A Trip to Venus | Page 5

how on
Mars are they to understand what we say? We have no common code."
"True; but the chemical bodies have certain well-defined properties, have they not?"
"Yes. Each has a peculiarity marking it from all the rest. For example, two or more may
resemble each other in colour or hardness, but not in weight."
"Precisely. Now, by comparing their spectra can we not be led to distinguish a particular
quality, and grasp the idea of it? In short, can the Martians not impress that idea on us by
their spectro-telegraph?"
"I see what you mean," said Professor Gazen; "and, now I think of it, all the spectra we
have seen belong to the group called 'metals of the alkalies and alkaline earths,' which, of
course, have distinctive properties."
"At first, I should think the Martians would only try to attract our notice by striking
spectra."
"Lithium is the lightest metal known to us."
"Well, we might get the idea of 'lightness' from that."
"Sodium," continued the professor, "sodium is a very soft metal, with so strong an
affinity for oxygen that it burns in water. Manganese, which belongs to the 'iron group,' is
hard enough to scratch glass; and, like iron, is decidedly magnetic. Copper is red--"
"The signals for colour we might get from the spectra direct."
"Mercury or quicksilver is fluid at ordinary temperatures, and that might lead us to the
idea of movement--animation--life itself."

"Having got certain fundamental ideas," I went on, "by combining these we might arrive
at other distinct conceptions. We might build up an ideographic or glyphic language of
signs--the signs being spectra. The numerals might be telegraphed by simple occultations
of the light. Then from spectra we might pass by an easy step to equivalent signals of
long and short flashes in various combinations, also made by occulting the light. With
such a code, our correspondence might go on at great length, and present no difficulty;
but, of course, we must be able to reply."
"If the Martians are as clever as you are pleased to imagine, we ought to learn a good deal
from them."
"I hope we may, and I'm sure the world will be all the better for a little superior
enlightenment on some points."
"Well, we must follow the matter up, at all events," said the professor, taking another
peep through the telescope. "For the present the Martian philosophers appear to have shut
up shop; and, as my nebula has now risen, I should like to do a little work on it before
daybreak. Look here, if it's a fine night, can you join me to-morrow? We shall then
continue our observations; but, in the meanwhile, you had better say nothing about
them."
On my way home I looked for the ruddy planet as I had done in the earlier part of the
night, but with very different feelings in my heart. The ice of distance and isolation
separating me from it seemed to have broken down since then, and instead of a cold and
alien star, I saw a friendly and familiar world--a companion to our own in the eternal
solitude of the universe.


CHAPTER II
.
HOW CAN WE GET TO THE OTHER PLANETS?
The next evening promised well, and I kept my appointment, but unfortunately a slight
haze gathered in the sky and prevented us from making further observations. While
hoping in vain for it to clear away, Professor Gazen and I talked over the possibility of
journeying to other worlds. The gist of our argument was afterwards published in a
conversation, entitled "Can we reach the other planets?" which appeared in _The Day
after To-morrow_. It ran as follows:
I. (_the writer_). "Do you think we shall ever be able to leave the earth and travel through
space to Mars or Venus, and the other members of the Solar System?"
G. (_Checking an impulse to smile and shaking his head_), "Oh, no! Never."
I. "Yet science is working miracles, or what would have been accounted miracles in
ancient times."
G. "No doubt, and hence people are apt to suppose that science can do everything; but
after all Nature has set bounds to her achievements."
I. "Still, we don't know what we can and what we cannot do until we try."

G. "Not always; but in this case I think we know. The celestial bodies are evidently
isolated in space, and the tenants of one cannot pass to another. We are confined to our
own planet."
I. "A similar objection might have been urged against the plan of Columbus."
G. "That was different. Columbus only sailed through unknown seas to a distant
continent. We are free to explore every nook and cranny of the earth, but how shall we
cross the immense void which parts