canals supplying water from the North Polar cap to an impounding
reservoir near the city of Urid, the place of my birth.
I was in the 36th year (Martian reckoning) of my physical life on
the planet when my transition occurred, which event was the
result of my inability to observe, one night, warning signals
sent out from a central station advising the eve of a tremendous
drop in temperature. This occurred in the Martian autumn, and I
succumbed to the intense cold. I was not married, so I left no
immediate family except my parents, brothers and sisters.
I have come to your Earth to give your inhabitants some idea of
the idealistic life lived by your more advanced brothers. I use
the term idealistic in a relative way only, for in God's universe
the degrees of material progress of His children are infinite in
number.
In giving this information to the inhabitants of your world I
have been assisted by the spirits of many former wise children of
your Earth.
The purpose of the information which I am about to impart to your
people is mainly to stimulate and hasten into material expression
the reign of God's kingdom on your Earth.
Many will reject this information, but it is God's truth
nevertheless. But on the other hand, many of God's children now
functioning on your planet will accept the statements as true,
and they will be helped and encouraged in their hard struggle for
material existence. This struggle, unequal as it is, is the
result of darkness engendered by the loss of faith in God.
Man's faith in his Creator, in the ages preceding your present
era of darkness, was sublime. Man's attitude towards, and his
confidence in the promises of God was as the faith of a child to
its parents, whom it has always trusted. But selfishness has
gained the upper hand, and is now man's master on your Earth.
To break the chains now binding man to self is the purpose of
God's holy emissaries, who have descended from high spiritual
spheres to your Earth to teach and show men the way out of
bondage. They will succeed, for Omniscience has commanded it.
It is under their direction that I am now contributing my little
part in this movement.
I am only too glad to have been able to give the information
contained in this book, and I also appreciate the assistance of
all those on your Earth plane who so willingly assisted; but of
course we are all obeying the Father's command.
As life is an attribute of the entire universe, the material
aspect of all God's creations are the same. That is, life on
another planet must be thought of as being no different from what
experience teaches you.
All inspiration comes from the Father. Hence, the degree of a
race's advancement in point of civilization is in proportion to
its spiritual enfoldment. Therefore the material aspect of life,
which includes God's evolutionary and non-evolutionary creatures,
is the same on every habitable globe in limitless space.
In telling the story of Mars you must be prepared to believe
that, from a physical point of view, the Martians are just human
beings, differing little from the people of your Earth.
The same may be said concerning the activities of life enjoyed by
all of God's creatures. Martians work and have their
recreations. They enjoy the fruits of their earth just as you do
the fruits of yours. They have invented labor-saving machinery,
and indulge in a multitude of industrial pursuits, but with this
difference: their economic system is such that the life of the
Martian is not the struggle for existence you have created on
your Earth. On the contrary it is a pleasurable life in which
work is as much enjoyed as is recreation. This condition is due
to two causes. First, Mars is much farther advanced as a world
in its evolutionary career. Second, the Spiritual enfoldment of
its inhabitants is proportionately advanced.
As the Divine Plan is universal in its scope the physical
characteristics of Mars, compared to your Earth are, in a
general way, the same, with the exceptions shown later in this
book.
The inhabitants of Mars enjoy a blue sky, mountains, hills, rocks
and dells, clouds, beautiful sunsets, and in fact most of the
physical phenomena witnessed by the dwellers of your Earth.
The Martians live and have their being just as your people do,
but they are surrounded by a different spiritual and a modified
physical environment. They take pleasure in music, art and the
study of physical science, but with this difference: the
spiritual growth and enfoldment of the individual is considered
as most important, and all material advancement as only an aid to
ultimate ends.
With main points in view the reader can now readily comprehend
the real Martian character, although it may be a disappointment
to some who have imagined the inhabitants of Mars as physically
different from themselves; or perhaps, as semi-spiritual
entities, who have possibly been transplanted from other worlds
to undergo a sort of probationary life amid a Paradise of
beautiful surroundings and things.
CHAPTER II.
