Other editions of book Mars and its Canals

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

MARS AND ITS CANALS by PERCIVAL LOWELL . Originally published in 1911. PREFACE: ELEVEN years have elapsed since the writers first work on Mars was published in which were recorded the facts gleaned in his research up to that time and in which was set forth his theory of their explana tion. Continued work in the interval has confirmed the conclusions there stated sometimes in quite unexpected ways. Five times during that period Mars has approached the earth within suitable scan ning distance and been subjected to careful and prolonged scrutiny. Familiarity with the subject, improved telescopic means, and long-continued train ing have all combined to increased efficiency in the procuring of data and to results which have been proportionate. A mass of new material has thus been collected, some of it along old lines, some of it in lines that are themselves new, and both have led to the same outcome. In addition to thus push ing inquiry into advanced portions of the subject, study has been spent in investigation of the reality of the phenomena upon which so much is based, and in testing every theory which has been suggested to account for them. From diplopia to optical inter ference, each of these has been examined and found incompatible with the observations. The phenomena are all they have been stated to be, and more. Each step forward in observation has confirmed the genu ineness of those that went before. To set forth science in a popular, that is, in a generally understandable, form is as obligatory as to present it in a more technical manner. If men are to benefit by it, it must be expressed to their com prehension. To do this should be feasible for him who is master of his subject and is both the best test of, and the best training to, that post. Espe cially vital is it that the exposition should be done at first hand for to describe what a man has him self discovered comes as near as possible to making a reader the co-discoverer of it. Not only are thus escaped the mistaken glosses of second-hand knowl edge, but an arorna of actuality, which cannot be filtered through another mind without sensible evap oration, clings to the account of the pioneer. Nor is it so hard to make any well-grasped matter com prehensible to a man of good general intelligence as is commonly supposed. The whole object of science is to synthesize, and so simplify and did w r e but know the uttermost of a subject we could make it singularly clear. Meanwhile technical phraseology, useful as shorthand to the cult, becomes meaningless jargon to the uninitiate and is paraded most by the least profound. But worse still for their employ symbols tend to fictitious understanding. Formulae are the anaesthetics of thought, not its stimulants and to make any one think is far better worth while than cramming him with ill-considered, and therefore indigestible, learning. Even to the technical student, a popular book, if well done, may yield most valuable results...

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. It was produced from digital images created through the libraries’ mass digitization efforts. The digital images were cleaned and prepared for printing through automated processes. Despite the cleaning process, occasional flaws may still be present that were part of the original work itself, or introduced during digitization. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found online in the HathiTrust Digital Library at www.hathitrust.org.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Excerpt from Mars and Its CanalsTo set forth science in a popular, that is, in a generally understandable, form is as obligatory as to present it in a more technical manner. If men are to benefit by it, it must be expressed to their com prehension. To do this should be feasible for him who is master of his subject and is both the best test of, and the best training to, that post. Espe cially vital is it that the exposition should be done at first hand for to describe what 'a man has him self discovered comes as near as possible to making a reader the co-discoverer of it. Not only are thus escaped the mistaken glosses of second-hand knowl edge, but an aroma of actuality, which cannot be filtered through another mind without sensible evap oration, clings to the account of the pioneer. Nor is it so hard to make any well-grasped matter com prehensible to a man of good general intelligence as is commonly supposed. The whole object of science is to synthesize, and so simplify; and did we but know the uttermost of a subject we could make it singularly clear. Meanwhile technical phraseology.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.