Mars and Its Mystery

Cover created by Transcriber, using an illustration from the original book, and placed in the Public Domain.
LOWELL'S GLOBE OF MARS, 1903. Frontispiece
MARS AND ITS MYSTERY
BY EDWARD S. MORSE Member National Academy of Sciences
Author of Japanese Homes and their Surroundings, Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes, etc.
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1906
Copyright, 1906, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved Published October, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
To PERCIVAL LOWELL WHO HAS BY HIS ENERGY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT ESTABLISHED A NEW STANDARD FOR THE STUDY OF MARS THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

The following pages have been written for the general reader. The controversies over the interpretation of the curious markings of Mars and the wide divergence of opinion as to their nature first turned my attention to the matter. The question of intelligence in other worlds is of perennial interest to everyone, and that question may possibly be settled by an unprejudiced study of our neighboring planet Mars. 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.