THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DEBATE, ANTIQUITY TO 1915 CROWE E H A S O U R C E B O O K T Edited with commentary by Michael J. Crowe LIFE DEBATE “This is a valuable book that is not available anywhere else. Crowe’s purpose is to let the reader see the original words of the authors who discussed other worlds. Such a source book serves an important purpose, and is ideal for teaching and generating T discussion in class. The subject is of increasing importance as we find more and H more about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life through current disciplines such E as astrobiology, bioastronomy, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” E A N T I Q U I T Y T O 1 9 1 5 —Steven J. Dick, Director, NASA History Division, NASA X T “Having established himself as the world’s authority on the history of the debates R about extraterrestrial life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Michael Crowe is perfectly positioned to produce this source book. The introductory commentaries A T on the excerpts from primary sources he has so judiciously selected reveal again and E again that no one else knows this subject as well as he does.” R —Frederick Gregory, University of Florida R “The Extraterrestrial Life Debate gives new meaning to the word ‘treasury.’ Michael E Crowe offers us more than two thousand years of golden materials—wrought by the S T astonishing alchemy of science, religion, philosophy, and sheer imagination—about R a topic as alive today as it ever was: ET, with all his cousins and ancestors. The I range of authors the book showcases, and the depth of context Crowe provides, A will make his monumental anthology the starting point for future explorations L of this rich vein of human thought.” L —Dennis Danielson, University of British Columbia I F This book presents key documents from the pre-1915 history of the extraterrestrial E life debate. Introductions and commentaries accompany each source document, D some of which are published here for the first time or in a new translation. Authors E included are Aristotle, Lucretius, Aquinas, Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Fontenelle, B Huygens, Newton, Pope, Voltaire, Kant, Herschel, Paine, Chalmers, Whewell, A Darwin, Wallace, Dostoevsky, Lowell, and Antoniadi, among others. T E Michael J. Crowe is the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in Humanities in the Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame. He has published a number of books, including The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell. A S O U R C E B O O K ISBN-13:978-0-268-02368-3 University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN 46556 Edited with commentary by ISBN-10:0-268-02368-9 www.undpress.nd.edu 900 00 Michael J. Crowe Cover art: Drawing by J. J. Grandville of a Bridge between Worlds, from Un Autre Monde (1844). 9 78026 8 023683 Cover design: Jason Harvey crowe_mech.indd 1 6/23/08 5:07:04 PM E X T R AT E R R E S T R I A L E H T L I F E D E B AT E E X T R AT E R R E S T R I AL E H T L I F E D E BAT E A n t i q u i t y t o 1 9 1 5 A SOURCE BOOK edited with commentary by MICHAEL J. CROWE University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana Crowe-000.FM 6/30/08 12:07 PM Page iv Copyright © 2008 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved Title page art: detail from drawing by J.J. Grandville of a Bridge between Worlds, from Un Autre Monde(1844). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crowe, Michael J. The extraterrestrial life debate, antiquity to 1915 : a source book / edited by Michael J. Crowe. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02368-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-02368-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1.Life on other planets. 2. Plurality of worlds. I. Title. QB54.C764 2008 576.8'39——dc22 2008026865 ∞The paperin this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability ofthe Committee onProductionGuidelines forBook Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. To my brother, Patrick H. Crowe CONTENTS List of Figures xi List of Tables xiii Preface xv PART ONE Antiquity to Newton ONE The Debate in Antiquity 3 TWO From Augustine to the Fifteenth Century 14 THREE From Copernicus to Bruno 35 FOUR Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Pascal 51 viii c o n t e n t s FIVE Fontenelle and Huygens 72 SIX Newton, Bentley, and Derham 109 PART TWO The Eighteenth Century SEVEN Astronomers and Extraterrestrials 129 EIGHT Extraterrestrials and the Enlightenment 182 PART THREE From 1800 to 1860 NINE Intensification of the Debate after 1800 233 TEN Before the Whewell Debate 297 ELEVEN Whewell’s Of the Plurality of Worlds and Responses 333 PART FOUR From 1860 to 1915 TWELVE New Approaches to an Ancient Question 369 c o n t e n t s ix THIRTEEN The Late Nineteenth Century 438 FOURTEEN The Controversy over the Canals of Mars 470 Conclusion 518 Appendix The History of Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life Research Program 522 Selected Bibliography 526 Permissions 542 Index 544