They
may be grander than ours, just as many of the suns surrounding us are
immensely greater than ours. If we could take our stand somewhere in
the midst of immensity and, with vision of infinite reach, look about
us, we should perhaps see a countless number of stellar systems, amid
which ours would be unnoticeable, like a single star among the
multitude glittering in the terrestial sky on a clear night. Some
might be in the form of a wreath, like our own; some might be
globular, like the great star-clusters in Hercules and Centaurus; some
might be glittering circles, or disks, or rings within rings. If we
could enter them we should probably find a vast variety of
composition, including elements unknown to terrestrial chemistry; for
while the visible universe appears to contain few if any substances
not existing on the earth or in the sun, we have no warrant to assume
that others may not exist in infinite space.
And how as to gravitation? We do not know that gravitation acts beyond
the visible universe, but it is reasonable to suppose that it does. At
any rate, if we let go its sustaining hand we are lost, and can only
wander hopelessly in our speculations, like children astray. If the
empire of gravitation is infinite, then the various outer systems must
have some, though measuring by our standards an imperceptible,
attractive influence upon each other, for gravitation never lets go
its hold, however great the space over which it is required to act.
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