THE PEOPLE OF MARS.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11553, 14 February 1906, Page 4

THE PEOPLE OF MARS.

PUimmaH&n; tbe eminent I ?l rfeji6h .hskrbnbßier. declares that tWS ihbhbifcants .bi th& planet Mate afe mufch ihorfe highly developed i than ourselveS. "Naturally," he says,, "it is , impossible for us to iinijtgin'o What forms living beings inu'st take there ; but it is equally impossible for us to assert that the forces of nature, which are there the same as here, and act under almost similar conditions (atmosphere, •climate, seasons, aqueous vapour, and so on), have been rendered sterile by a perpetual miracle of annihilation, whereas on the earth the cup of life overflows everywhere, and the generating force of being immensely surpasses their teal and durable vitality. There are many advantages in favor of the Martians. First of all, it would be difficult for a human Species to be less intelligent than ours, seeing that we do not know how to control ourselves. The second reason is that progress is an absolute law nothing can resist. Tbe hypothesis that Mars is inhabited by an intellectual race much superior to our own is growing stronger every year in proportion as astronomical observations become more and more - precise. The geography of our neighboi is better known ' than was that of the earth three hundred years ago. The same can be said of its meteorology and its climatology. No one can tell for certain what the weather will be like on earth tomorrow. AY ell, we know almost with certitude what the weather will be in such or such | a country of Mars next week or inext month. Its atmosphere being constantly pure and transparent, all the geographical configuiations ?of ;the planet pass with precision into the field ol vision of the telescope.