Sir Francis Younghusband

LIFE IN THE STARS - Preface To The Second Edition, 1928

THE call for a second edition only a few months after the first appearance of this book indicates that men are less engrossed than is supposed in purely terrestrial affairs, and are interested in what may be going on in other parts than our earth of the stupendous whole to which it and we belong.

It also affords me the opportunity of apologizing for the inadequacy of my manner of describing my journey to the starry realm. In my exploring days I was ever better at reaching my goal than at describing the way by which I had attained it. making the map of my route I cordially detested. It distracted my attention from the supreme object of my journey.

Something of this failing evidently remains to me in describing my latest journey. But for the guidance of those who would wish to travel in the same direction I would give this advice. I would advise them to make more use of philosophy than I did. They should take the facts of science, but use philosophy to interpret those facts and draw the fullest logical implication from them. Especially would I advise them to make fuller use of Dr.A.N.Whitehead's view of the universe as an organic whole. For if we accustom ourselves to regarding the universe as an organism - like a plant, or an animal, or a man - in which each part affects and is affected by the whole, we shall, through studying our own part, get to know the essential nature of the whole, and thus, through knowing the nature of the whole, be able to know something of other parts of the universe than this earth. Then we shall have less difficulty than now in inferring from what is going on here on this earth what may be happening among the stars.

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LIFE IN THE STARS - Preface To The First Edition, 1927

SINCE men have retired indoors they have not felt the influence of the stars as did the old dwellers by the desert who watched their flocks by night and travelled by the light of guiding stars. Even poets since the days of Dante have been little affected by them. They have walked abroad in the daytime and communed with the birds and the flowers, the rivers and the mountains, and with their fellow-men. But as soon as the sun has gone down they have withdrawn into their houses, and so have seen little of the heavens.

Astronomers, indeed, have observed the stars and marvellously increased our knowledge of them. But, like the poets, they also are mostly indoors at night. From inside an observatory they observe the sky piecemeal. And the sight of a tiny patch of the heavens through a great telescope is one thing, and spending night after night under the whole great vault of heaven is quite another. Each is wonderful. But not until the stars are viewed in both ways shall we really know and understand them. Not until we study them from the hill-top as well as from the observatory and library - not until we study them both in whole and in part - shall we know how we stand in regard to them and they in regard to us.

And even then what conclusions we come to will largely depend upon whether we spend most of our time in the study and the observatory, or most of it in the open. If we remain indoors we are liable to regard the universe as nothing but a huge collection of incandescent globes slowly burning themselves to cinders; and to look on the appearance of life on this speck of a planet as a pure fluke, and on life itself as a mere evanescent glow which is doomed sooner or later to flicker out. But if we go out in the open air and look up and long at the stars, and at the whole round of the heavens, we shall probably take a more healthy - a more whole - view of the Universe, and regard it as a living whole.

When we see a man we do not usually say to ourselves, "That is only a machine." That would be quite a true view to take of the man. He is a machine. But that is not the whole truth about the man, or the more important part of the truth. The important thing about him is that he manifests spirit. He shows fellow-feeling with us - shows that he grieves and rejoices, thinks and takes action on his thought. So we look on men not as machines only but as embodiments of spirit. And the point of view I propose to put forward in this book is that the stellar world is entitled to be looked upon with the same respect. The only star we know at all intimately has manifested spirit, and the natural assumption is that the stellar world as a whole is spiritual also.

So far, no very great attention has been paid to the question of the habitability of the stars (and, for convenience sake, I shall include in the term "stars" planets or other bodies attendant on them as the earth is on the sun). Dr.Benjamin Moore, in his book "The Origin and Nature of Life," gives many authorities for the opinion that life here must have come from life elsewhere. He expresses his own opinion that "life is at present originating in countless other worlds as daily it is originating on our own." And he quotes Lord Kelvin as saying: "We all confidently believe that there are at present, and have been from time immemorial, many worlds of life besides our own." On the other hand, the great naturalist, Dr.Alfred Russel Wallace, thought the conditions necessary for the emergence of life were so complicated that it was extremely improbable that life could exist anywhere else. The solar system, he thought, occupied an exceptional position as the centre of the universe, and it was unlikely that the requisite conditions would obtain elsewhere.

But, since Wallace wrote, no very careful study of the question has been made; and in the meanwhile our knowledge of the stars has, very largely through the powerful telescopes of America, greatly increased. We know now that our sun occupies no exceptional position in the universe. It is a quite ordinary star - one among two or three thousand million stars which have been born out of one of about two million nebulae, each of which is a possible fountain source of a million or so of stars. For all we know the conditions for the emergence of life here may have been extraordinarily favourable. There is room, therefore, for much speculation as to the possibility of life on some of the planets attending some of the stars; and in spirit we must explore the entire universe.

On the wings of well-controlled imagination we must speed through the heavens. And, while I am well aware that I am but ill-equipped for so great an adventure, I also know that if we always waited for the perfectly equipped expert much would remain for ever undiscovered, and much more would remain unexplored through needlessly long period of time. Pioneer work has usually to be done by solitary adventurers relying more upon their singleness of aim than on the completeness of their equipment. The venturesome explorer may be able to penetrate where others weighted down by bulky scientific equipment would be unable to venture. And through sheer ignorance of the dangers he may be running he may triumph over difficulties which would affright the more seasoned traveller,

Such, at least, has been my experience in the field of geography; and in astrography it will probably be the same. Organized bands of experts may follow. But more hardy pioneers must lead the way and show the possiblities.

So, whether rash or bold I may be considered, I now set out for realms where no man yet has trod. The ground whereon I venture may be holy ground, and I may have to unloose my shoes before I tread upon it. But its holiness need not deter me any more than men were deterred from venturing on Mount Everest though from its altitude it was reputed to be the sanctuary of gods. Rather should this holiness attract me. For God is not to be feared but to be approached - not shunned in craven terror but sought after with the delight men feel in striving for the glory which ever shines above the dangerous.

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For more on Sir Francis Younghusband, read Star Communion Report 1.