POPULATION CENTERS, TEMPERATURE, CLIMATE
Although Mars is little more than half as large as your Earth,
its diameter being 4,200 miles, it contains a larger area of
habitable land than the latter, its surface area being
approximately 212,000,000 square miles as against 51,000,000
miles for your Earth. Hence our globe supports a larger
population about 13,160,000,000 people. Your population is in
the neighborhood of 1,645,000,000. Your land area is
161,000,000 square miles less than the land area of Mars. This
is for the reason that your oceans occupy a vast surface of your
Earth, and Mars has no oceans, as these dried up ages ago.
Consequently almost the entire surface of our planet (with
exception of some small areas covered with swamps, remnants of
ancient seas and oceans, and portions of the extreme Northerly
and Southerly Polar caps) is utilized by the Martian inhabitants.
Our planet is gridironed with canals, many hundreds of the main
ones being observable through your telescopes, and the art of
intensive farming is practised by us to a degree of perfection
never dreamed of by the dwellers of your Earth.
Our winters, even in the Equatorial regions are severe, the
temperatures at times descending to as low as 80 degrees below
zero. However, our springs, summers, and autumns are mild and
nearly twice as long as your seasons, for the Martian year is 687
days long. We grow and mature many crops of necessary cereals,
fruits and vegetables during the spring and summer months, so
that want is never felt by our happy people.
Our method of irrigation is somewhat different from that
practised in the arid portions of your Earth. We do not, except
in a few instances, flood our lands as you do. Owing to the
fact that our atmosphere is much lighter than yours, the normal
air pressure being only about 8 pounds to the square inch as
against 15 pounds on your Earth, evaporation is very rapid, and
the dewfall, as a consequence of much moisture being in the air,
is very great.
This heavy humidity also tends to prevent radiation of heat, and
the temperature at night does not drop exceedingly low, although
frost is not uncommon even in summer. As our vegetation is
acclimated and adapted to our environment no damage is done to
growing crops by reason of these frosts.
The Martians experience no difficulty in living in a rarified
atmosphere. Neither have they abnormally developed lungs. God
has made ample provision for the comfort of His creatures
throughout all of His infinite creations, and we of Mars are not
excepted from this Fatherly care and love.
Should an inhabitant of your Earth be suddenly transported to
Mars he could live but a few minutes, for the reason that his
lungs could not assimilate enough oxygen from our light
atmosphere.
Economy is a science with us. Nothing is wasted. Every possible
square inch of ground produces food for man or beast. Even the
north and south Arctic regions, after their seasonal thaws
blossom forth with vegetal growth, as astronomers on your Earth
have observed. These regions produce their quota of food by
being utilized as pasturage for our cattle. Immense amounts of
forage are also gathered for the long Martian winters, when a
greater portion of either the north or south hemisphere is
covered with a mantle of snow.
The equatorial regions are always pleasant. No severe wind
storms are experienced on Mars; neither do we have lightning or
other magnetic disturbances such as you experience.
As a corollary to the tranquility of our inhabitants living in
peace, Love and harmony, and the truths of God expressed in our
everyday living, the climate is equable, the atmosphere clear
and beautiful, the sky serene and sapphire-blue: the severest
winds but gentle zephyrs wafted towards the equator from the more
remote portions of our globe. Cloudy skies are rare and
rainstorms few.
There is no lack of God's gifts on Mars. As intensive farming is
a necessity on our planet, plant food or fertilizing elements are
plentiful. One of the large white circular spots observed by
your astronomers, located in a region on Mars named by them
Elysium, and which has been a puzzle to all observers, is an
immense deposit of fertilizing chemicals. An immense well is
located in this particular spot which gushes forth a never-ending
saline solution, highly impregnated with sodium nitrate, potash
and other salts. The country for many miles around is covered
with a white precipitate which has been carried by the moist air
and deposited on the Martian earth. These chemical compounds are
refined and used to replenish the soil with plant food.
There are 153,000 centers of population on Mars, but these
centers are not congested cities similar to those on your Earth.
Every individual has plenty of room to thrive and develop the
best within him.