Edward Sylvester Morse

“ Realizing what has been accomplished, not only regarding the constitution of the Sun, but of the most remote stars, we are encouraged to ask: Is Mars inhabited? Shall we ever know? To what groups of students are we to appeal for an answer? If we want to know the diameter of Mars, its weight, the form of its orbit, the inclination of its axis, the period of its revolution around the Sun, and its rotation period, its ephemeris and its albedo, we ask the astronomer, for he has the instruments with which to observe and measure, and the mathematical knowledge necessary to reduce the measurements. ”

“ When one realizes that the stars are at such unimaginable distances that the highest powers of the telescope reveal even the nearest of them only as points of light​—​not as disks​—​and when one further realizes that the satellites of our Sun, even the largest of them, are diminutive globes compared to the vastness of the Sun, it seems unreasonable if not impossible to entertain the idea that none of these remote stars are accompanied by satellites, and that, therefore, this little Sun of ours stands without parallel in the universe. ”

“ To enumerate, in the broadest way, the variety of conditions under which life exists here, one has only to enumerate creatures living in the deepest abysses of the ocean; high up on the slopes of the Himalayas; swarming in arctic seas; withstanding the hot glare of a tropical sun; living deep in the ground; breeding in the darkest caves; flourishing in desert regions; thriving in water below freezing, and again in water nearly at the boiling point. ”

“ The Martian considers our year too short. In his reflections he says: "During the period in which one of us attains the middle age of fifty years those on Earth have become decrepit old men of ninety-four, if, indeed, they are not already dead."
Seriously, if there is an intelligence in Mars, it must have evolved along the same general lines as intelligence has developed on the Earth. Being an older planet, it must have outgrown many of the vagaries and illusions which still hamper man in his progress here. ”

“ Knowing the many analogies between Mars and the Earth, we are justified in asking what conditions really exist in Mars. Instead of flouting at every attempt to interpret the various and complicated markings of its surface, we should soberly consider any rational explanation of these enigmas from the postulate that the two spheres, so near together in space, cannot be so far apart physically, and from the fact that as intelligence is broadly modifying the appearance of the surface of the Earth, a similar intelligence may also be marking the face of Mars. ”

“ It would be a waste of time to attempt an interpretation of the markings of Mars as a result of intelligent effort, if it could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that our globe was not only unique among the bodies which probably accompany the innumerable suns, but was the only body, among them all, sustaining creatures of intelligence. If life exists in other planets of a nature with which we are familiar, then the physical conditions must be similar to those of our own planet. ”

“ Until within recent centuries, man has not only believed that he and his kind were the only intelligent creatures in the universe, but that the little round ball on which he lived was the dominant part thereof. So rooted for ages was this conviction that it became fixed in man's mental structure, and hence the survival of the idea that still lingers in the minds of a few to-day. The conclusion was natural, however, for the behavior of the starry heavens and the Sun and the Moon seemed sufficient evidence that man, and the surface upon which he lived, was the centre of the universe. ”

“ Would it not be unreasonable to assume that vital phenomena on other planets must be subject to exactly the same limitations that we find circumscribing them in our world? That kind of assumption has more than once led us far astray even in dealing with terrestrial conditions. It is not so long ago, for instance, since life in the depths of the sea was deemed to be demonstrably impossible. The bottom of the ocean, we were assured, was a region of eternal darkness and of frightful pressure, wherein no living creatures could exist. ”

“ Science is teaching the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority. She is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an intelligent being. ”

“ But has life appeared in Mars? Tyndall, in graphic words, pictures the rounding of worlds from nebulous haze, and then says, "For eons, the immensity of which overwhelms man's conception, the Earth was unfit to maintain what we call life. It is now covered with visible living things. They are not formed of matter different from that around them. They are, on the contrary, bone of its bone and flesh of its flesh." Mars must come in the same category. ”

“ Indeed, the imagination can conjure up an infinite number of parallels. If Mars is an older sphere, we trust it has long outgrown the superstitions which still hamper man in his interpretation of the inexorable phenomena of Nature on this little planet. ”

“ The way in which the gatherers of the raw material arrogate to themselves the science of astronomy, relegating the thinkers and generalizers to the limbo of speculation, is as if the book-keepers of a corporation should assume themselves to be the master-minds of the concern and the banker, or financier, at the head of it, a dreamer not worth regarding.
An illustration of the conservativeness of astronomers in regard to planetary markings is shown in their cautious attitude concerning the polar snow caps of Mars. ”

“ Even if he recognized oases in the deserts of America and Africa, the results of Artesian wells or springs, he could not believe them to be vegetation; for he would detect no irrigating canals running into them. He would come to the conclusion that no creature could possibly exist on the Earth, as the tremendous force of gravitation with great atmospheric pressure would forbid the existence of any organic forms. The immense clouds veiling the surface must at times suffer condensation, and the impact of raindrops would, from their velocity and weight, smash everything in the way of life. ”

“ In a planet devoid of atmosphere, or a sphere glowing with its own heat, we may decide without question that life does not exist. Even in a globe in many respects like our own it would be hazardous to conjecture the kinds of organic forms in which it is manifested. Reasoning from analogy, if life exists in Mars, or other spheres in infinite space, it must have originated under much the same conditions as it originated here ”

