by James Cowan
CHAPTER XVII
THE DOCTOR IS CONVINCED
As I finished the doctor looked somewhat bored, but Thorwald was kindenough to thank me, and then, at our earnest solicitation, he resumedhis argument.
"You have told me," he said, "of some of your earlier beliefs about theorigin of meteorites. Have you any more modern views?"
To this the doctor replied: "If my friend here has really finishedtalking for a while I will say, Thorwald, that the theories alreadyspoken of seem to be disproved by the discovery that these stones enterthe earth's atmosphere with a planetary velocity. A body falling froman infinite distance--that is, impelled only by the attraction ofgravitation--would strike the earth with a velocity of only six orseven miles a second, while the meteorites come at the rate of twentyto thirty miles a second, the earth's rate of revolution being nineteenmiles in the same time. It is found that a necessary consequence ofthese velocities is that the meteors move about the sun, and notthe earth, as the controlling body. Our latest study points to theconclusion that they are of cometary origin, and, as comets have beenknown to divide, some scientists believe the meteorites are fragmentsof exploded comets. At any rate, they are found in the company of thesemysterious bodies, and appear to have similarly eccentric orbits."
"Your studies are leading you in the right direction," said Thorwald."The meteorites do indeed come from the regions of space, and if theyhave any story to tell it is a story of those distant parts of theuniverse about which any testimony is valuable. Let us look again at thefragment we are supposed to hold in our hand. Can we tell of what it iscomposed, or is its substance something entirely new? I am sure you musthave analyzed it down to its minutest particle, and if so you have foundit contains nothing foreign to the earth. There is not a single elementin the meteorite that does not exist also in the crust of the earth.Tell me, Doctor, how many elements have you discovered in them?"
"Nearly thirty," answered the doctor. "And one interesting fact is,that the three elements most common in the earth--iron, silicon, andoxygen--are also found most widely distributed among the meteorites."
"That is an exceedingly significant fact," said Thorwald; "and nowdo you not see how strongly the meteorites confirm the story of thespectrum, and how everything tells us the universe is one in itsphysical structure? By these two widely different sources of informationyou find that beyond doubt other heavenly bodies are made of likematerials with the earth. Is it not time now to give your imaginationjust a moment's play and look upon some of those distant orbs as theprobable abode of life?"
"There I cannot follow you," responded the doctor. "I am wanting inimagination; probably born so, as some people are born without an earfor music. Let us stick to facts. Among the recent discoveries inthe field of which we have been talking was the finding of some smalldiamonds in a meteoric mass. Upon this some enthusiastic writer, whoseimaginative soul would be your delight, Thorwald, built this argument:'Diamonds being pure carbon, their existence necessitates a previousvegetable growth. Hence vegetable life in other worlds is proven, and ifvegetable life, it is fair to presume the existence of animal lifealso. Of course, then, there must be intelligent life, and therefore thestars, or the planets that revolve around the stars, are all filled withmen.' This I call not reasoning, but guessing."
"And still," quickly responded Thorwald, "the discovery of diamonds inmeteorites was a valuable link in the chain of evidence which you areputting together. Keep on with your investigations. Some time positiveknowledge will come to you as it has come to us. But let me appeal oncemore to your reason. At an earlier stage of development your race nodoubt believed the earth was the center of the universe, around whichall the heavenly bodies swept in magnificent circles. You have learnedthat the earth itself, which was formerly thought to be so important anobject, is only one of those heavenly bodies flying through space. Youfind the earth resembles its nearest companions in being subject to thesame laws of motion which govern them, but you have yet to learn thatthey resemble the earth in the main purpose of their creation. You gointo the forest and see thousands of trees. You can find no two alike,and yet all are alike in every material respect. Even the myriads ofleaves are all different, and yet all alike. So why may not the millionsof stars that fill the sky be like our own sun and like each other,differing in such immaterial things as size and brilliancy, color andconstitution, but alike in the chief object of their being, the givingof light and heat, as vivifying forces to dark bodies surrounding them?And why may not these planets resemble the earth in being, at some stageof their existence, the theater of God's great designs?
"Let me try to excite your imagination in another way, Doctor. Supposeyou should by and by awake and find this visit to Mars only a dream, andthen suppose it should be revealed to you in some superhuman waythat man was indeed the only race of intelligent beings in the wholeuniverse; that the other planets and all the stars were of no realuse; that not one world from that vast region of the milky way and fardistant nebulae would ever send forth a note of praise to its Creator,and that the tiny earth was, after all, the center and sum of theuniverse--tell me, would you not feel lonesome?"
