My knowledge of astronomy not being profound, it has been the greatest pleasure and gratification to me to verify, by my own observations, the calculations and theories of the abler scientists. Appertaining to Mars, it is perhaps needless to say that there is a diversity of opinion among astronomers touching its physical conditions. The unusual red color of its reflected light, its bright and dark spots, and the variation which is observed in the forms overspreading its disc, are differently accounted for. It is among such questions as these, then, that my imagination and ingenuity are free to exercise themselves, and the desire to settle some of these disputed points to my own satisfaction increases the eagerness of my observation. I have watched for many years, with anticipations of pleasure, when Mars would be in opposition,--or in other words, when, during its revolution upon its orbit, it comes nearest to the Earth. These occurrences of about every two years are holidays of pleasure and enjoyment to me. There are, however, rarer oppositions of Mars, which occur only twice in a century, when the distance between us is reduced to the smallest limit; and it has been my good fortune to get a finer view of this heavenly body at this shorter distance than will few human beings at present alive. It can well be imagined what a supremely interesting event this was to me. Days before its culmination did I watch its progress approaching nearer and nearer to the Earth. Each succeeding night exhibited to me its slowly magnifying proportions, and the greater distinctness of objects on its surface. Here was a world of beings, no doubt, with aims and enterprises like ours, rolling headlong through the heavens with a known velocity of fifty-four thousand miles an hour. This planet was now approaching, hourly, its greatest possible proximity to the Earth. That I should lose no time in devouring, as I may say, this unusual spectacle, I had provided my telescope with a kind of clockwork contrivance, by which it exactly kept pace with Mars on its westward course. During these few days, I had forgotten everything else in my eagerness to feast my eyes on this rare show. The nights had been favorable to observation; and each evening after turning my instrument on the rapidly approaching planet, my interest became so transfixed and absorbed that all my ordinary physical wants were suppressed. I had lost in these few days of mental excitement all inclination for food and sleep. No one could be freer from superstition than I, yet my mind was uneasy under an unaccountable premonition. It gave some anxiety to think that on the very night of culmination, when my interest would be at its height, a change of weather might cut off the scene. But aside from this, in my somewhat feverish condition, I could not restrain a sense of some impending and momentous event in my personal affairs. Some strange influence seemed to be disturbing the usual tranquil and