The San Francisco call., 1897-07-04

sun seems no bigger than an orange, ana
which, but for its moist thin, rich atmosphere
and peculiar magnetic conditions that Her
from ours would be too cold above ground for
human or animal or vegetable life. AS 1t Is,
it is only inhabited now in the neighborhooo
of its equator, and even then during It's long
winter it is colcer and more desolate than
Cape Horn or Spitzbergen-except that the
shallow fresh-water sea does not freeze except
for a few months at either pole"
Mr.. Lowelps telescopes were not strong
enough for him to decide absolutely that Mars
was inhabited, though their revelation of an
elaborate syste m Of twin canals in the planet
strongly inclined him 10 the belief that they
were The work of highly ingenious race So,
for enlightenment on this point, we must
turn TO the ina agination OF the romanticist.
MARTA" gives so attractive an account of her
fellow-creatures that they seem altogether SUI
perior to humankind:
MAN in Mars is, 1t appears, very differen t
being from what he is here. He is amphib-
ious and descends from no monkey, but from
a small animal that seems to be something
between our seal and our sea lion. His
beauty is to that of the seal as that of the
Theseus or Antinous to that of orang-
outang. His five senses are extraordinarily
acute, even the sense of touch in his webbed
fingers ana toes; aud in addition to these he
possesses a sixth, that comes from his keen
and unintermittent sense OF the magnetic cur
rent, which is far stronger in Mars than on
the earth and far more complicated and more
thoroughly understood.
when any object is too delicate and minute
to be examined by the sense of touch and
| sight the Marian shuts his eyes and puts it
against the pit of his stomach, and knows all
about it, even its inside.
"Iu the absolute dark, or with his eyes shut,
and when he stops his ears, he is more in
tensely conscious of what Immediately sur
rounds him than at any other time. except
that all color-perception ceases; conscious not
only of material objects. but OF what is pass
ing in his ellow-Martian's mind-and this
for an area of many hundreds of cubic yards.
"In the course of its evolutioEs this ex-
traordinary faculty-which exists On earth in
q rudimentary state, but only among some
birds and fish and insects and in the lower
forms OF animal lile-has developed the Mar
tian mind in direction very different from
ours, since no inner life apart from the rest,
no privacy, no concealmenti is possible except
at distance involving absolute isolation; not
even thought is free; yet in some incompre-
4 hensibe way there is, as matter of fact,
really greater freedom of thought than is con-
ceivable among ourselves; absolute liberty in
absolute obedience to q law, paradox beyond
our comprehension.
Their habits are as simple as those We at
tribute to the caYe-dwellers during the prehis-
torlc periods of the earth's existence. But
! their moral sense is so far in advance of ours
that we haven't even terminology by which
to express it. = These exemplary Mar
tians wear no clothes but the exquisite fur
with which nature has endowed them, and
which constitutes part OF their immense
beauty.
"They are great engineers and excavators,
great trrigators, great workers in delicate
metal, stone, marble and precious gems there
is no wood 10 speak of) great sculptors ard
decorators OF the beautiful caves so fancifuly |
and SO intrcately connected, in which they |
live, and which have taken thousands of years |
TO design and excavate aud ventilate and |
adorn, and which they warm and light up at |
viii i'll beautiful manner by means of the |
tremendous magnetic current"
One OF the most remarkable facts in connec- |
ton with the Inhabitants of Mars is the man |
ner of their death, which. BY the way they |
look upon far more cheerfully than we do |
"For when the life of the body ceases and the |
body itself is burned and its ashes scattered |
to the winds and waves, the infnitesimal, i'm |
ponderable and indestructible some thing we |
call the soul is known to lcse itself in a sun |
beam and make for the sun, with all it's memo /
ries about it, that it may then receive furihtr !
development, fitting it for other systems alto |
gether beyond conception; and the longer it |
has lived in Mars the better for its eternal life
in the future"
This theory, fantasteal as It seems when con-
sidered apart from The romance, bears a curl |
Gus and suggestive resem blance 10 O recent |
discovery made by Professor Alexander |
Graham Bell, the distinguished scientist. For |
some time past Professor Bell has been expert |
menting in the hope OF finding a medium to |
transmit sound that would enable him to |
construct telephone without the use of |
wire, and thus to annihiate space. This |
medium, it is said, he has discovered in shaft |
of light. The ins trument, which is called the |
''photophone," has not yet been perfected, |
put when this work is accomplished Professor |
Bell believes that he will have achieved a |
method of r-planetary communication. |
Who knows but that this may be the means of |
our making acquaintance at first hand with |
the Mar tians, and of learning as facts what Du |
Maurier has presented to US under the guisc
OF romantic ficlion?