CHAPTER VIII.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.
This little volume has necessarily touched upon a great variety of subjects, in order to deal in a tolerably complete manner with the very extraordinary theories by which Mr.Lowell attempts to explain the unique features of the surface of the planet, which, by long-continued study, he has almost made his own.

It may therefore be well to sum up the main points of the arguments against his view, introducing a few other facts and considerations which greatly strengthen my argument.
The one great feature of Mars which led Mr.Lowell to adopt the view of its being inhabited by a race of highly intelligent beings, and, with ever-increasing discovery to uphold this theory to the present time, is undoubtedly that of the so-called 'canals'-- their straightness, their enormous length, their great abundance, and their extension over the planet's whole surface from one polar snow-cap to the other.

The very immensity of this system, and its constant growth and extension during fifteen years of persistent observation, have so completely taken possession of his mind, that, after a very hasty glance at analogous facts and possibilities, he has declared them to be 'non-natural'-- therefore to be works of art--therefore to necessitate the presence of highly intelligent beings who have designed and constructed them.

This idea has coloured or governed all his writings on the subject.

The innumerable difficulties which it raises have been either ignored, or brushed aside on the flimsiest evidence.