MORE WORLDS THAN ONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1243, 25 September 1875, Page 3

MORE WORLDS THAN ONE.

Probably no science during the last few years has made such rapid strides as astronomy. This advance is mainly owing to the discovery of the spectroscope, and its application to astronomical purposes. That wonderful instrument, more wonderful, perhaps, than the telescope, may be appropriately termed a light-sifter, and is used to analyse the light which comes to us from other orbs across rhe ocean of space, so as to set before us their general character and structure. Mr Proctor attempts to make use of the startling discoveries effected by the aid of the spectroscope, in order to form juster views of the structure and relations of the planetary and stellar systems. He again raises the question of the plurality of worlds, which a few years ago employed the scientific anddialecticskill of such men as Dr Whewell a-jd Sir David Brewster, and ages before fascinated the early philosophers of ancient Greece. Mr Proctor considers that science has progressed so rapidly of late that the subject of life in other worlds has assumed a new aspect since Whewell's " Plurality of Worlds," and Brewster's "More Worlds than One," were written. " Arguments which were hypothetical thirty years ago have either become certainties or been disproved. Doubtful points have been cleared up ; a new meaning has been found even in those facts which were well known to both the disputants; and, lastly, a new mode of research has been devised, which has not only revealed a number of surprising facts, but promises to work yet greater marvels in the years which are to come." Certainly Mr Proctor has taken some pains and trouble to expound and illustrate his arguments and theories, and his work shows, moreover, much patient research and wide scientific reading.— London Spectator.