In telling the story of Mars you must be prepared to believe that, from a physical point of view, the Martians are just human beings, differing little from the people of your Earth.
The same may be said concerning the activities of life enjoyed by all of God's creatures. Martians work and have their recreations. They enjoy the fruits of their earth just as you do the fruits of yours. They have invented labor-saving machinery, and indulge in a multitude of industrial pursuits, but with this difference: their economic system is such that the life of the Martian is not the struggle for existence you have created on your Earth. On the contrary it is a pleasurable life in which work is as much enjoyed as is recreation. This condition is due to two causes. First, Mars is much farther advanced as a world in its evolutionary career. Second, the Spiritual enfoldment of its inhabitants is proportionately advanced.
As the Divine Plan is universal in its scope the physical characteristics of Mars, compared to your Earth are, in a general way, the same, with the exceptions shown later in this book.
The inhabitants of Mars enjoy a blue sky, mountains, hills, rocks and dells, clouds, beautiful sunsets, and in fact most of the physical phenomena witnessed by the dwellers of your Earth.
The Martians live and have their being just as your people do, but they are surrounded by a different spiritual and a modified physical environment. They take pleasure in music, art and the study of physical science, but with this difference: the spiritual growth and enfoldment of the individual is considered as most important, and all material advancement as only an aid to ultimate ends.
With main points in view the reader can now readily comprehend the real Martian character, although it may be a disappointment to some who have imagined the inhabitants of Mars as physically different from themselves; or perhaps, as semi-spiritual entities, who have possibly been transplanted from other worlds to undergo a sort of probationary life amid a Paradise of beautiful surroundings and things.
CHAPTER II.
POPULATION CENTERS, TEMPERATURE, CLIMATE
Although Mars is little more than half as large as your Earth, its diameter being 4,200 miles, it contains a larger area of habitable land than the latter, its surface area being approximately 212,000,000 square miles as against 51,000,000 miles for your Earth. Hence our globe supports a larger population about 13,160,000,000 people. Your population is in the neighborhood of 1,645,000,000. Your land area is 161,000,000 square miles less than the land area of Mars. This is for the reason that your oceans occupy a vast surface of your Earth, and Mars has no oceans, as these dried up ages ago. Consequently almost the entire surface of our planet (with exception of some small areas covered with swamps, remnants of ancient seas and oceans, and portions of the extreme Northerly and Southerly Polar caps) is utilized by the Martian inhabitants.