Our concern is with humanity, and with the Martians only in relation to
men. But in order to understand the tragic intercourse of the two
planets, it is necessary to glance at conditions on Mars, and conceive
something of those fantastically different yet fundamentally similar
beings, who were now seeking to possess man’s home.
To describe the biology, psychology, and history of a whole world in a
few pages is as difficult as it would be to give the Martians themselves
in the same compass a true idea of man. Encyclopaedias, libraries, would
be needed in either case. Yet, somehow, I must contrive to suggest the
alien sufferings and delights, and the many aeons of struggle, which
went to the making of these strange non-human intelligences, in some
ways so inferior yet in others definitely superior to the human species
which they encountered.
Mars was a world whose mass was about one-tenth that of the earth.
Gravity therefore had played a less tyrannical part in Martian than in
terrestrial history. The weakness of Martian gravity combined with the
paucity of the planet’s air envelope to make the general atmospheric
pressure far lighter than on earth. Oxygen was far less plentiful. Water
also was comparatively rare. There were no oceans or seas, but only
shallow lakes and marshes, many of which dried up in summer. The climate
of the planet was in general very dry, and yet very cold. Being without
cloud, it was perennially bright with the feeble rays of a distant sun.
Earlier in the history of Mars, when there were more air, more water,
and a higher temperature from internal heat, life had appeared in the
coastal waters of the seas, and evolution had proceeded in much the same
manner as on earth. Primitive life was differentiated into the
fundamental animal and vegetable types. Multicellular structures
appeared, and specialized themselves in diverse manners to suit diverse
environments. A great variety of plant forms clothed the lands, often
with forests of gigantic and slender-stemmed plumes. Mollusc-like and
insect-like animals crept or swam, or shot themselves hither and thither
in fantastic jumps. Huge spidery creatures of a type not wholly unlike
crustaceans, or gigantic grasshoppers, bounded after their prey, and
developed a versatility and cunning which enabled them to dominate the
planet almost as, at a much later date, early man was to dominate the
terrestrial wild.
But meanwhile a rapid loss of atmosphere, and especially of
water-vapour, was changing Martian conditions beyond the limits of
adaptability of this early fauna and flora. At the same time a very
different kind of vital organization was beginning to profit by the
change. On Mars, as on the Earth, life had arisen from one of many
‘subvital’ forms. The new type of life on Mars evolved from another of
these subvital kinds of molecular organization, one which had hitherto
failed to evolve at all, and had played an insignificant part, save
occasionally as a rare virus in the respiratory organs of animals. These
fundamental subvital units of organization were ultra-microscopic, and
indeed far smaller than the terrestrial bacteria, or even the
terrestrial viruses. They originally occurred in the marshy ponds, which
dried up every spring, and became depressions of baked mud and dust.
Certain of their species, borne into the air upon dust-particles,
developed an extremely dry habit of life. They maintained themselves by
absorbing chemicals from the wind-borne dust, and a very slight amount
of moisture from the air. Also they absorbed sunlight by a
photosynthesis almost identical with that of the plants.
To this extent they were similar to the other living things, but they
had also certain capacities which the other stock had lost at the very
outset of its evolutionary career. Terrestrial organisms, and Martian
organisms of the terrestrial type, maintained themselves as vital
unities by means of nervous systems, or other forms of material contact
between parts. In the most developed forms, an immensely complicated
neural ‘telephone’ system connected every part of the body with a vast
central exchange, the brain. Thus on the earth a single organism was
without exception a continuous system of matter, which maintained a
certain constancy of form. But from the distinctively Martian subvital
unit there evolved at length a very different kind of complex organism,
in which material contact of parts was not necessary either to
coordination of behaviour or unity of consciousness. These ends were
achieved upon a very different physical basis. The ultra-microscopic
subvital members were sensitive to all kinds of ethereal vibrations,
directly sensitive, in a manner impossible to terrestrial life; and they
could also initiate vibrations. Upon this basis Martian life developed
at length the capacity of maintaining vital organization as a single
conscious individual without continuity of living matter. Thus the
typical Martian organism was a cloudlet, a group of free-moving members
dominated by a ‘group-mind’. But in one species individuality came to
inhere, for certain purposes, not in distinct cloudlets only, but in a
great fluid system of cloudlets. Such was the single-minded Martian host
which invaded the Earth.
