The examination of these
ingenious suppositions leads us to conclude that none of them seem to
correspond entirely with the observed facts, either in whole or in part.
Some of these hypotheses would not have been proposed had their authors
been able to examine the geminations with their own eyes. Since some of
these may ask me directly, "Can you suggest anything better?" I must
reply candidly, "No."
It would be far more easy if we were willing to introduce the forces
pertaining to organic nature. Here the field of plausible supposition is
immense, being capable of making an infinite number of combinations
capable of satisfying the appearances even with the smallest and
simplest means. Changes of vegetation over a vast area, and the
production of animals, also very small, but in enormous multitudes, may
well be rendered visible at such a distance. An observer placed in the
moon would be able to see such an appearance at the times in which
agricultural operations are carried out upon one vast plain--the
seed-time and the gathering of the harvest. In such a manner also would
the flowers of the plants of the great steppes of Europe and Asia be
rendered visible at the distance of Mars--by a variety of coloring. A
similar system of operations produced in that planet may thus certainly
be rendered visible to us. But how difficult for the Lunarians and the
Areans to be able to imagine the true causes of such changes of
appearance without having first at least some superficial knowledge of
terrestrial nature! So also for us, who know so little of the physical
state of Mars, and nothing of its organic world, the great liberty of
possible supposition renders arbitrary all explanations of this sort and
constitutes the gravest obstacle to the acquisition of well-founded
notions.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219