6697. I have sometimes spoken about this with spirits, and it was said that a man of good understanding can know from many things that there are many earths with inhabitants upon them; for he can conclude from reason that masses of such size as the earths, some of which surpass this earth in magnitude, are not empty masses, created only to course about the sun, and give light to one earth; but that their use must be of greater eminence than this. He who believes, as everyone ought to believe, that the Divine created the universe for no other end than that the human race may arise, and a heaven therefrom (for the human race is the nursery of heaven), cannot but believe that there are men wherever there is any earth. That the earths which are visible to our eyes, being within the boundaries of this solar system, are earths may be clearly known from the fact that they are bodies of earthy material, because they reflect the sun's light; also that they, like our earth, revolve around the sun, and thereby make years and seasons of the year-spring, summer, autumn, and winter-with variation according to climate; and likewise that they revolve upon their own axes like our earth, and thereby make days and times of the day-morning, noon, evening, and night; and moreover that some of them have moons, which are called satellites and revolve about their respective earths in stated times, as the moon does about our earth; and that the earth Saturn, because very far from the sun, has also a great lunar belt, which gives much light to that earth, though reflected. How can anyone who knows these facts and thinks from reason, say that these are empty bodies!