The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 20. A MAD INFATUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 3120, 20 January 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 20. A MAD INFATUATION.

<>l all I In- mail infatuations that ever the Yiwtle*> *onl of mail possessed, surely the mo.-t insane is the conception to hold communication with presumed ini<i!;gcn>v> o\i->ung in the planet Mars, tnir nearest sun-evolving sphere. In mi' iu-t;tiio'. strict mathematical accuracy is it >f needed. By t hinese reckoni iug, this earth of uitrs has held iWs e\I inU'inv for sonic one million oihl ImnI <lied- oi thousands of years. .Much ] more modest are our authorities. Some ! live or six thousand is the most that we | ean count, hut then w»- reckon only trom days—the halcyon dn\-< when good old Adam delved and Kve her apron* spun. There are lair grounds lor fiupposing the many million suns. the planets, satollit .•omet» and nebulae I hat the vaol immeiiMty pi h-.avtii je\wK did t-oiiie whirling work some e.m*i«icrable time hefoiv. Fro in uiit oi du-i was Adam made, although we arc that to exislcU'C all were brought because oi'liiiupeck infinitesimal. From the working I out the universe till the apple trees bore | fruit, was but a day. but then how long the day? How reckon by the day before tin t»un wa* made? With a poetry -üblime we e«uiu the years since Adam, gnoring mammoths whose bones are ioun-K lossili&ed birds and reptile* which » different *ort of world reveal, the plain teachings of geology, the fact that tho diameter of the earth projected for long uad misled thu polar rttar, and the differences manifold tlu* difference in •'inclination had produced.

In Diodarue' time the visitor to Kgypt in amazement stood at the magnificence of the cities then beheld. 'Twas in those early days into constellations were the skies divided. Then rose to lavish liuury the Roman power, near bordered by the lierman-Rusnian lands, where man in navagery primitive rnn. Through the centuries, what progress doth our own history reveal? What knew we of the utars till yesterday? 'Tis but a day since to the earth the telescope was given. The passage of the earth is the hi*;orv of a tlower. (liven the earth. Ag.'s having passed, lo! man appears. Man shall disappear and stilt the earth go on. The earth is born, blossoms, dies—even as the moon has died. In our presumption—how great nud ininieasurabb the presumption of man is—we say that all was made for us. It has taken all the centuries of man to acquire this latest new machine. How slow the actual progress man has made through all the years! Think, what was his condition but a hundred years ago! We presume there are intelligences in Mars. Further, we presume that these intelligences are equal to our own, although we bestowed no thought on -Mars till but the other day. In what stage is Mars? Have intelligences come, or have they been and gone? An atmosphere wa think Mars lias, although no clouds upon her lace we see. If intelligence ia there, to what stage lias it reached? The days of Adam. Kgvpt. Rome, or ICnrope in tile -i <Hll century?

Til.; other day, it was so reported, something singular liappened. It was Mars; in Mars the people were giving Ub a sign. Tims, the thought of Mars proves father to the hope. Since the days of Adam how many sign* have to the earth been given and nil unnoticed passed? All incomplete our education is; many the things that be, closely with himself asfociatod. man does not understand? One set of gross infatuate«, because of things not fully comprehended yet. oxclaim, "Oh, this a spirit is! ' Tliesf spirits must be local to the earth, to this globe must they be chained, else surely tlioy would tell us all about the stars! And what a lield for lies the stars present! Anything the spirits might assert, and no one say them nav. Fatuously, too, the spirit world is given to lies. An oversight it must have been, else, upon spiritists' authority most assured. we should have known, exact, tliu civilisation now attained in Mars. But uot too late this dream. Yet may the spirits of our earth to Mars a visit pav, and lack returning the mysterv of her canals explain! Then with them they might bring along some spirits of the dead irom Mars or other planetary sphere if conveniently near. Thus would the infatuates of spirits (lie infatuates ol Mars assist, and a world of lies rejoice in the additions to' its store. How many people crazy on the earth there be! The centuries speed by. and whilst we of our advancement boast, the world lovnsn grows. .Mystics, faddists, ffltnates, new realms of craze discover in which to revel and lead an easily infected throng. To them Nature has no laws immutable. Time counts for nothing in the scale. Space no difficulty presents. Imagination soars superior to all, hope the father to the thought will prove; and any gag will do! Science alone stands firm and pure. At spiritualism in every form she scoffs; the miraculous Bhe rejects: to speculations vain contemptuously her back she turns; whilst with churches—long of strength—divided, new sects, new creeds appearing, ttfble-hiiinping spirits, fortune-telling diviners. vegetarianism, starvationism, communism, MARS!