2/6/12 The War of the Worlds: Book 1, Chapter 1, The Eve of the War

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The War of the Worlds
b H. G. Wells
Book One
The Coming of the Martians
Chaper One
The Eve of the War
But who shall dwell in these worlds if the be inhabited? . . .
Are we or the Lords of the World? . . .
And how are all things made for man?--
Kepler (ed i The Anatom of Melanchol)
N e d hae beieed i he a ea f he ieeeh ce ha hi
d a beig ached ee ad ce b ieigece geae ha a'
ad e a a a hi ; ha a e bied heee ab hei ai
cce he ee ciied ad died, eha a a a a a a
ih a icce igh ciie he aie ceae ha a ad i
i a d f ae. Wih ifiie cacec e e ad f e hi gbe
ab hei ie affai, eee i hei aace f hei eie e ae. I i
ibe ha he ifia de he icce d he ae. N e gae a
hgh he de d f ace a ce f ha dage, hgh f
he dii he idea f ife he a iibe ibabe. I i
ci eca e f he ea habi f he deaed da. A
eeia e facied hee igh be he e Ma, eha ifei
heee ad ead ece a iia eeie. Ye ac he gf f
ace, id ha ae id a ae he f he bea ha eih,
ieec a ad c ad aheic, egaded hi eah ih ei ee,
ad ad e de hei a agai . Ad ea i he eieh
ce cae he gea diiie.
The ae Ma, I cace eed eid he eade, ee ab he a a
ea diace f 140,000,000 ie, ad he igh ad hea i eceie f he
i bae haf f ha eceied b hi d. I be, if he eba
hhei ha a h, de ha d; ad g befe hi eah ceaed
be e, ife i face hae beg i ce. The fac ha i i
cace e eeh f he e f he eah hae acceeaed i cig
he eeae a hich ife cd begi. I ha ai ad ae ad a ha i
ecea f he f aiaed eiece.
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Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end
oI the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent liIe might have
developed there Iar, 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 oI the
superIicial area and remoter Irom the sun, it necessarily Iollows that it is not only
more distant Irom time's beginning but nearer its end.
The secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has already gone Iar
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 oI our coldest winter. Its air is much more attenuated than ours,
its oceans have shrunk until they cover but a third oI its surIace, and as its slow
seasons change huge snowcaps gather and melt about either pole and periodically
inundate its temperate zones. That last stage oI exhaustion, which to us is still
incredibly remote, has become a present-day problem Ior the inhabitants oI Mars.
The immediate pressure oI 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 oI, they see, at its nearest
distance only 35,000,000 oI miles sunward oI them, a morning star oI hope, our
own warmer planet, green with vegetation and grey with water, with a cloudy
atmosphere eloquent oI Iertility, with glimpses through its driIting cloud wisps oI
broad stretches oI populous country and narrow, navy-crowded 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 oI man
already admits that liIe is an incessant struggle Ior existence, and it would seem
that this too is the belieI oI the minds upon Mars. Their world is Iar gone in its
cooling and this world is still crowded with liIe, but crowded only with what they
regard as inIerior animals. To carry warIare sunward is, indeed, their only escape
Irom the destruction that, generation aIter generation, creeps upon them.
And beIore we judge oI 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 inIerior races. The Tasmanians, in spite
oI their human likeness, were entirely swept out oI existence in a war oI
extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space oI IiIty years. Are we
such apostles oI mercy as to complain iI the Martians warred in the same spirit?
The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtlety--their
mathematical learning is evidently Iar in excess oI ours--and to have carried out
their preparations with a well-nigh perIect unanimity. Had our instruments
permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble Iar back in the nineteenth
century. Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet--it is odd, by-the-bye, that
Ior countless centuries Mars has been the star oI war--but Iailed to interpret the
Iluctuating appearances oI the markings they mapped so well. All that time the
Martians must have been getting ready.
During the opposition oI 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part oI the
disk, Iirst at the Lick Observatory, then by Perrotin oI Nice, and then by other
observers. English readers heard oI it Iirst in the issue oI Nare dated August 2. I
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am inclined to think that this blaze may have been the casting oI the huge gun, in
the vast pit sunk into their planet, Irom which their shots were Iired at us. Peculiar
markings, as yet unexplained, were seen near the site oI that outbreak during the
next two oppositions.
The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached opposition,
Lavelle oI Java set the wires oI the astronomical exchange palpitating with the
amazing intelligence oI a huge outbreak oI incandescent gas upon the planet. It had
occurred towards midnight oI the twelIth; and the spectroscope, to which he had
at once resorted, indicated a mass oI Ilaming gas, chieIly hydrogen, moving with
an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet oI Iire had become invisible
about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puII oI Ilame suddenly
and violently squirted out oI the planet, "as Ilaming gases rushed out oI a gun."
A singularly appropriate phrase it proved. Yet the next day there was nothing oI
this in the papers except a little note in the Dail Telegraph, and the world went
in ignorance oI one oI the gravest dangers that ever threatened the human race. I
might not have heard oI the eruption at all had I not met Ogilvy, the well-known
astronomer, at Ottershaw. He was immensely excited at the news, and in the
excess oI his Ieelings invited me up to take a turn with him that night in a scrutiny
oI the red planet.
