Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-17
Astronomers Are Undertaking a Haz-
ardous Job, at Least as to Mars.
THAT ORB Is TOO LIVELY YET.
Frequent Ripping Up Of Continents Isn't
Conducive to Health.
FLANNARION OFF on ANTHR0PoL0GY


Eternal time, preceding any stated period
OF time, must be sufficient time to develop
in that time, whatever exists at the present
time.
Consequently, when we see and know Of
another world, this world, among an infn-
ity. of worlds, having passed definite rudi-
mentary stages in successive cycles of devel-
opment, which development finally resulted
in the production of a creature known as
radiate and then, through series of
evolutionary processes, finally eventuated
or eliminated in q higher creature known
as man. it is in every way consistent with
analogy to premise that similar processes
have been transpiring upon 1t, that would
necessarily produce the same result Even
If We cannot agree on the modus operandi
by which the apparition of man was
wrought, this does not bar the fact that,
however it was that he came, he would, un-
der similar conditions, similarly present
himself elsewhere Then, whatever we
may know as to the existence Of man on any
other particular world, must necessarily de-
pend on what We absolutely know concern
ing the essential conditions that produced
him on this world
Universally Of Laws Conceded.
If he came at the behest of an agency that
acts capriciously and whose work Is done
arbitrarily and not within tho lines Of
eternal and unchanging law. then, all scien-
tifc deductions are valueless; but, 1t Is in
the recognition of fixed method, an un-
changing system and synthetical procedure
In all similarly analogous processes, that all
science finds its basis.
1t will therefore be insisted on, that a
comprehensive grasp Of terrestrial geology
and anthropology, in their inter-relation-
ship, is as absolutely and imperatively
necessary in this consideration, as it is i'm
perative for the learner to make righteous
mastery of fundamental principles, ere he
can enter the domain of higher mathematics
A woful mess is his, who spurns to rear
on this foundation, but who would vault to
the summit, after the manner of an acrobat
With something of this in view, let US
now consider the probability of the human
hsbitability of the planet Mars. Astrono-
mers generally favor the idea that man is
there and already there is some speculation
"a sort of mental legal tender in astrono-
mical thought-on its rounds, as to ways
and means of inter-communication.
The Evidence of Mars Canals.
It is no evidence of the existence of the
human creature on the planet under consid-
Grafton in that we can detect the succession
of the seasons; the vernal hue of spring, the
simmer of autumn and the snow of winter
Our world, during the rank growth OF ear
lier ages, would have presented the same
spectacle, but cons of time had vet to pass
ere man appeared Those puzzles in Mar
sian physics, which are known as canals,
1.,,k Il,
such, in the sense of being human creations,
than they are likely to be Chinese walls,
afford no warrant whatever of any human
agency.
There could be no motive on a sphere,
still much smaller than the earth, to con-
struct waterways from so to 300 miles wide
and from 800 to $500 miles long, to have
them cross and intersect each other at all
angles; such thing is simply preposterous,
impossible to any human capacity, and if it
were possible and it should appear to be the
result of human endeavor, the case would be
one of such misdirected energy as would at
once place our celestial neighbors in the
category of planetary lunatics For where
restricted land surface of such an inferior
planet come from, to call for this gigantic
system, this colossal aggregation of oceanic
canals? Our Chinese Wall, Egyptian
Pyramids and sundry minor architectural
and excavating exploits are about the size
of our visible misdirected effort on material
substances, but this would still remain as
mere nothing in comparison.
Activity on the Surface.
But significantly related to this remark
able order of things is the changing phvsi-
cal confguration of surfaces. Here is
where these astronomers should, for time,
lay aside their glasses and retire within
their mentality and endeavor to apply
themselves to comprehensive analysis.
like cataclysmic waves seem to
roll over, submerge and wash, and frequent
ly the 50-mile wide dykes, emban kments,
blotted. out. Then, again, the ''canals," as
if tiring of single condition, reveal them
selves as double, they and the lakes and
some considerable seas appearing in dupli-
cate.
Such at least is the fact if we are to credit
the testimony of such eminent astronomical
observers as Flammarion, Dawes, Lockyer,
Keaiser and Schierparilli.
Such physical situation must mean in
tense commotion and if such, must be phe-
nomenal; and some of this commotion must
be manifest on and we'll nigh all over the
land and hence, cannot be otherwise than
delicate plant known as man, being espe-
cially product of many ages of compara-
tive physical quiesccnce. Now, it is not
that the curious phenomena
cannot and do not take place;
the intention is only to contend with mild |
that all this cannot occur cotem- |
with the construction and
ope ration Of hemispherical systems of con-
tinental canals, without putting into most
serious jeopardy the dividends of the
Earth Had Her Cataclysma
Such commotion, resulting in great |
changes Of outline, has, on numerous occa- |
sions, taken place on the earth, but inva- |
riably resulted in establishing geological |
cemetery. On the great slabs that overlie |
we may read the epitaphs of former worlds
in q script that permits no imitation, in
natures own inimitable recording.
No trace or intimation Of man can be
found on any of the pages of the creative
volume prior to the present. Nowhere
such mammal be found. The intervals from
one leaf to another, nay, all the intervals
Of all the leaves, from the azoic or inorg anic
cycle up and beyond the mesozoic, were not
ong enough to develop the creature that
,lone can say, 81 am. - We NAV begin
below, and in the ascending scale
commence with the eozoic, with the
forms OF animal life, we may
observe the radiates evolve into the articu-
ates, these into the mollusks, then in pale
,zoic time into the pisces, proceeding on up
ward through the lines of the reptilia to the
nesozoic, through the winged and feathered
orms to the cenezoic, we arrive at length
It the mammalia and now, on the crude an
NAL horizon faint and almost undistin- |
,uishable in the distance, appears in savage
'utline the coarse apparition, the mere con-
our, of coming man