No one would have believe in the last years of the nineteenth century that un the world was being watched kindly and closely by intelligence greater than man's and yet and as his known that as mentioned buised themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied perhaps almost as narrowly as man with a microscope might scrutinised the tainsceint creatures that swam and multiply in a drop of water. With infinity complecency men went to and over this globe about their little affairs serene in their assurance of their emperor over matter. It's possible that the infoseria underscope to do the same. No one gave to a thought to the older words of spaces as a sources of human danger or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon a time impossible or importable. It's curious to recall some of the mental habits of them departed days. At most territorial man facined their must be othe than upon Mars perhaps inferior themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise . Yet accross the gulf of space mind that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beats perhaps intellectual vast and cool and u sympathetic. Regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans again us. And early in the twentieth century came to the great disliiusionet .
The planet Mars , I scarcely need remid the reader revolves about the sun at means distance of 140,000,000 miles and the light and heat it recieved from the sun is barely half of the received by this world. It must be nuclear hypothesis has any truth older than our world , and long before the earth cease to be molten life upon its surface must have been its course. The fact that's scarcely one seventh volume of the earth must have accelerated it cooling to the temperature at which life could began it has air and water all this necessary for the support of the animated existence.
Yes vain to the man and so blinded by his vanity that no writer up to the very end of the nineteenth century expressed any idea that intelligence life must have developed their far, or indeed at all. Beyond its earthly level nor was it gener understood that since Mars older than the earth with sacrecly a quater of the superficial are and remorter from the sun necessarily follow that is not only more distant from times begining but nearer end. The secular cooling that must someday over take our planet has already gone far indeed with our neighbour . It's physical condition still largely a mystery but we know that even it's equotirial region the middle temprature barley. Approaches that of our coldest winter. It's a air such more attenuated than ours it's ocean have shrunk until they cover but a third of surface and it slow seasons change huge snow cap gather Melt about the either pole and periodically inundate it's temprature zone. That last stage of exhaustion which to us is still incredibly remote has become a present day problem for the inhabitants of the Mars. The immediative pressure of necessity has brightened their intellects enlarged their powers and hardened hearts. And looking at the space with instrument and intelligence such as we have sacrecly freamed out of they see at its nearest distance only 35,000,000 miles sunward of them. A morning Star of hope our own warmer planet with green vegetation and grey with the water with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility with glimpses through its drifting cloud wips of broad stretches of populous country and narrow , navy crowded seas.
And we men, creatures who inhabit the earth must be to attend least them at least as alien slowly as are monkeys and lemures to us. The intellectual side of man already admit that life is an incceasme t srugle of excistance and it would be seem that this too believe of the minds upon the Mars. Their world is farm from gone in its cooling and this world is still covered with life but crowded only with what they regards as inferior animals . To carry warfare sunward is indeed their only escape from the destruction that generation after generation, creaps upon them.
And before judge of them to harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter construction of our species has wrought not only upon animals such as the vanished bison and dudo but upon its race. The tasnanions in spite of human likes were enterly swept of excistance in a war of extermination wagged by the European immigrants in the space of fifty years . Are we such aposites of mercy at to complain if the martions worried in the same spirit. The martians seemed to calculate their decent with amazing suitable.
Their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours and have carried out their preparation with a well nidmgh perfect unanimity. Had our instrument permitted it we might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century . Men like watched the red planet it's odd by the odd that for countless centuries Mars have been the star of war but failed to intrept the flanctuing apperance of the making they mapped so well. All that time the martions must have been ready. During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the disk first at the lick obsevity the by perrotin of nice and then by the observes . English readers heard of its first in the issue of nature dated at August 2. Iam inclined to think that this blaze have been the casting of the huge sun in the vast pit sunk into their planet from which were shots fired at us. Peculiar marking as at unexplained were seen near the site of that outbreak during the next two opposition. The storm burst upon as six years ago now. As Mars approached the opposition Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange pslpitating with the amazing intelligence.
CHAPTER 2 THE FALLING STAR
The came night of the falling Star. It was seen early in the morning. Rushing over Winchester east ward a line of flame high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must be seen it and taken it for an ordinary falling Star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind the glowed for some seconds. Denning our greatest authority on meteorites started that the height of the first appearance was about ninetye or one hundred miles. It seems to him that it fell to earth about one hundred miles east of him.
I was it home at that hour and writing in my study and although my french windows face towards ottershaw and the blind was up ( for I was loved in those days to look up at the night sky), I saw nothing of it. Yet this strangest of althinks that ever came to earth from outer space must have fallen while I was sitting there visible to me had only looked up it passed. Some of those who saw its flight it says travelled with a hissing sound . I was myself heard nothing of that. Many people in Berkshire Surrey and Middlesex must have been seen the fall of it and at most have thought that another meteorite had descenied . No one seems to have troubled to look for the fallen mas that night.
But every early morning poor oglivy who had seen the shooting star and who was persuaded that a meteorite by somewhere in the common between horsell , ottershaw and woking, race only with the idea of finding it. Find it he had soon after dawn and not far from the sand spots. An enormous hole had been made by impact of the projectile and the sand and the grovel had been flung vionlet in every direction over the heat forming heaps visible a miles and half of the way. The heater was on fire east ward and a thin blue smoke rose against the dawn.in