The Martian organism depended, so to speak, not on ‘telephone’ wires,
but on an immense crowd of mobile ‘wireless stations’, transmitting and
receiving different wave-lengths according to their function. The
radiation of a single unit was of course very feeble; but a great system
of units could maintain contact with its wandering parts over a
considerable distance.
One other important characteristic distinguished the dominant form of
life on Mars. Just as a cell, in the terrestrial form of life, has often
the power of altering its shape (whence the whole mechanism of muscular
activity), so in the Martian form the free-floating ultra-microscopic
unit might be specialized for generating around itself a magnetic field,
and so either repelling or attracting its neighbours. Thus a system of
materially disconnected units had a certain cohesion. Its consistency
was something between a smoke-cloud and a very tenuous jelly. It had a
definite though ever-changing contour and resistant surface. By massed
mutual repulsions of its constituent units it could exercise pressure on
surrounding objects; and in its most concentrated form the Martian
cloud-jelly could bring to bear immense forces which could also be
controlled for very delicate manipulation. Magnetic forces were also
responsible for the mollusc-like motion of the cloud as a whole over the
ground, and again for the transport of lifeless material and living
units from region to region within the cloud.
The magnetic field of repulsion and attraction generated by a subvital
unit was much more restricted than its field of ‘wireless’
communication. Similarly with organized systems of units. Thus each of
the cloudlets which the Second Men saw in their sky was an independent
motor unit; but also it was in a kind of ‘telepathic’ communication with
all its fellows. Indeed in every public enterprise, such as the
terrestrial campaigns, almost perfect unity of consciousness was
maintained within the limits of a huge field of radiation. Yet only when
the whole population concentrated itself into a small and relatively
dense cloud-jelly, did it become a single magnetic motor unit. The
Martians, it should be noted, had three possible forms, or formations,
namely: first, an ‘open order’ of independent and very tenuous cloudlets
in ‘telepathic’ communication, and often in strict unity as a
group-mind; second, a more concentrated and less vulnerable corporate
cloud; and third, an extremely concentrated and formidable cloud-jelly.
Save for these very remarkable characteristics, there was no really
fundamental difference between the distinctively Martian and the
distinctively terrestrial forms of life. The chemical basis of the
former was somewhat more complicated than that of the latter; and
selenium played a part in it, to which nothing corresponded in
terrestrial life. The Martian organism, moreover, was unique in that it
fulfilled within itself the functions of both animal and vegetable. But,
save for these peculiarities, the two types of life were biochemically
much the same. Both needed material from the ground, both needed
sunlight. Each lived in the chemical changes occurring in its own
‘flesh’. Each, of course, tended to maintain itself as an organic unity.
There was a certain difference, indeed, in respect of reproduction; for
the Martian subvital units retained the power of growth and subdivision.
Thus the birth of a Martian cloud arose from the subdivision of myriads
of units within the parent cloud, followed by their ejection as a new
individual. And, as the units were highly specialized for different
functions, representatives of many types had to pass into the new cloud.
In the earliest stages of evolution on Mars the units had become
independent of each other as soon as they parted in reproduction. But
later the hitherto useless and rudimentary power of emitting radiation
was specialized, so that, after reproduction, free individuals came to
maintain radiant contact with one another, and to behave with
ever-increasing coordination. Still later, these organized groups
themselves maintained radiant contact with groups of their offspring,
thus constituting larger individuals with specialized members. With each
advance in complexity the sphere of radiant influence increased; until,
at the zenith of Martian evolution, the whole planet (save for the
remaining animal and vegetable representatives of the other and
unsuccessful kind of life) constituted sometimes a single biological and
psychological individual. But this occurred as a rule only in respect of
matters which concerned the species as a whole. At most times the
Martian individual was a cloudlet, such as those which first astonished
the Second Men. But in great public crises each cloudlet would suddenly
wake up to find himself the mind of the whole race, sensing through many
individuals, and interpreting his sensations in the light of the
experience of the whole race.
