BOOK ONE THE COMING OF CHAPTER ONE THE EVE OF THE WAR would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than 's and yet as mortal as own ; that as busied about various concerns were scrutinised and studied , perhaps almost as narrowly as might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water .
With infinite complacency went to and fro over about little affairs , serene in assurance of empire over matter .
It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same .
gave a thought to as sources of human danger , or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable .
It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days .
At most fancied there might be upon , perhaps inferior to and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise .
Yet across the gulf of , minds that are to minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish , intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic , regarded with envious eyes , and slowly and surely drew plans against .
And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment .
, scarcely need remind , revolves about at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles , and the light and heat receives from is barely half of that received by .
must be , if the nebular hypothesis has any truth , older than ; and long before ceased to be molten , life upon surface must have begun its course .
The fact that is scarcely one seventh of the volume of must have accelerated cooling to the temperature at which life could begin .
has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence .
Yet so vain is , and so blinded by vanity , that , up to the very end of the nineteenth century , expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed far , or indeed at all , beyond its earthly level .
Nor was it generally understood that since is older than , with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from , it necessarily follows that is not only more distant from time 's beginning but nearer its end .
The secular cooling that must someday overtake has already gone far indeed with .
physical condition is still largely a mystery , but know now that even in equatorial region the midday temperature barely approaches that of coldest winter .
air is much more attenuated than ours , have shrunk until they cover but a third of , and as slow seasons change gather and melt about and periodically inundate .
That last stage of exhaustion , which to is still incredibly remote , has become a present-day problem for .
The immediate pressure of necessity has brightened intellects , enlarged powers , and hardened hearts .
And looking across space with instruments , and intelligences such as have scarcely dreamed of , see , at nearest distance only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of , , .
And , , must be to at least as alien and lowly as are the monkeys and lemurs to .
The intellectual side of already admits that life is an incessant struggle for existence , and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon .
is far gone in cooling and is still crowded with life , but crowded only with what regard as inferior animals .
To carry warfare sunward is , indeed , only escape from the destruction that , generation after generation , creeps upon .
And before judge of too harshly must remember what ruthless and utter destruction has wrought , not only upon animals , such as the vanished bison and the dodo , but upon inferior races .
, in spite of likeness , were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by , in the space of fifty years .
Are as to complain if warred in the same spirit ?
seem to have calculated descent with amazing subtlety -- mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours -- and to have carried out preparations with a well-nigh perfect unanimity .
Had instruments permitted it , might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century .
watched the red planet -- it is odd , by-the-bye , that for countless centuries has been -- but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings mapped so well .
All that time must have been getting ready .
During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the disk , first at , then by , and then by .
heard of it first in the issue of _ Nature _ dated August 2 .
am inclined to think that this blaze may have been the casting of the huge gun , in the vast pit sunk into planet , from which shots were fired at .
Peculiar markings , as yet unexplained , were seen near during the next two oppositions .
The storm burst upon six years ago now .
As approached opposition , set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet .
It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth ; and the spectroscope , to which had at once resorted , indicated a mass of flaming gas , chiefly hydrogen , moving with an enormous velocity towards .
This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve .
compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet , " as flaming gases rushed out of a gun . "
A singularly appropriate phrase it proved .
Yet the next day there was nothing of this in the papers except a little note in the _ Daily Telegraph _ , and went in ignorance of one of the gravest dangers that ever threatened .
might not have heard of the eruption at all had not met , , at .
was immensely excited at the news , and in the excess of feelings invited up to take a turn with that night in a scrutiny of .
In spite of all that has happened since , still remember that vigil very distinctly : , the shadowed lantern throwing a feeble glow upon the floor in the corner , the steady ticking of the clockwork of the telescope , the little slit in the roof -- an oblong profundity with the stardust streaked across it .
moved about , invisible but audible .
Looking through the telescope , one saw a circle of deep blue and .
It seemed such a little thing , so bright and small and still , faintly marked with transverse stripes , and slightly flattened from the perfect round .
But so little it was , so silvery warm -- a pin 's - head of light !
It was as if it quivered , but really this was the telescope vibrating with the activity of the clockwork that kept in view .
As watched , seemed to grow larger and smaller and to advance and recede , but that was simply that eye was tired .
Forty millions of miles it was from -- more than forty millions of miles of void .
realise the immensity of vacancy in which the dust of the material universe swims .
Near it in , remember , were , , and all around it was the unfathomable darkness of .
know how that blackness looks on a frosty starlight night .
In a telescope it seems far profounder .
And invisible to because it was so remote and small , flying swiftly and steadily towards across that incredible distance , drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles , came the Thing were sending , the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to .
never dreamed of it then as watched ; dreamed of that unerring missile .
That night , too , there was another jetting out of gas from .
saw it .
A reddish flash at the edge , the slightest projection of the outline just as the chronometer struck midnight ; and at that told and took place .
The night was warm and was thirsty , and went stretching legs clumsily and feeling way in the darkness , to the little table where the siphon stood , while exclaimed at the streamer of gas that came out towards .
That night another invisible missile started on its way to from , just a second or so under twenty-four hours after the first one .
remember how sat on the table there in the blackness , with patches of green and crimson swimming before eyes .
wished had a light to smoke by , little suspecting the meaning of the minute gleam had seen and all that it would presently bring .
watched till one , and then gave it up ; and lit the lantern and walked over to .
Down below in the darkness were and and , sleeping in peace .
was full of speculation that night about the condition of , and scoffed at the vulgar idea of its having .
idea was that meteorites might be falling in a heavy shower upon , or that a huge volcanic explosion was in progress .
pointed out to how unlikely it was that organic evolution had taken the same direction in .