CURRENT LITERATURE.
Mars. By Percival Lowell. (Longmans and Co.)—We inserted an article in the Spectator of last week on the facts presented in Mr. Lowell's book, and cannot follow out the elaborate arguments, based on a series of very careful observations specially made during the last opposition of Mars (May 24th, 1894—April 3rd, 1895), which Mr. Lowell gives in these volumes. The planet, he thinks, shows the "effects of local intelligence." The well-known " canals" suggest probably a vast system of irrigation (vast, indeed, seeing that they extend to thousands of miles), by which the natural deficiency of water is supplied. How were such huge works completed ? By the labour of the Martians, it is thought, who may be described as beings of "fifty-man power." Why this discrepancy ? it may be asked. But, as we hinted last week, the inference as to the artificial character of these canals is one of a very questionable kind. We are not in a position to declare that Nature could make no straight lines under conditions of which we know so little, only because we find no trace of them in our own world.
Previous page
