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Chapter Two: the Astronomers and Extraterrestrials

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Chapter Two: the Astronomers and Extraterrestrials Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials, Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction, One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research , If electronic transmission of reserve material is used for purposes in excess of what constitutes "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. • THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DEBATE 1750-1900 The idea of a plurality of worlds from Kant to Lowell J MICHAEL]. CROWE University of Notre Dame TII~ right 0/ ,It, U,,;v"Jily 0/ Camb,idg4' to P'''''' a"d s,1I all MO""" of oooks WM grattlrd by H,rr,y Vlf(;ff I $J4. TM U,wNn;fyltas pritr"d and pu"fisllrd rOffti",.ously sincr J5U. Cambridge University Press Cambridge London New York New Rochelle Melbourne Sydney Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge In lovi ng The Pirr Building, Trumpingron Srreer, Cambridge CB2. I RP Claire H 32. Easr 57th Streer, New York, NY 1002.2., U SA J 0 Sramford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia and Mi ha © Cambridge Univ ersiry Press 1986 firsr published 1986 Prinred in rh e Unired Srares of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Crowe, Michael J. The exrrarerresrriallife debare '750-1900. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Pluraliry of worlds - Hisrory. 2.. Life on orher planets - Hisrory. I. Tide. QB54 ·C76 1985 574·999 85 ·7S42. ISB N 0 52.1 2.63050 British Library Caraloging-in-Publicarion applied for QB 2 Astronomers and extraterrestrials 1. Wright, Kant, and Lambert: pioneer sidereal astronomers and proponents of a plurality of worlds During the second half of the eighteenth century, the idea of a plurality of worlds won the attention of many if not most European astronomers. This chapter illustrates this point while developing three specific theses: (I) that the astronomical writings of the pioneers (Wright, Kant, and Lambert) of the most important astronomical advance of that half-cen­ tury, the creation of sidereal astronomy, were permeated by pluralist concerns, (2) that the career of the premier astronomer of that period (Sir William Herschel) was deeply influenced by ideas of extraterrestrial life, and (3) that four of Herschel's leading Continental contemporaries (Sch­ roter, Bode, Laplace, and Lalande) were scarcely less involved in the pluralist quest than Herschel himself. In 1750, two centuries after the commencement of the Copernican revolution, a second astronomical revolution began. Thomas Wright, Immanuel Kant, and Johann Lambert, in books published between 1750 'and 1761, proposed daring new theories of the sidereal region, the realm of stars and nebulae. This second or sidereal revolution, which culmi­ nated only in the I920S, encompassed three conclusions: (I) that the Milky Way is an optical effect arising from the scattering of millions of stars over a roughly planar area, (2) that these stars form a giant disk­ shaped structure many light-years in diameter, and (3) that many of the nebulous patches seen in the heavens are galaxies comparable in magni­ tude to our own Milky Way galaxy. In discussing the writings of Wright, Kant, and Lambert it will be important to ask not only what contribution each made to this revolution but also how he came to make it. In doing this we shall see that this revolution was intimately related to the extra­ terrestrial life debate, a point too rarely recognized . Thomas Wright of Durham, born in 1711, died in obscurity in 1786, despite having published a number of books, most notably his Original FROM 1750 TO 1800 ASTRONOMERS A Theory of the Universe. The fluctuations in Wright's reputation over the Finally, outside this shell of t r past two centuries furnish an instructive study of the difficulties in inter­ Dispare supposed to be the Des preting his astronomical writings. I Although the successes and reversals scarcely mentioning the Milky ' in the sidereal revolution influenced Wright's standing, a central problem that this sketch "prov'd afterw< in his historiography was already evident in the efforts made in the 18 30S Univers a much more perfec t v by two Americans, C. S. Rafinesque and C. Wetherill, and in the 1840S reveals a speculative mind less il by an Englishman, Augustus De Morgan, to rescue his reputation, for that of Tobias Swinden. W rig~ these authors championed quite different Wrights. De Morgan portrayed 1742, when he published a ma him as a "discoverer" who was "entitled to have his speculations consid­ system entitled Clavis coelestis ~ ered, not as the accident of a mind which must give the rein to imagina­ no mical works of Bradley, Halle tion ... , but