“ One cannot but regret that some philosopher had not, years before Schiaparelli's time, expressed the conviction that Mars might perhaps be more favorable to the existence of intelligent life than our own world, and with this conviction proceed to formulate the conditions which must of necessity exist: namely, that the planet being a much older world than ours, its waters had mostly vanished by chemical combination with the rocks and otherwise. ”

“ If one can recall the appearance of forests in the southern and middle part of Maine, say from Bethel or Bangor, fifty years ago, he will remember that from the top of any hill a stretch of dark blue forest was to be seen as far as the eye could reach, and now from the same elevations one can see only an occasional clump of blue forest, while the remaining surface is, according to the season, either bright green, yellow with ripening vegetation, or white with snow, out of which the dark clumps of forest growth are most conspicuous. ”

“ An astronomer imbued with Hebraic conceptions of the universe is poorly equipped to appreciate the arguments in favor of life in other worlds. He may be keen in perceiving lines in the spectrum, and the significance of their lateral displacement, but possessed with a belief​—​the result of early training​—​that a little two-legged human molecule could command the Sun and Moon to stand still, a realization of his own insignificance, or the possibility of intelligence in other worlds, must forever remain beyond his grasp. ”

“ A boy of ten, as well as the philosopher would simply say a snow-storm had139 taken place in Mars. Is it, then, unreasonable to picture whirling snowflakes, snow-drifts, and dazzling whiteness from the Sun's rays, and in the rapid melting of the snow, broad rivers and turbulent brooks with water areas frozen at night? But why should we be compelled to imagine as naked the surface through which these waters find their way? Soil there must be from the continual erosion of running water. ”

“ The planet being devoid of hill ranges, and large oceans, the canals can run in straight lines for hundreds of miles. If it were possible to conceive by analogy a creature on Mars furnished with a telescope, he would undoubtedly correlate the irrigating regions of Arizona as similar in nature to his own canals. The irregularity of the rivers running through such regions would puzzle him quite as much as we are puzzled by the absolute straightness of the Martian canals. He would, of course, observe that in our winter the irrigating areas became invisible, to appear again as our summer advanced. ”

“ It is a common experience in astronomy that an observer may fail to notice in a general scrutiny, some phenomenon which he can see perfectly well when his attention is called to it; when a man has made a discovery, and others are told what to look for, they often see it so easily that they are filled with amazement and chagrin that they never saw it before. ”

“ Parallaxes and orbits are matters of measurement to be reckoned by the figures of anybody else. It is obvious from all this that little or no interest is manifested by astronomers in planetary markings, least of all in those of Mars. The exasperating feature of the matter is that they persistently repudiate the observation of others equally well equipped, and endowed with the same enthusiasm and devotion to their work. ”

“ In the lunar crater, known as Flammarion's Circle, a most typical branching crack is seen. An examination of these lunar cracks, of which I made drawings through the great telescope at the Lowell Observatory, showed them to be cracks of the most unmistakable character, paralleled on the Earth's surface, by sunbaked fissures. If volcanic forces have caused these cracks in the Moon the same kind of energy should have produced the same general results in Mars, and circular craters should equally be in evidence, for many of the lunar craters are sufficiently large to be detected were they on Mars. ”

“ Tyndall expresses the universal belief of thinkers in whatever line of work, that life is by no means confined to this Earth. He says: "Whether the other fixed stars have similar planetary companions or not is to us a matter of pure conjecture, which may or may not enter into our conception of the universe. But probably every thoughtful man believes, with regard to these distant Suns, that there is, in space, something besides our system on which they shine." ”

“ If in the mind's eye we were to survey the Earth from Mars the only feature we should find at all paralleling the lines in Mars would be found in the level regions of the West, where, for thousands of miles, the land extends in vast level stretches. In these regions would be found lines of railroads running in straight courses, starting from definite places, converging to common centres, their sides, in certain seasons, conspicuous with ripening grain fields, or again the work of the United States Reclamation Bureau running its irrigating canals in various directions through that great region. ”

“ Lowell's work on Mars, though of a kind with Schiaparelli, is, in every circumstance accompanying it, so remarkable that we may well consider the standard now set by him as the beginning of another period; and this period will fix a standard which will consist in securing observers who, in the language of Sir David Gill, have a special faculty, an inborn capacity, a delight in the exercise of exceptional acuteness of eyesight and natural dexterity, coupled with the gift of imagination as to the true meaning of what they observe. ”

“ The argument most often urged against the idea that life exists in Mars is that there is no atmosphere in that planet, or if there is one it is so rarefied that it could not sustain life as we know it. According to Proctor, we have heretofore been led to consider the planet's physical condition as adapted to the wants of creatures which exist upon our own Earth rather than to ascertain the conditions which might obtain to enable life to exist on the surface of other planets. ”

“ Believing that Mars is rightly balanced as to temperature, the Earth being so much nearer the Sun, would be too hot for life to exist. The Martian conceives himself to be supremely complete "even to the point that artists wishing to represent God in our sanctuaries have figured Him in the image of a Martian man." ”