Many are content
to accept them as strange and inexplicable at present, and to wait for
further light upon them; others insist upon an immediate inquiry
concerning their probable nature and meaning. Such an inquiry can only
be based upon inference proceeding from analogy. Mars, say Mr Lowell
and those who are of his opinion, is manifestly a solidly incrusted
planet like the earth; it has an atmosphere, though one of great
rarity; it has water vapor, as the snows in themselves prove; it has
the alternation of day and night, and a succession of seasons closely
resembling those of the earth; its surface is suggestively divided
into regions of contrasting colors and appearance, and upon that
surface we see an immense number of lines geometrically arranged, with
a system of symmetrical intersections where the lines expand into
circular and oval areas -- and all connected with the annual melting
of the polar snows in a way which irresistibly suggests the
interference of intelligence directed to a definite end. Why, with so
many concurrent circumstances to support the hypothesis, should we not
regard Mars as an inhabited globe?
But the differences between Mars and the earth are in many ways as
striking as their resemblances. Mars is relatively small; it gets less
than half as much light and heat as we receive; its atmosphere is so
rare that it would be distressing to us, even if we could survive in
it at all; it has no lakes, rivers, or seas; its surface is an endless
prairie.
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