The San Francisco call., 1896-10-25

atmosphere OF the planet has peen eagerly
sought for and widely published. The ex-
pianation of those mysterious markings
known as the canals" has been strlyen
for with feverish interest. Eight out of
ten people who have given any thought to
the matter believe that Mars Is inhabited.
Some have gone so far as 10 urge, IN sober
spirit, the construction upon our earth OF
gigantic system of powerful lights with
which to signal our Martian neighbors.
We are agreed that Mars is habitable,
and, therefore, inhabited. But with what
kind of people2 Are they prototypes OF
the human2
The question cannot be lntelligentIy
considered unless we divest ourselves of
ideas and measures of Judgment that are
applicable to the earth. We must place
ourselves in position to comprehend the
fact that the differest forms of creation are
exhibited in an infinite diversity. Upon
our earth there is not species but what
has changed from age to age. Go into
the library of the Academy Of Sciences
and see upon the walls the pictures OF the
creatures of prehistoric ages. Beasts and
fishes, birds and reptiles, trees and plants,
all are totally different from what are now
upon the globe. What has caused the
changer New conditions. The horse, the
OK, the food fish. the oak tree, the apple
and the peach, the prairie chicken and
the sparrow could not have existed under
the conditions that characterized the
pal@zoic age. The physical condition of
the surroundings determine the character
of life.
We would be Justly accused of rank ar
rogance were We to assert that the forces
OF nature acted only upon our little ball of
earth. They do act. but in a far greater,
grander scale throughout the immeasur-
able universe; and inasmuch as our inyes-
legations teach US that earth conditions do
not extend beyond earth limits, it follows
that the forms OF life outside of terrestrial
bounds are different from those obtaining
here.
The inhabitants of other spheres may,
for all We know, be creatures of fantastic
form, judged by our ideas OF fitness. They
may be winged; they may be limbless,
eyeless, stoinachless; they may be plant
Ike; they may possess less than the five
senses which mark the human, and they
may possess mum Der of senses of which
we have no possible conception. The
character of the elements inherent in the
sphere shapes the particular form of life
that peoples it. A globe where electricity
Is exhibited IN a different form than is
manifested upon our own would have in
habitants possessing an electrical sense"
The denizens of the planets belonging to
the solar system OF Gamma, in the con-
stellation of Andromeda, possess a color
sense, of which we know nothing. Their
worlds, lighted by three suns-one blue.
one green and one orange-enioy life of
color indescribable in splendor. The tenn
perature OF other spheres than our own
differs from our conception of balminess.
Some are intensely colds others are in
tensely hot Some are lighted by blood
red suns. Yet on all is life, carefully
adapted to each place of abode.
1t would be FOLLY tor us TO say that, be-
cause this star is hot or that one cold it is
uninhabited. We shonld simply pro-
claim our worse than ignorance-our big
otry-by so doing, for We have only to
glance backward and view the forms of
life upon our earth during its past geologi- |
cal epochs to see that life has existed here
under conditions which would render the
present life impossible.
We would hardly recognize the Merriam
if we saw one. We may, in fact, be to-
day entertaining distin guished visitors
from our planetary nei b bor unawares.