In 1881-1882 (Map [VII]) he attacked the planet again and with results yet further out of the common. His lines were still there with more beside. If they had looked strange before, they now appeared positively unnatural. Not content with a regularity which seemed to the sceptics to preclude their being facts, he must needs see them now in duplicate. To the eyes of disbelief this was the crowning stroke of factitiousness.
In consequence no end of adverse criticism was heaped upon his observations by those who could not see. But curiously enough,—what did not attract attention,—the blindness of the critics was as much mental as bodily. For they failed to perceive that the very unnaturalness which seemed to them to discredit his observations really proved their genuineness. His discoveries were so amazing that any change in strangeness simply went to confirm the universal scepticism and clouded logic. Yet properly viewed, a pregnant deduction stands forth quite clearly on a study of the maps.
Map V. Schiaparelli, 1877.
(From Schiaparelli’s Memoria.)
Map VI. Schiaparelli, 1879.
(From Schiaparelli’s Memoria.)
Map VII. Schiaparelli, 1881.
(From Schiaparelli’s Memoria.)
Map VIII. Schiaparelli, 1884.
(From Schiaparelli’s Memoria.)