The life which dominated Mars was thus something between an extremely
well-disciplined army of specialized units, and a body possessed by one
mind. Like an army, it could take any form without destroying its
organic unity. Like an army it was sometimes a crowd of free-wandering
units, yet at other times also it disposed itself in very special orders
to fulfil special functions. Like an army it was composed of free,
experiencing individuals who voluntarily submitted themselves to
discipline. On the other hand, unlike an army, it woke occasionally into
unified consciousness.
The same fluctuation between individuality and multiplicity which
characterized the race as a whole, characterized also each of the
cloudlets themselves. Each was sometimes an individual, sometimes a
swarm of more primitive individuals. But while the race rather seldom
rose to full individuality, the cloudlets declined from it only in very
special circumstances. Each cloudlet was an organization of specialized
groups formed of minor specialized groups, which in turn were composed
of the fundamental specialized varieties of subvital units. Each
free-roving group of free-roving units constituted a special organ,
fulfilling some particular function in the whole. Thus some were
specialized for attraction and repulsion, some for chemical operations,
some for storing the sun’s energy, some for emitting radiation, some for
absorbing and storing water, some for special sensitivities, such as
awareness of mechanical pressure and vibration, or temperature changes,
or light rays. Others again were specialized to fulfil the function of
the brain of man; but in a peculiar manner. The whole volume of the
cloudlet vibrated with innumerable ‘wireless’ messages in very many
wave-lengths from the different ‘organs’. It was the function of the
‘brain’ units to receive, and correlate, and interpret these messages in
the light of past experience, and to initiate responses in the
wave-lengths appropriate to the organs concerned.
All these subvital units, save a few types that were too highly
specialized, were capable of independent life as air-borne bacteria or
viruses. And whenever they lost touch with the radiation of the whole
system, they continued to live their own simple lives until they were
once more controlled. All were free-floating units, but normally they
were under the influence of the cloudlet’s system of electro-magnetic
fields, and were directed hither and thither for their special
functions. And under this influence some of them might be held rigidly
in position in relation to one another. Such was the case of the organs
of sight. In early stages of evolution, some of the units had
specialized for carrying minute globules of water. Later, much larger
droplets were carried, millions of units holding between them a still
microscopic globule of life’s most precious fluid. Ultimately this
function was turned to good account in vision. Aqueous lenses as large
as the eye of an ox were supported by a scaffolding of units; while, at
focal length from the lens, a rigid retina of units was held in
position. Thus the Martian could produce eyes of every variety whenever
he wanted them, and telescopes and microscopes too. This production and
manipulation of visual organs was of course largely subconscious, like
the focusing mechanism in man. But latterly the Martians had greatly
increased their conscious control of physiological processes; and it was
this achievement which facilitated their remarkable optical triumphs.
One other physiological function we must note before considering the
Martian psychology. The fully evolved, but as yet uncivilized, Martian
had long ago ceased to depend for his chemicals on wind-borne volcanic
dust. Instead, he rested at night on the ground, like a knee-high mist
on terrestrial meadows, and projected specialized tubular groups of
units into the soil, like rootlets. Part of the day also had to be
occupied in this manner. Somewhat later this process was supplemented by
devouring the declining plant-life of the planet. But the final
civilized Martians had greatly improved their methods of exploiting the
ground and the sunlight, both by mechanical means and by artificial
specialization of their own organs. Even so, however, as their
activities increased, these vegetable functions became an ever more
serious problem for them. They practised agriculture; but only a very
small area of the arid planet could be induced to bear. It was
terrestrial water and terrestrial vegetation that finally determined
them to make the great voyage.