“You see I have not been educated under any of your habits, customs, practices and prejudices. It is therefore very likely that I see things and acts which appear cruel, wrong, superstitious, and even barbarous to me, which seem all right, kind and humane to you, because you have been educated and raised to them, and have, therefore, perhaps never given them a fair impartial thought, a thorough analysis.” “When I first looked around, and as I gradually acquired more and more information about terrestrial affairs, some things seemed perfectly familiar. The land and the water, the hills and the valleys, light and darkness, heat and cold, growth and decay, hunger and thirst, pleasure and pain, all seemed to be familiar to me. Water sought its level. The green grass covered the earth and was kissed by the dewdrop and the rain; the lofty trees were dressed in verdant foliage and spread their boughs toward heaven; the gentle breeze raised the little ripples on the bosom of the lake, and sported with the green foliage and the sere leaf the same here as on Mars. “The flight of the bird, the walking of the beast, eating, drinking, breathing, moving, and the reproduction of organisms were nothing new to me. They were, under similar conditions, exactly identical with ours on Mars. “The rain and the snow, the thunder and lightning, the changes of the seasons, the germination and growth of plants, the laws that govern animal and vegetable life are the same here as they are in my native world, and we have no reason to believe that they are different on a single one of the countless heavenly bodies of the universe. “Mars produces coal, iron, natural gas, and the other minerals and metals in the same abundance and proportion as the earth does. The chemical compounds are composed of the same elements and in the same proportion. The water, under the same condition, turns the wheel of toil and drowns the innocent babe there, as here. “In fact, I find no difference in things, and in the relations of things here, and in those of Mars, except in the scientific, social and industrial worlds. In these fields, however, I find vast differences; differences so great and so grand that I fear I shall be able to give you but a faint idea of them. I notice in your current literature and political economy that not a few of your foremost and well-meaning economists and sociologists have endeavored to dream out, instead of working out, a suitable and higher order of things for the people on earth. But I believe that I can safely say that the reality of the social and industrial systems of Mars far surpass all imaginary Utopias dreamed of by mundane beings. The truth of our world in these directions exceeds the wildest romance that was ever penned by your most extravagant novelists.