THE PLANET MARS 121 



From the earth no celestial body is more accessible to 

 observation than Mars, the moon alone excepted. To this 

 proximity is due, in large measure, the exceptional success 

 which has rewarded our study. 



At the outset of this inquiry it should be remembered that 

 in space all positions are unique both in their conditions and 

 opportunities. It is therefore necessary, as far as possible, to 

 free our minds from the prejudices which are due to our 

 position and to study the details which have been revealed to 

 us with dispassionate coolness. 



It being in the nature of man to seek his likeness, he seeks 

 it before all else, forgetting that when dealing with another 

 planet the one thing which is a priori probable is that he will 

 find much that is quite different and so he comes to consider 

 strangeness as one of the hall marks of truth in his discoveries. 



Geomorphic ideas have led men into many errors. The 

 so-called seas of the moon have turned out to be the driest 

 of land and the greenish areas on Mars, at first so confidently 

 dubbed oceans, in the light of further research, appear not 

 to be fluid at all. 



Thus are we taught to expect the unexpected, and to feel 

 no surprise when three centuries of patient study are rewarded 

 by its discovery in Mars. 



With the invention of the telescope came the discovery of 

 the nature of the planets as comparatively cool bodies reflecting 

 to us the light of the sun — a discovery which was announced 

 in the famous anagram of Galileo : 



Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum. 

 (The mother of loves [Venus] imitates the phases of the moon.) 



In later days his most distinguished compatriot Schiaparelli 

 might well have used his predecessor's words with equal 

 aptitude to express the result of recent work on Mars : 



Haec immatura a me jam frustra leguntur. 

 (As yet I seek in vain to read the meaning of these incomplete observations.) 



It fell to Galileo in the end to expound his epoch-making 

 discovery. The same justification came to Schiaparelli, for 

 though his eyes failed him, he lived to see through those of 

 his successors the confirmation, extension and interpretation 

 of his work. 



