Man's Place in the Universe Part 16

And is it not in perfect harmony with this grandeur of design (if it be design), this vastness of scale, this marvellous process of development through all the ages, that the material universe needed to produce this cradle of organic life, and of a being destined to a higher and a permanent existence, should be on a corresponding scale of vastness, of complexity, of beauty? Even if there were no such evidence as I have here adduced for the unique position and the exceptional characteristics which distinguish the earth, the old idea that all the planets were inhabited, and that all the stars existed for the sake of other planets, which planets existed to develop life, would, in the light of our present knowledge, seem utterly improbable and incredible. It would introduce monotony into a universe whose grand character and teaching is endless diversity. It would imply that to produce the living soul in the marvellous and glorious body of man--man with his faculties, his aspirations, his powers for good and evil--that this was an easy matter which could be brought about anywhere, in any world. It would imply that man is an animal and nothing more, is of no importance in the universe, needed no great preparations for his advent, only, perhaps, a second-rate demon, and a third or fourth-rate earth.

Looking at the long and slow and complex growth of nature that preceded his appearance, the immensity of the stellar universe with its thousand million suns, and the vast aeons of time during which it has been developing--all these seem only the appropriate and harmonious surroundings, the necessary supply of material, the sufficiently s.p.a.cious workshop for the production of that planet which was to produce first, the organic world, and then, Man.

In one of his finest pa.s.sages our great world-poet gives us _his_ conception of the grandeur of human nature--'What a piece of work is man!

How n.o.ble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a G.o.d!' And for the development of such a being what is a universe such as ours? However vast it may seem to our faculties, it is as a mere nothing in the ocean of the infinite. In infinite s.p.a.ce there may be infinite universes, but I hardly think they would be all universes of matter. That would indeed be a low conception of infinite power! Here, on earth, we see millions of distinct species of animals, millions of different species of plants, and each and every species consisting often of many millions of individuals, no two individuals exactly alike; and when we turn to the heavens, no two planets, no two satellites alike; and outside our system we see the same law prevailing--no two stars, no two cl.u.s.ters, no two nebulae alike. Why then should there be other universes of the _same_ matter and subject to the _same_ laws--as is implied by the conception that the stars are infinite in number, and extend through infinite s.p.a.ce?

Of course there may be, and probably are, other universes, perhaps of other kinds of matter and subject to other laws, perhaps more like our conceptions of the ether, perhaps wholly non-material, and what we can only conceive of as spiritual. But, unless these universes, even though each of them were a million times vaster than our stellar universe, were also infinite in number, they could not fill infinite s.p.a.ce, which would extend on all sides beyond them, so that even a million million such universes would shrink to imperceptibility when compared with the vast beyond!

Of infinity in any of its aspects we can really know nothing, but that it exists and is inconceivable. It is a thought that oppresses and overwhelms.

Yet many speak of it glibly as if they _knew_ what it contains, and even use that a.s.sumed knowledge as an argument against views that are unacceptable to themselves. To me its existence is absolute but unthinkable--that way madness lies.

'O night! O stars, too rudely jars The finite with the infinite!'

I will conclude with one of the finest pa.s.sages relating to the infinite that I am acquainted with, from the pen of the late R.A. Proctor:

'Inconceivable, doubtless, are these infinities of time and s.p.a.ce, of matter, of motion, and of life. Inconceivable that the whole universe can be for all time the scene of the operation of infinite power, omnipresent, all-knowing. Utterly incomprehensible how Infinite Purpose can be a.s.sociated with endless material evolution. But it is no new thought, no modern discovery, that we are thus utterly powerless to conceive or comprehend the idea of an Infinite Being, Almighty, All-knowing, Omnipresent, and Eternal, of whose inscrutable purpose the material universe is the unexplained manifestation. Science is in presence of the old, old mystery; the old, old questions are asked of her--"Canst thou by searching find out G.o.d? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than h.e.l.l; what canst thou know?" And science answers these questions as they were answered of old--"As touching the Almighty we cannot find Him out."'

The following beautiful lines--among the latest products of Tennyson's genius--so completely harmonise with the subject-matter of the present volume, that no apology is needed for quoting them here:--

(_The Question_)

Will my tiny spark of being Wholly vanish in your deeps and heights?

Must my day be dark by reason, O ye Heavens, of your boundless nights, Rush of Suns and roll of systems, And your fiery clash of meteorites?

(_The Answer_)

'Spirit, nearing yon dark portal At the limit of thy human state, Fear not thou the hidden purpose Of that Power which alone is great, Nor the myriad world, His shadow, Nor the silent Opener of the Gate.'

FOOTNOTE:

[23] Since writing this chapter I have seen a paper by Luigi d'Auria dealing mathematically with 'Stellar Motion, etc.,' and am pleased to see that, from quite different considerations, he has found it necessary to place the solar system at a distance from the centre not very much more remote than the position I have given it. He says: 'We have good reasons to suppose that the solar system is rather near the centre of the Milky Way, and as this centre would, according to our hypothesis, coincide with the centre of the Universe, the distance of 159 light years a.s.sumed is not too great, nor can it be very much smaller.'--_Journal of the Franklin Inst.i.tute_, March 1903.