Plurality of Worlds

55. Are all the globes that revolve in space inhabited?

"Yes; and the people of the earth are far from being, as you suppose, the first in intelligence, goodness, and general development. There are many men having a high opinion of themselves who even imagine that your little globe alone, of all the countless myriads of globes around you, has the privilege of being inhabited by reasoning beings. They fancy that God has created the universe only for them. Insensate vanity!"

God has peopled the globes of the universe with living beings, all of whom concur in working out the aims of His providence. To believe that the presence of living beings Is confined to the one point of the universe inhabited by us is to cast a doubt on the wisdom of God, who has made nothing in vain, and who must therefore have assigned to all the other globes of the universe a destination more important than that of gratifying our eyes with the spectacle of a starry night. Moreover, there Is nothing in the position. size, or physical constitution of the earth to warrant the supposition that It alone, of the countless myriads of globes disseminated throughout the infinity of apace. has the privilege of being inhabited.

56. Is the physical constitution of all globes the same?

"No; they do not at all resemble one another."

57. The physical constitution of the various worlds not being the same for all does it follow

that the beings who inhabit them have different organisations?

"Undoubtedly it does; just as, in your world, fishes are organised for living in the water, and

birds for living in the air."

58. Are the planets furthest removed from the sun stinted in light and heat, the sun only

appearing to them of the size of one of the fixed stars?

"Do you suppose that there are no other sources of light and heat than the sun? And do you count for nothing the action of electricity which, in certain worlds, plays a very much more important part than in your earth? Besides, how do you know that the beings of those worlds see in the same manner as you do, and with the aid of organs such as yours?"

The conditions of existence for the beings who Inhabit the various worlds must be supposed to be appropriate to the sphere in which they are destined to live. If we had never seen fishes, we should be at a loss to understand how any living beings could exist In the sea. So in regard to all the other worlds, which doutless contain elements that are unknown to us. In our own earth, are not the long polar nights illumined by the electrical displays of the aurora borealis? Is It impossible that. In certain worlds, electricity may be more abundant than in ours, and may subserve, in Its general economy, various important uses not imaginable by us? And may not those worlds contain in themselves the sources of the heat and light required by their inhabitants?

From The Spirit's Book - Chapter III - Creation - Plurality of Worlds - Ed Federação Espírita Brasileira FEB