Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- CHAPTER I ASTRONOMICAL Discoveries
- CHAPTER II Astronomical Objection to Religion
- CHAPTER III The Answer from the Microscope
- CHAPTER IV Further Statement of the Difficulty
- CHAPTER V Geology
- CHAPTER VI The Argument from Geology
- CHAPTER VII The Nebulsæ
- CHAPTER VIII The Fixed Stars
- CHAPTER IX The Planets
- CHAPTER X Theory of the Solar System
- CHAPTER XI The Argument from Design
- CHAPTER XII The Unity of the World
- CHAPTER XIII The Future
CHAPTER I - ASTRONOMICAL Discoveries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- CHAPTER I ASTRONOMICAL Discoveries
- CHAPTER II Astronomical Objection to Religion
- CHAPTER III The Answer from the Microscope
- CHAPTER IV Further Statement of the Difficulty
- CHAPTER V Geology
- CHAPTER VI The Argument from Geology
- CHAPTER VII The Nebulsæ
- CHAPTER VIII The Fixed Stars
- CHAPTER IX The Planets
- CHAPTER X Theory of the Solar System
- CHAPTER XI The Argument from Design
- CHAPTER XII The Unity of the World
- CHAPTER XIII The Future
Summary
‘When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?’
These striking words of the Hebrew Psalmist have been made, by an eloquent and pious writer of our own time, the starting point of a remarkable train of speculation. Dr Chalmers, in his Astronomical Discourses, has treated the reflexion thus suggested, in connexion with such an aspect of the heavens and the stars, the earth and the universe, as modern astronomy presents to us. Even from the point of view in which the ancient Hebrew looked at the stars; seeing only their number and splendour, their lofty position, and the vast space which they visibly occupy in the sky; compared with the earth, which lies dark, and mean, and perhaps small in extent, far beneath them, and on which man has his habitation; it appeared wonderful, and scarcely credible, that the maker of all that array of luminaries, the lord of that wide and magnificent domain, should occupy himself with the concerns of men: and yet, without a belief in His fatherly care and goodness to us, thoughtful and religious persons, accustomed to turn their minds constantly to a Supreme Governor and constant Benefactor, are left in a desolate and bewildered state of feeling.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Of the Plurality of WorldsAn Essay, pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1853