“Yes; we have but one language now. Ages ago we had many, just like you have; but as the families, the tribes and the nations coalesced more and more, and as intercommunication improved, languages became fewer and fewer until there was but one left. The survival of the fittest antiquated all but one. A person can now go all over Mars and speak the same language.” “How, Mr. Midith, did you acquire and develop the knowledge which enabled you to visit the earth?” I asked. “You recollect that the moons of Mars are very near her surface; the nearest one is less than 4,000 miles distant. You also recollect that the specific gravity and the force of gravity are less on Mars than they are on earth. Under these conditions, a body can be projected with less force from the surface of Mars than it can be projected from the surface of the earth. So we first practiced to project bodies to Mars’ moons, then we increased the power of our projectile and directed it to the earth, which is our nearest older planet.” “How many of our days did you say, Mr. Midith, the Marsian year contains?” asked Viola. “About 687 days,” replied Mr. Midith. “That is a long year,” said Mr. Uwins. “A person requires a great deal of food and clothing during such a long year; but he can also do a correspondingly great amount of work. Can the land, under those conditions, support as dense a population on Mars as we can here?” “As far as I can ascertain,” replied Mr. Midith, “a square mile of land on Mars, under the same degree of civilization, can support just as many persons as a square mile on earth can support. The amount of nutriment, the productiveness of the soil, the durability of things, the longevity, and the labor expended in producing them, are related in exactly the same proportion as we find them here on earth. The year is longer, the food more nutritious, the clothing and other things more lasting, the soil more fertile, and more time for growth and cultivation during the long Marsian year; so that an acre of land can support as much and no more life during the same geologic age than the earth can. These facts we always want to bear in mind when we speak hereafter of the social and industrial problems of Mars.” “Is it not a grand, imposing sight for a Marsite to behold the swiftly moving little moons revolve around Mars so rapidly that the inner one, called by our astronomers, _Phobus_, completes its orbital revolution in seven hours and thirty-eight minutes, and appears to rise in the _West_ instead of the _East_!” exclaimed Mr. Uwins. “Yes, it is indeed a grand sight to see the one sometimes rise in the East and the other in the West, and yet both revolve around Mars in the same direction as your moon revolves around the earth.” “Where is your ‘planetary projectile’ on which you came here to our earth, Mr. Midith?” asked Roland with an air of apparent inquiry.