to understand the following theory.

[Trans. Note: As Hastie's footnote at this point reminds the reader, Ura.n.u.s was discovered in 1781, Neptune in 1846, the moons of Mars in 1877, all subsequent to the time of Kant's essay] [Back to text]

This is like the collection of stars which occur in great numbers together in a small area, as, for example, the seven stars (the Pleiades) which perhaps among themselves make up a small system in the midst of the greater one. [Back to Text]

De La Hire observes in the Memoires of the Paris Academy for the year 1693, that he has confirmed from his own observations as well as from a comparison of them with those of Ricciolus a significant change in the positions of the stars in the seven sisters (the Pleiades). [Back to Text]

Dissertation on the Shape of the Stars. [Back to Text]

[Translator's Note: Kant's text reads "in inverse proportion." This seems a careless error, since from the sentence it is clear that the relationship is a direct proportion rather than an inverse proportion]. [Back to Text]

[Translator's Note: Kant's text has "decrease" rather than "increase." Here again (as in the previous note) there seems to be a careless error in the wording describing the relationship of distance from the sun and eccentricity.] [Back to Text]

I am not investigating here whether this s.p.a.ce can, strictly speaking, be called empty. However, at this point it is sufficient to observe that all the material which one might come across in this s.p.a.ce is quite incapable of exercising an influence on the ma.s.ses in motion, which is the concern here.

[Back to Text]

The start of the self-development of the planets is not to be looked for only in the Newtonian power of attraction. In the case of a particle of such remarkable fineness, this force would be just too slow and weak. We would rather say that in this s.p.a.ce the first development happens through the collision of some elements which unite through the normal laws of combination, until their cl.u.s.ter which develops out of the process gradually grows sufficiently large that the Newtonian power of attraction in it becomes capable of constantly increasing the size of the cl.u.s.ter through its effect at a distance. [Back to Text]

This measured circular movement is essentially relevant only to the planets near the sun. For it is easy to a.s.sume that for the planets at great distances where only the furthest planets as well as comets have developed, because the sinking movement of the basic material there is much weaker and the spatial expanse where they are scattered is also larger, the elements in and of themselves already deviate from circular movement and that must be the cause of the bodies which develop from them.[Back to Text]

For the particles from the regions near the sun, which have a larger orbital velocity than is required for circular movement in the place where they collect together on the plan