"When you put it in that way, Thorwald," replied the doctor, "I beginto see how unreasonable my position must appear to you. But, howeverpleasant the idea, I do not see how I can believe that other worlds areinhabited without more evidence than we now possess. This is speaking,of course, without the knowledge we have gained since coming here. But Ido not mind saying that your talk has made me wish I could believe it."
I was glad for several reasons that the doctor acknowledged as much asthis. First, for Thorwald's sake; for I had been thinking the doctor'sobduracy was proving a poor reward for our friend's great kindness tous. I rejoiced, too, that my companion was beginning to show our newacquaintance that, although he had little imagination, he was possessedof a good heart. And, finally, I was myself so much in sympathy withThorwald's views that I was glad to see his arguments begin to make someimpression on the doctor's mind.
But now it seemed to me that Thorwald had much to tell us from his ownexperience. He had talked so far on this subject from the standpointof our earthly knowledge, but had hinted more than once that theinhabitants of Mars had more positive evidence than we had ever dreamedcould be possible. So I said:
"Your arguments have been very acceptable to me, Thorwald, but can younot strengthen even my faith by speaking now from the results of yourown more advanced studies? We must base our belief in the existence oflife outside the earth on mere probabilities, which, however strong,lead only to theory and leave us still in doubt. Have you any certainknowledge on the subject, or, I might say, had you any before we came tosee you?"
"Oh, yes," replied Thorwald, "we have long had evidence almost aspositive as your presence here, fresh from one of our sister planets.It will give me great pleasure to tell you of some of our marvelousachievements in astronomy. The doctor says he would like to believein the habitability of other worlds; he must believe in it before I amthrough if he has any faith in me.
"I would like to say, to begin with, that whatever we have accomplishedin this science you on the earth can accomplish. I know enough bycomparing your development with our own to feel sure that our presentcondition foreshadows yours, and that all the knowledge we possess invarious directions will come in time to you. Let nothing discourage youin your quest for knowledge. If you seem to have arrived at the limit ofpossibilities in the telescope, for example, have patience. Difficultieswhich you think insurmountable, time will remove, and you will be ableto penetrate more and more into the mysteries of the universe.
"Our telescopes have gradually increased in power until we have beenable to accomplish things that you will no doubt think truly marvelous.But, before you call any achievement in this science impossible, justlook back and compare the ignorance of the early inhabitants of theearth with your present knowledge; and do not be so proud of the wisdomalready attained that you cannot also look forward to an enl
argedcomprehension of things you now call mysteries, and to a much closeracquaintance with the works of God.
"To our increasing vision the heavens have continued to unfold theirwonders. We have penetrated far into the depths of space only to marvel,at each new revelation, at the power and wisdom of the Creator. Thenumber of stars discovered to our view would be incredible to you, andyet it will be interesting to you to learn that we can still place nobounds to creation. We have, it is true, found the limits of what wecall our universe and have mapped out all its boundaries. When this hadbeen done we tried to pierce the surrounding darkness, but for a longtime, in spite of our belief that we could not yet see the end, allbeyond seemed a void. Recently, however, our faith has been rewarded,for we can now see other universes, buried in far space but revealeddimly to the higher powers of our telescopes.
"But you are doubtless eager to hear of some more definite knowledgegained from this wide domain. Well, we have determined the distances,size, and motions of many of the stars, resolved star clusters andnebulae, solved the mystery of the double and variable stars, and, whatis of more consequence than all these things, we have in many instancesdiscovered the secondary bodies themselves, revolving around a centralsun. We now know, what we so long suspected, that the rolling stars aresuns like our own, giving light and heat to attending worlds. With thisknowledge, can you wonder, Doctor, that we acquired the belief thatthese worlds, resembling so much the planets of our own system, are fithomes for intelligent beings?"
"I cannot see," replied the doctor, "that such a belief necessarilyfollows your discovery, which, I must own, was an exceedingly valuableone. I can readily believe that each star that shines in our sky is asun surrounded by dependent bodies so dark as to be invisible throughour terrestrial telescopes, but still I presume even your instrumentsare not powerful enough to find any inhabitants on those distantworlds?"
"No," replied Thorwald, "but for what other conceivable purpose werethese bodies created?"
"I frankly acknowledge that I am not able to answer that question," saidthe doctor. "If you have many more wonderful discoveries to relate Ishall soon have to own myself convinced."
