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- Герберт Уеллс
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- Стр. 1/99
War of the Worlds
No
one
would
have
believed
in
the
last
years
of
the
nineteenth
century
that
this
world
was
being
watched
keenly
and
closely
by
intelligences
greater
than
man
's
and
yet
as
mortal
as
his
own
;
that
as
men
busied
themselves
about
their
various
concerns
they
were
scrutinised
and
studied
,
perhaps
almost
as
narrowly
as
a
man
with
a
microscope
might
scrutinise
the
transient
creatures
that
swarm
and
multiply
in
a
drop
of
water
.
With
infinite
complacency
men
went
to
and
fro
over
this
globe
about
their
little
affairs
,
serene
in
their
assurance
of
their
empire
over
matter
.
It
is
possible
that
the
infusoria
under
the
microscope
do
the
same
.
No
one
gave
a
thought
to
the
older
worlds
of
space
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
terrestrial
men
fancied
there
might
be
other
men
upon
Mars
,
perhaps
inferior
to
themselves
and
ready
to
welcome
a
missionary
enterprise
.
Yet
across
the
gulf
of
space
,
minds
that
are
to
our
minds
as
ours
are
to
those
of
the
beasts
that
perish
,
intellects
vast
and
cool
and
unsympathetic
,
regarded
this
earth
with
envious
eyes
,
and
slowly
and
surely
drew
their
plans
against
us
.
And
early
in
the
twentieth
century
came
the
great
disillusionment
.
The
planet
Mars
,
I
scarcely
need
remind
the
reader
,
revolves
about
the
sun
at
a
mean
distance
of
140,000,000
miles
,
and
the
light
and
heat
it
receives
from
the
sun
is
barely
half
of
that
received
by
this
world
.
It
must
be
,
if
the
nebular
hypothesis
has
any
truth
,
older
than
our
world
;
and
long
before
this
earth
ceased
to
be
molten
,
life
upon
its
surface
must
have
begun
its
course
.
The
fact
that
it
is
scarcely
one
seventh
of
the
volume
of
the
earth
must
have
accelerated
its
cooling
to
the
temperature
at
which
life
could
begin
.
It
has
air
and
water
and
all
that
is
necessary
for
the
support
of
animated
existence
.
Yet
so
vain
is
man
,
and
so
blinded
by
his
vanity
,
that
no
writer
,
up
to
the
very
end
of
the
nineteenth
century
,
expressed
any
idea
that
intelligent
life
might
have
developed
there
far
,
or
indeed
at
all
,
beyond
its
earthly
level
.
Nor
was
it
generally
understood
that
since
Mars
is
older
than
our
earth
,
with
scarcely
a
quarter
of
the
superficial
area
and
remoter
from
the
sun
,
it
necessarily
follows
that
it
is
not
only
more
distant
from
time
's
beginning
but
nearer
its
end
.
The
secular
cooling
that
must
someday
overtake
our
planet
has
already
gone
far
indeed
with
our
neighbour
.
Its
physical
condition
is
still
largely
a
mystery
,
but
we
know
now
that
even
in
its
equatorial
region
the
midday
temperature
barely
approaches
that
of
our
coldest
winter
.
Its
air
is
much
more
attenuated
than
ours
,
its
oceans
have
shrunk
until
they
cover
but
a
third
of
its
surface
,
and
as
its
slow
seasons
change
huge
snowcaps
gather
and
melt
about
either
pole
and
periodically
inundate
its
temperate
zones
.
That
last
stage
of
exhaustion
,
which
to
us
is
still
incredibly
remote
,
has
become
a
present-day
problem
for
the
inhabitants
of
Mars
.
The
immediate
pressure
of
necessity
has
brightened
their
intellects
,
enlarged
their
powers
,
and
hardened
their
hearts
.
And
looking
across
space
with
instruments
,
and
intelligences
such
as
we
have
scarcely
dreamed
of
,
they
see
,
at
its
nearest
distance
only
35,000,000
of
miles
sunward
of
them
,
a
morning
star
of
hope
,
our
own
warmer
planet
,
green
with
vegetation
and
grey
with
water
,
with
a
cloudy
atmosphere
eloquent
of
fertility
,
with
glimpses
through
its
drifting
cloud
wisps
of
broad
stretches
of
populous
country
and
narrow
,
navycrowded
seas
.
And
we
men
,
the
creatures
who
inhabit
this
earth
,
must
be
to
them
at
least
as
alien
and
lowly
as
are
the
monkeys
and
lemurs
to
us
.
The
intellectual
side
of
man
already
admits
that
life
is
an
incessant
struggle
for
existence
,
and
it
would
seem
that
this
too
is
the
belief
of
the
minds
upon
Mars
.
Their
world
is
far
gone
in
its
cooling
and
this
world
is
still
crowded
with
life
,
but
crowded
only
with
what
they
regard
as
inferior
animals
.
To
carry
warfare
sunward
is
,
indeed
,
their
only
escape
from
the
destruction
that
,
generation
after
generation
,
creeps
upon
them
.
And
before
we
judge
of
them
too
harshly
we
must
remember
what
ruthless
and
utter
destruction
our
own
species
has
wrought
,
not
only
upon
animals
,
such
as
the
vanished
bison
and
the
dodo
,
but
upon
its
inferior
races
.
The
Tasmanians
,
in
spite
of
their
human
likeness
,
were
entirely
swept
out
of
existence
in
a
war
of
extermination
waged
by
European
immigrants
,
in
the
space
of
fifty
years
.
Are
we
such
apostles
of
mercy
as
to
complain
if
the
Martians
warred
in
the
same
spirit
?
The
Martians
seem
to
have
calculated
their
descent
with
amazing
subtlety
--
their
mathematical
learning
is
evidently
far
in
excess
of
ours
--
and
to
have
carried
out
their
preparations
with
a
well-nigh
perfect
unanimity
.
Had
our
instruments
permitted
it
,
we
might
have
seen
the
gathering
trouble
far
back
in
the
nineteenth
century
.
Men
like
Schiaparelli
watched
the
red
planet
--
it
is
odd
,
by-the-bye
,
that
for
count
-
less
centuries
Mars
has
been
the
star
of
war
--
but
failed
to
interpret
the
fluctuating
appearances
of
the
markings
they
mapped
so
well
.
All
that
time
the
Martians
must
have
been
getting
ready
.
During
the
opposition
of
1894
a
great
light
was
seen
on
the
illuminated
part
of
the
disk
,
first
at
the
Lick
Observatory
,
then
by
Perrotin
of
Nice
,
and
then
by
other
observers
.
English
readers
heard
of
it
first
in
the
issue
of
NATURE
dated
August
2
.
I
am
inclined
to
think
that
this
blaze
may
have
been
the
casting
of
the
huge
gun
,
in
the
vast
pit
sunk
into
their
planet
,
from
which
their
shots
were
fired
at
us
.
Peculiar
markings
,
as
yet
unexplained
,
were
seen
near
the
site
of
that
outbreak
during
the
next
two
oppositions
.
The
storm
burst
upon
us
six
years
ago
now
.
As
Mars
approached
opposition
,
Lavelle
of
Java
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
he
had
at
once
resorted
,
indicated
a
mass
of
flaming
gas
,
chiefly
hydrogen
,
moving
with
an
enormous
velocity
towards
this
earth
.
This
jet
of
fire
had
become
invisible
about
a
quarter
past
twelve
.
He
compared
it
to
a
colossal
puff
of
flame
suddenly
and
violently
squirted
out
of
the
planet
,
'
as
flaming
gases
rushed
out
of
a
gun
.
'