In spite oI all that has happened since, I still remember that vigil very distinctly: the
black and silent observatory, the shadowed lantern throwing a Ieeble glow upon
the Iloor in the corner, the steady ticking oI the clockwork oI the telescope, the
little slit in the rooI--an oblong proIundity with the stardust streaked across it.
Ogilvy moved about, invisible but audible. Looking through the telescope, one
saw a circle oI deep blue and the little round planet swimming in the Iield. It
seemed such a little thing, so bright and small and still, Iaintly marked with
transverse stripes, and slightly Ilattened Irom the perIect round. But so little it was,
so silvery warm--a pin's-head oI light! It was as iI it quivered, but really this was
the telescope vibrating with the activity oI the clockwork that kept the planet in
view.
As I watched, the planet seemed to grow larger and smaller and to advance and
recede, but that was simply that my eye was tired. Forty millions oI miles it was
Irom us--more than Iorty millions oI miles oI void. Few people realise the
immensity oI vacancy in which the dust oI the material universe swims. Near it in
the Iield, I remember, were three Iaint points oI light, three telescopic stars
inIinitely remote, and all around it was the unIathomable darkness oI empty space.
You know how that blackness looks on a Irosty starlight night. In a telescope it
seems Iar proIounder. And invisible to me because it was so remote and small,
Ilying swiItly and steadily towards me across that incredible distance, drawing
nearer every minute by so many thousands oI miles, came the Thing they were
sending us, the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to
the earth. I never dreamed oI it then as I watched; no one on earth dreamed oI
that unerring missile.
That night, too, there was another jetting out oI gas Irom the distant planet. I saw
it. A reddish Ilash at the edge, the slightest projection oI the outline just as the
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chonomee ck midnigh; and a ha I old Ogil and he ook m place. The
nigh a am and I a hi, and I en eching m leg clmil and
feeling m a in he dakne, o he lile able hee he iphon ood, hile
Ogil eclaimed a he eame of ga ha came o oad .
Tha nigh anohe iniible miile aed on i a o he eah fom Ma, j a
econd o o nde en-fo ho afe he fi one. I emembe ho I a on
he able hee in he blackne, ih pache of geen and cimon imming
befoe m ee. I ihed I had a ligh o moke b, lile pecing he meaning of
he mine gleam I had een and all ha i old peenl bing me. Ogil
ached ill one, and hen gae i p; and e li he lanen and alked oe o hi
hoe. Don belo in he dakne ee Oeha and Chee and all hei
hnded of people, leeping in peace.
He a fll of peclaion ha nigh abo he condiion of Ma, and coffed a
he lga idea of i haing inhabian ho ee ignalling . Hi idea a ha
meeoie migh be falling in a hea hoe pon he plane, o ha a hge
olcanic eploion a in poge. He poined o o me ho nlikel i a ha
oganic eolion had aken he ame diecion in he o adjacen plane.
"The chance again anhing manlike on Ma ae a million o one," he aid.
Hnded of obee a he flame ha nigh and he nigh afe abo midnigh,
and again he nigh afe; and o fo en nigh, a flame each nigh. Wh he ho
ceaed afe he enh no one on eah ha aemped o eplain. I ma be he
gae of he fiing caed he Maian inconenience. Dene clod of moke o
d, iible hogh a poefl elecope on eah a lile ge, flcaing
pache, pead hogh he cleane of he plane' amophee and obced i
moe familia feae.
Een he dail pape oke p o he dibance a la, and popla noe
appeaed hee, hee, and eehee concening he olcanoe pon Ma. The
eiocomic peiodical Pnch, I emembe, made a happ e of i in he poliical
caoon. And, all npeced, hoe miile he Maian had fied a de
eahad, hing no a a pace of man mile a econd hogh he emp glf
of pace, ho b ho and da b da, neae and neae. I eem o me no
almo incedibl ondefl ha, ih ha if fae hanging oe , men cold go
abo hei pe concen a he did. I emembe ho jbilan Makham a a
ecing a ne phoogaph of he plane fo he illaed pape he edied in hoe
da. People in hee lae ime cacel ealie he abndance and enepie of
o nineeenh-cen pape. Fo m on pa, I a mch occpied in leaning
o ide he biccle, and b pon a eie of pape dicing he pobable
deelopmen of moal idea a ciiliaion pogeed.
One nigh (he fi miile hen cold cacel hae been 10,000,000 mile aa)
I en fo a alk ih m ife. I a aligh and I eplained he Sign of he
Zodiac o he, and poined o Ma, a bigh do of ligh ceeping enihad,
oad hich o man elecope ee poined. I a a am nigh. Coming
home, a pa of ecioni fom Chee o Ileoh paed inging and
plaing mic. Thee ee ligh in he ppe indo of he hoe a he people
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went to bed. From the railwa station in the distance came the sound of shunting
trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melod b the distance. M wife
pointed out to me the brightness of the red, green, and ellow signal lights hanging
in a framework against the sk. It seemed so safe and tranquil.

Web edition edited b John Walker