"\tNo one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth "+
"century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by "+
"intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as "+
"men busied themselves about their various concerns they were "+
"scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a "+
"microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and "+
"multiply in a drop of water.  With infinite complacency men went to "+
"and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their "+
"assurance of their empire over matter.  It is possible that the "+
"infusoria under the microscope do the same.  No one gave a thought to "+
"the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of "+
"them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or "+
"improbable.  It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of "+
"those departed days.  At most terrestrial men fancied there might be "+
"other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to "+
"welcome a missionary enterprise.  Yet across the gulf of space, minds "+
"that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, "+
"intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with "+
"envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.  And "+
"early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment. "+

"\n\tThe planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the "+
"sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it "+
"receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world. "+
"It must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our "+
"world; and long before this earth ceased to be molten, life upon its "+
"surface must have begun its course.  The fact that it is scarcely one "+
"seventh of the volume of the earth must have accelerated its cooling "+
"to the temperature at which life could begin.  It has air and water "+
"and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence. "+

"\n\tYet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, "+
"up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that "+
"intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, "+
"beyond its earthly level.  Nor was it generally understood that since "+
"Mars is older than our earth, with scarcely a quarter of the "+
"superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that "+
"it is not only more distant from time's beginning but nearer its end. "+

"\n\tThe secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has "+
"already gone far indeed with our neighbour.  Its physical condition is "+
"still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial "+
"region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest "+
"winter.  Its air is much more attenuated than ours, its oceans have "+
"shrunk until they cover but a third of its surface, and as its slow "+
"seasons change huge snowcaps gather and melt about either pole and "+
"periodically inundate its temperate zones.  That last stage of "+
"exhaustion, which to us is still incredibly remote, has become a "+
"present-day problem for the inhabitants of Mars.  The immediate "+
"pressure of necessity has brightened their intellects, enlarged their "+
"powers, and hardened their hearts.  And looking across space with "+
"instruments, and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of, "+
"they see, at its nearest distance only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of "+
"them, a morning star of hope, our own warmer planet, green with "+
"vegetation and grey with water, with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of "+
"fertility, with glimpses through its drifting cloud wisps of broad "+
"stretches of populous country and narrow, navy-crowded seas. "+

"\n\tAnd we men, the creatures who inhabit this earth, must be to them "+
"at least as alien and lowly as are the monkeys and lemurs to us.  The "+
"intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant "+
"struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief "+
"of the minds upon Mars.  Their world is far gone in its cooling and "+
"this world is still crowded with life, but crowded only with what they "+
"regard as inferior animals.  To carry warfare sunward is, indeed, "+
"their only escape from the destruction that, generation after "+
"generation, creeps upon them. "+

"\n\tAnd before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what "+
"ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only "+
"upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its "+
"inferior races.  The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, "+
"were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged "+
"by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years.  Are we such "+
"apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same "+
"spirit? "+

"\n\tThe Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing "+
"subtlety--their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of "+
"ours--and to have carried out their preparations with a well-nigh "+
"perfect unanimity.  Had our instruments permitted it, we might have "+
"seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century.  Men "+
"like Schiaparelli watched the red planet--it is odd, by-the-bye, that "+
"for countless centuries Mars has been the star of war--but failed to "+
"interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so "+
"well.  All that time the Martians must have been getting ready. "+

"\n\tDuring the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the "+
"illuminated part of the disk, first at the Lick Observatory, then by "+
"Perrotin of Nice, and then by other observers.  English readers heard "+
"of it first in the issue of &N&a&t&u&r&e dated August 2.  I am inclined to "+
"think that this blaze may have been the casting of the huge gun, in "+
"the vast pit sunk into their planet, from which their shots were fired "+
"at us.  Peculiar markings, as yet unexplained, were seen near the site "+
"of that outbreak during the next two oppositions. "