as the justifiable research and successful conclusion of expository character of the b 01 thought founded on both knowledge and observation."z On the other his short section on stars he label hand, Wetherill and Rafinesque praised him for "disdaining the narrow [which] may very possibly be d constructed algebraic Newtonian standard," for possessing the "wisdom "8 of an Ancient Sage," and for promoting "the most expansive, sublime, The title page of Wright'S An and religious conception of the Universe or INFINITE CREATION." ) the Universe (1750) not only C~ Celestial scientist or religious sage? A century after De Morgan, F. A. General Phenomena of the Visi Paneth repeatedly proclaimed Wright a pioneer of sidereal astronomy, Lactea" but also suggests its pl u even proposing the erection on Wright'S house of a marble plaque in­ ing Edward Young's lines: scribed: "He was the first to explain the Milky Way."4 Paneth's position was shown to be unacceptable in the early 1970s, when Dr. Michael One Sun by Day, by And light us deep In Hoskin, drawing on previously unpublished Wright manuscripts, re­ vealed that Wright'S religious goals were paramount and that he had not His "Preface" conveys the same I one but three theories of the Milky Way, all wrong and increasingly SO.5 Cosmotheoros on the value of sp It is Hoskin's Wright that will concern us, although it will be suggested Man in support of a plurality of, that Wright'S Original Theory as well as the pioneering books of Kant " vast Infinity of Worlds ... cre and Lambert can be properly understood only if they are read not least as their various States to a final Perf , tracts on extraterrestrials. that make up Wright's volume, 1 Although he lacked university training, Wright possessed a passion for pluralist position, which Wright learning so intense that in 1729, as he recorded in his journal, "Father, by Notion of the Learned of all Nati ill advice, think him mad. Burn all the books he can get and endeavor to by quotations from such author: prevent Study."6 As becomes clear from a Wright manuscript of 1734, Derham, Pope, and Young. Hi Sl this son of a carpenter had by then set for himself the colossal task not analogical reasoning, so importal simply of constructing a new conception of the physical cosmos but also that I pretend to argue for, is ; of integrating into it the domain of the spiritual. Heaven and hell, comets people Infinity, or rather such Pa l and the chaos, the stars and the "Sedes Beatorum," planets and patri­ and Nature of Things, we judge archs, all these and "an infinite number of worlds" Wright sought to unlike the mortal human." (p. I arrange and even to display on a giant chart (now lost) for which his planets, marshaled on behalf of manuscript was to provide the explanation. At the center of creation attempted to demonstrate [i.e.1 t Wright placed the "Paradise of mortal spirits ... surrounding the Sa­ meer terrestrial, if not terraqueoL cred Throne of Omnipotence." Beyond this was the "Region of Mortal­ (p. 26) His arguments for th i cl. ity, in which all sensible being such as y' planetary bodies are imagined to little more than evidences that ' circumvolve in all manner of direction round the Devine Presence. " case he makes in his next letter f ASTRONOMERS AND EXTRATERRESTRIALS 43 over the Finally, outside this shell of stars, he placed "the shades of Darkness & Dispare supposed to be the Desolate Regions of yO Damnd ."7 Although scarcely mentioning the Milky Way in this work, Wright later claimed that this sketch "prov'd afterwards the foundation of his Theory of ye Univers a much more perfect work." (p. IS) In fact, this manuscript reveals a speculative mind less in the tradition of Isaac Newton than in that of Tobias Swinden. Wright's level of learning had advanced by 1742, when he published a magnificently illustrated text on the solar system entitled Clavis coelestis and enriched by references to the astro­ nomical works of Bradley, Halley, Huygens, Newton, and Whiston. The expository character of the book makes pluralist references rare, but in his short section on stars he labels them "great Globes of Fire like the Sun [which] may very possibly be the Centers of other Systems of Planets. The title page of Wright's An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe (1750) not only carries the promise of "Solving ... the General Phenomena of the Visible Creation; and Particularly the Via Lactea" but also suggests its pluralist and religious orientation by quot­ ing Edward Young's lines : One Sun by Day, by Night ten Thousand shine, And light us deep into the Deity.9 His "Preface" conveys the same message by a quotation from Huygens's Cosmotheoros on the value of speculation and one from Pope's Essay on Man in support of a plurality of worlds.
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