Project Gutenberg's The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars, by L. P. Gratacap

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Title: The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars

Author: L. P. Gratacap

Release Date: August 25, 2004 [EBook #13289]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Certainty
of a Future
Life in Mars

_Being the Posthumous Papers of_

BRADFORD TORREY DODD

EDITED BY
L.P. GRATACAP

BRENTANO'S
1903

PARIS
CHICAGO
WASHINGTON
NEW YORK

PREFACE BY EDITOR.

The extraordinary character of the story here published, which some
peculiar circumstances have fortunately, I think, put into my hands,
will excite a curiosity as vivid as the incidents of the narratives are
themselves astonishing and unprecedented. To satisfy, as far as I can, a
few natural inquiries which must be elicited by its publication, I beg
to explain how this unusual posthumous paper came into my possession.

It was written by Bradford Torrey Dodd, who died at Christ Church, New
Zealand, January, 1895, after a lingering illness in which consumption
developed, which was attributed to the exposure he had experienced in
receiving some of the wireless messages his singular history details. I
was not acquainted with Mr. Dodd, but some information, acquired since
the reception of his manuscript, has completely satisfied me, that,
however interpreted, Mr. Dodd did not intend in it the perpetration of
a hoax. His scientific ability was undoubtedly remarkable, and the facts
that his father and himself worked in an astronomical station near
Christ Church; that his father died; that his acquaintance with the
Dodans was a reality; that he did receive messages at a wireless
telegraphic station; that he himself and his assistants fully accredited
these messages to extra-terrestrial sources, are, beyond a doubt, easily
verified.

A mutual friend brought me Mr. Dodd's papers, which I looked over with
increasing amazement, culminating in blank incredulity. On rereading
them and considering the usefulness of giving them to the public, I have
been