Publisher's Synopsis
No one would have believed in the last years of thenineteenth century that this world was being watched keenlyand closely by intelligences greater than man‟s and yet asmortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about theirvarious concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhapsalmost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinisethe transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop ofwater. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over thisglobe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of theirempire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under themicroscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the olderworlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of themonly to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible orimprobable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits ofthose departed days.
