Any citizen who is tired of mundane concerns and wants to fix his mind on something higher is invited to consider the allegation of Sir Francis Galton, made in the London Fortnightly Review, that some one on Mars is signalling to earth. The information seems not as yet to be very generally confirmed by astronomical observers, but Sir Francis is quoted as authority for the report that in one of the European observatories an apparatus has been devised for recording the Martian flashes, and that the record shows that three signals and no more are made, and that they differ, as all flash-light signals do, in the length of the flashes and of the intervals between, so that if we had the key they might be read like telegraphic messages.
Of course this is not a yarn to be swallowed whole, but the association of the name of Sir Francis Galton with it is enough to entitle it to consideration. There seems to be no intrinsic impossibility of our having relations with Mars. It sounds preposterous, of course; but, like other marvels, it seems preposterous chiefly because it is unusual. We have to nudge ourselves from time to time in this age of swift surprises, and remind ourselves that nothing that is new to us can possibly be more marvellous than many things that have grown familiar.—Harper's Weekly.
