t is so;
and, as you are aware, sir, I am a living witness of the truth of what I
say.

"You know I once lived upon the earth. I died; or, as I prefer to say, I
'passed' from thence, and was born again upon Mars. Some day I must also
pass from here; whither I know not, but to another life in some other
world; and the Great Father of All will provide for me!

"There are many other planets which are worlds capable of sustaining
life at the present time, or which will develop into such worlds. Some
of them, which we can see, are planets belonging to our own solar
system, but doubtless there are myriads of planets which revolve round
those millions of distant suns which we call fixed stars. If we have
made good use of our talents and opportunities for development we shall
no doubt pass to a world where that development may be continued on a
higher plane. If, however, we have made bad use of them, it is possible
that we may have to purge ourselves by a life on a planet where the
conditions are the reverse of pleasant; and so on through eternity, each
rising to a higher and higher plane according to the manner in which he
has worked out his own salvation.

"Amongst those myriads of planets, probably there is not one which is
identical in all respects with any other, and there must be an infinity
of variety; some excelling to an incalculable extent the conditions of
our present world, and others where the conditions are very much worse!"

"Yes, Merna," I replied. "There are some upon our world who hold very
similar ideas, notably a great French astronomer named Flammarion; but
in his view only those who have developed their intelligence in the
proper direction will pass to other worlds and enjoy what he terms the
_Uranian_ life.

"I may also say," I proceeded, "with reference to your remarks
respecting the infinite variety of planetary worlds and of their
conditions, that one of our great poets has stated the matter very
logically, for he says:

'This truth within thy mind rehearse,
That, in a boundless universe,
Is boundless better, boundless worse.'"

"Sir," said Merna, "that is really very much as a Martian would state
the case; and what I have told you is our faith, our hope, and our
certainty."

As we passed along on the area outside the grove we noticed that the
vegetation bordering the outermost canal did not show a mathematically
straight edge as the canal lines do when seen by us through our
telescop