"I am trying to convince your reason," resumed Thorwald, "without theaid of positive evidence, but I may as well proceed now to show you whatfurther knowledge we have gained.
"The nearer planets of our own solar system have been naturally theobjects of our close scrutiny. As our telescopes increased in power wediligently studied the surface of these globes, searching for signsof life. We mapped out their features, noted the various phenomena ofseason and climate, and discovered many ways in which they seemed tobe like our world. But for a long time we found no direct evidence thatthey were inhabited.
"At length, however, one ardent philosopher, full of hope, as we allwere, that we had neighbors on some of these globes, brought out theidea that if these neighbors were as far advanced in astronomicalscience as we were, there ought to be some means of communicationbetween one world and another. The thought took at once, and occasionedthe most lively interest. We had no doubt, from what we had learned ofthese planets, that they were fitted to be, at some time, the home ofintelligent beings. Our question was whether the inhabitable period ofeither of them coincided with that of Mars, and, if so, whether the racewas sufficiently developed to be able to see us as well as we could seethem.
"The first means suggested to attract the attention of such a race ofbeings was fire. You can imagine that we could get together materialenough to make a pretty big blaze, and we did. We lighted immensefires in various places and kept them burning a long time, but withoutaccomplishing anything. We scanned minutely the surface of eachplanet, but saw no sign anywhere that our effort at communication wasrecognized.
"Disappointed, but not discouraged, we determined next to try a systemof simple hieroglyphics by throwing up huge mounds on one of our plains.We thought, if other eyes were studying Mars as closely as we weresearching the surface of our sister planets for signs of life, thatthey would notice any unusual change in our appearance. Then if they didnotice it we hoped some means would be found to let us know it.
"It was decided to try first the figure of the circle, because weknew that the form of all heavenly bodies must be the most familiarto intelligent life wherever it existed. It took years of labor toconstruct the mound, for it was thought best to have it large enoughto give the experiment a thorough trial. And now you may believe weconsidered ourselves well repaid for all our toil and expense when, soonafter the circle was completed, our telescopes showed us a similarform actually growing upon the surface of both Saturn and Uranus. Weimmediately replied by beginning the construction of a square, andbefore this was finished both planets began to answer, one with thetriangle and the other with the crescent. The latter was made by Uranus,and as soon as it was finished the triangle began to appear beside it,showing to us that Uranus was reading from Saturn also.
"Other signs followed, although, of course, the work was very slow, andthe experiments are still in progress. Some slight beginning has beenmade toward the interchange of ideas. The time and labor required willalone prevent extended communication, which would make it possible toform, in the course of ages, a mutual language. As we were the first tostart it we propose to try to control the conversation, but if Saturnand Uranus choose to steal our idea and gossip between themselves, weknow of no way to stop them."
As Thorwald proceeded with this marvelous recital, it was interestingto watch the doctor's face. It was so apparent to me that he was fastlosing his skepticism that I was not surprised to hear him say:
"Thorwald, one fact is worth more to me than a world of theory, and ifyou had begun by relating this wonderful experience you would not havefound me so incredulous. Who could refuse to believe with such testimonybefore him? What news this will be to take back to the earth! But youhave, doubtless, other discoveries to relate to us. Excuse me," thedoctor continued, turning to me, "for interrupting, even for a moment,our friend's most interesting discourse."
"Let me say," resumed Thorwald, "that your interruption has been helpfulto me, for now I know you have lost your doubts and believe with us inthis matter."
"These efforts at communication have occupied us for generations, andthe close study which we have been obliged to give to the surface of theother planets has made us well acquainted with their characteristics. Wehave found many likenesses to our own world, as well as various pointsof difference. The succession of the seasons has been an interestingphenomenon. We have watched with delight the ever-changing rings ofour neighbor, Saturn, and can show you pictures of them as they werethousands of years ago."
"We have taken great pleasure in observing the round of seasons onthe surface of the earth, not dreaming that we should ever have theprivilege of talking face to face with its inhabitants."
"Well, now that we are here, Thorwald," said the doctor, "we want to getall the information possible. So please go on and tell us more of yourdiscoveries. How about those bodies that you have found circling likeplanets around other suns? Have you any evidence in regard to theirinhabitants? Your telescopes cannot surely bring any such bodies nearenough to enable you to communicate with them."
"True," replied Thorwald, "but this is another instance where nature haslent us her assistance. If you have been surprised at some things thatI have already said, you will probably find what I am about to relateequally outside of your experience."