THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION, 



^i^ 



and winter. If there are young people there, they have seven 

 years continuous skating and a lapse of 21 years before the 

 season conies around again. If thei'e are young men there 

 then poets would surely not sing " in the spring a young man's 

 fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love," for the springtimes 

 are separated there by periods of 31 years. If there are young 

 ladies there, it will be no compliment to speak in smooth and 

 finished phrases of a maid of t6 summers, for lo ! that would 

 mean, in earth, language nearly 4S0 years, and then most maids 

 are past their bloom and well on to their prime. If we ever 

 dwell in Saturn our poetry will need a revision or perhaps a 

 complete eradication. 



When I speak of Mars I do it with hesitancy, knowing- 

 how easily we turn from the firm ground of scientific investi- 

 gation to the slippery path of i-omantic story. The Edinburgh 

 Review of October, 1S96, tells this story : A lady of the inanely 

 inqusitive kind, having met an eminent astronomer, implored 

 permission to ask him one question. " Certainly, madam," he 

 replied, " if it is not about Mars." It was about Mars. The 

 popular humor delights in philosophy decked with the charm 

 of conjecture. Anything which is conceivable may be interest- 

 ing, but science is founded upon the rock of evidence. Far 

 better is it to have many observations and few theories than to 

 have few observations and many theories. Such extraordinary 

 conclvisions have been enunciated that one is apt to treat Mars 

 and his observers too lightly. But I bethink myself that Mars 

 is the warrior of the skies, and if astrology be true he may re- 

 sent any hilarity or even any undue familiarity with his august 

 orb by casting over the life of the speaker or his audience a 

 malefic shadow. And nothwithstanding much has been writ- 

 ten and spoken to gratify the popular hvimor, I know that most 

 distinguished astronomers have recorded many things about 

 Mars that lie on the very bed rock of truth. The first hint that 

 the world had of the existence of the water channels, or so- 

 called Canalli^ in Mars was when an Italian astronomer named 

 Schiaparelli, in 1S77, announced this discovery. He affirmed he 

 saw a series of dark straight lines crossing the disk of the 



