"If,then,the condition of a nebula or star depends simply on its size,it is reasonable to suppose that Andromeda,Sirius,and all the vast bodies we see,were created at the same time as our system,which involves the necessity of one general and simultaneous creation day.But as Sirius,with its diameter of twelve million miles,must be larger than some of the nebulae will be when equally condensed,we must suppose rather that nebulae are forming and coming into the condition of bright and dead stars,much as apples or pears on a fruit tree are constantly growing and developing,so that the Mosaic description of the creation would probably apply in point of time only to our system,or perhaps to our globe,though the rest will doubtless pass through precisely the same stages.This,I think,I will publish,on our return,as the Cortlandt astronomical doctrine,as the most rational I have seen devised,and one that I think we may safely believe,until,perhaps,through increased knowledge,it can be disproved."After they crossed a line of hills that ran at right angles to their course they found the country more rolling.All streams and water-courses flowed in their direction,while their aneroid showed them that they were gradually descending.When they were moving along near the surface of the ground,a delicious and refined perfume exhaled by the blue and white flowers,that had been growing smaller as they journeyed northward,frequently reached their nostrils.To Cortlandt and Bearwarden it was merely the scent of a flower,but to Ayrault it recalled mental pictures of Sylvia wearing violets and lilies that he had given her.He knew that the greatest telescopes on earth could not reveal the Callisto moving about in Jupiter's sunshine,as even a point of light,at that distance,and,notwithstanding Cortlandt's learning and Bearwarden's joviality,he felt at times extremely lonely.
They swept along steadily for fifty hours,having bright sunny days and beautifully moonlit nights.They passed over finely rounded hills and valleys and well-watered plains.As they approached the ocean and its level the temperature rose,and there was more moisture in the air.The plants and flowers also increased in size,again resembling somewhat the large species they had seen near the equator.
"This would be the place to live,"said Bearwarden,looking at iron mountains,silver,copper,and lead formations,primeval forests,rich prairies,and regions evidently underlaid with coal and petroleum,not to mention huge beds of aluminum clay,and other natural resources,that made his materialistic mouth water.
"It would be joy and delight to develop industries here,with no snow avalanches to clog your railroads,or icy blizzards to paralyze work,nor weather that blights you with sun-strokes and fevers.On our return to the earth we must organize a company to run regular interplanetary lines.We could start on this globe all that is best on our own.Think what boundless possibilities may be before the human race on this planet,which on account of its vast size will be in its prime when our insignificant earth is cold and dead and no longer capable of supporting life!Think also of the indescribable blessing to the congested communities of Europe and America,to find an unlimited outlet here!Mars is already past its prime,and Venus scarcely habitable,but in Jupiter we have a new promised land,compared with which our earth is a pygmy,or but little more than microscopic.""I see,"said Ayrault,"that the possibilities here have no limit;but I do not see how you can compare it to the promised land,since,till we undertook this journey,no one had even thought of Jupiter as a habitable place.""I trace the Divine promise,"replied Bearwarden,"in what you described to us on earth as man's innate longing and desire to rise,and in the fact that the Almighty has given the race unbounded expansiveness in very limited space.This would look to me as the return of man to the garden of Eden through intellectual development,for here every man can sit under his own vine and fig-tree.""It seems to me,"said Cortlandt,"that no paradise or heaven described in anything but the Bible compares with this.
