THE PLANETS MARS AND VENUS 363 



THE PLANET VENUS 



We have now seen that the proportion of water, in 

 one or another of its forms, to the solid ball is practically 

 the same in the cases of both Mars and the earth ; and we 

 seem therefore constrained to conclude that the same 

 thing is true of Venus. Now, since Venus is almost as 

 large as the earth, its gravistatic heat suffices to preserve 

 its oceans in a fluid state, all the more so from the fact 

 that it receives about twice as much solar heat as does 

 our planet. Venus therefore rotates on its axis. Again, 

 since the planet is so close to the sun, its atmosphere is 

 immensely more humid than ours, and its surface conse- 

 quently shrouded in perpetual and universal fog; so that 

 we can never hope to obtain even a glimpse of its real 

 face. 



If, now, we assume that life is not a happy accident 

 of Nature's, but the inevitable outcome of her inherent 

 energies and laws, we are driven to admit the existence 

 of life on Venus, but not necessarily of intelligent life. 

 Judging from terrestrial analogy it should rather be 

 marine and amphibian in character, on account of the 

 difficulty of lung-breathing ; and, moreover, it should be 

 confined to the arctic regions because of what must be the 

 insupportable torridity of Venus 's lower latitudes. 



