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The Open Court of Inquiry. "Are There Men on Mars?” “ I enclose several pages of bosh, clipped from a current m agazine.
W ill you please explain the cause of the ap pearance of the ‘canals ’ on M ars referred to ?
W hat are they—spectrum lines ? ” The matter above referred to is an article by Professor Pickering, of the Harvard University Observatory, pub lished in the current number of the Technical World.
Two or three other readers have forwarded to us the same matter; one reader kindly mailing a complete copy of the magazine, which favors we appreciate.
The article is finely illustrated, and contains a num ber of drawings, maps, and photo graphs of Mars.
Professor Pickering has pretty well covered the ground from the basis of the numerous Martian phenomena and the numerous specula tions concerning them; and all to gether, it is very interesting to those who are astronomically inclined.
The modern conception of Mars is that of a world similar to the earth of the Copernican astronomy; and the ef fort has been to make the appearance of the markings on Mars agree with such a conception.
The whole ques tion is at present hopelessly involved in a tangle of theories, leaving it in a state of delightful uncertainty.
Why worlds should be flying through space millions of miles apart, instead of being intimately related on some common ba sis of existence, is not explained.
What drives those worlds along re mains a mystery to the modern as tronomers, whose theories and con ceptions shift and turn like the weath er-cock on a church steeple.
Believing that Mars is a world in stead of a plaiiet (a little plane), Pro fessor Pickering discusses the Martian orbit; gravitation, water, and atmo sphere; climate and meteorology; seas, canals, and lakes, and the habitability of Mars.
It is supposed that the ca nals are for irrigation purposes. Seas on Mars are said to be very few, and they are very shallow.
It is estimated that the maximum amount of water on Mars is no more than that con tained in Fake Michigan; and even that is taken away by evaporation and deposited in the form of snow and ice
T H E E D IT O R . in the polar regions; and then in arc tic and antarctic summers, the snow and ice melt and run down in the agri cultural districts again.
Nice arrange ment that! And Professor Pickering forgot to state whether he considers the waters of the Martian seas salt or fresh.
If salt, it would complicate agriculture along the fancied canals, surely!
There is a certain regularity about the canals that leads the astronomers to fancy that the canals are artificial; and to surprise the public, large maps are published, with all the canals, sup posed bodies of land and water, named; and the masses wonder!
But we wonder still more that so called scien tific men should be so foolish as to conceive the lines they see to be canals.
Canals on the earth are always more or less permanent; and accurate maps are made of lines and lands and seas on this mundane surface.
But on Mars the canals may change in a single night; and then, too, no two astrono mers seem to see exactly the same lines and spots there.
The published maps of Mars do not represent what is seen by any one as tronomer; the maps constitute a mere aggregation of what is seen by the many.
Drawings of telescopic views made by different astronomers do not agree; neither do the photographs, which show scarcely any resemblance to the maps of Mars.
Schiaparelli discovered that some of the canals seemed double.
One day a canal would be clearly seen, and on the next day, or even a few hours later, there would be two in its place; later the two would disappear, and again a sin gle one would appear in their place.
The more drawings the astronomers make, the more muddled the question becomes; because the phenomena ob served are utterly out of keeping with the conception that Mars is a physical world.
Concerning the appearance of the lines and spots on Mars, Professor Pickering remarks and asks: “ Again, amidst numerous irregular and nearly invisible markings, the human eye, when straining for the faintest possible
w & detail, naturally connects conspicuoe objects by straight lines.
Is it bo: possible, therefore, that many of to fainter canals are merely subject« effects?” He means that the faint: canals or fancied markings may be men creations of the imagination.
That: the whole story of the Martian canai in a nut-shell J There are more things about optic and physics to be learned by moden astronomers than they ever dreamed oi The mercurial disc in the earth's called Mars, performs the function c: amalgamation of substances of th shell; it also reflects the energy those substances in the sky; and unco magnification, the eye perceives or camera records the impressions of complex activities in the bowels of earth.
The markings arise from to. sources: First, actual impressions i: the Martian picture in the sky; ant] second, the effect of transmission focalization of the Martian rays throu| the telescope and lenses of the eye camera; and third, atmospheric com tions, which greatly modify the ii pressions, causing them to vary nil the varying meteorological states, two eyes are exactly the same, and subjective conditions of no two peoj admit of exactly the same impressioi <*»
The Parable of the Talents. “ If the divine seed was sown ini nineteen hundred years ago, can it taken from us and given to others if t do not keep the law?
I should like < to have you explain the parable of the ti ents in M atthew xxv. ” The parable of the sower shows! it was possible nineteen hundred ye ago to retain or reject the divine or Holy Spirit after it was receivecj According to the parable, there we: some who received the substance c the Word gladly, but having no row in themselves, allowed satan to snatdj it away.
Others allowed the cai and riches of this world to choke ot the new growth; while in others tk| seed found permanent lodgment, i brought forth abundant fruit.
Apostle Paul affirmed that it was k possible to renew again to repentant
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 20, No. 8 · Jul 31, 1906 · PDF p. 12