Other Tongues Other Flesh

Excerpt

Before the eyes of Milton's Satan peering into Chaos appeared a new expanse, another vast illimitable ocean without bounds--the distances of interstellar space; and for a moment Satan was appalled by Chaos and by space. So it is with modern man as he discovers new worlds like his own in the heavens about him . . . .

The world has not let the theme of cosmic voyage willingly die, whether in poetry and fantasy, in satire or seriousness, in the pulps or in the comics. There has been the growing realization of the possibility of other universes than ours, a plurality of worlds, even an infinity of worlds. We have become more fully aware of the insignificance of both our satellite, the Moon, and this rather small planet, the Earth. Man began to think that if Life possibly did not exist on other planets in this system perhaps it would be found in other universes.

The idea that earthbound man may someday journey into the heavens to discover other men and women, like or unlike himself, seems to be a conception the world persists in entertaining. From the time of Lucian it has existed in European literature. Why the appeal of this perennial theme? Is it curiosity? Is it humility? Is it perhaps a result of the essential loneliness of man? Is it because within man's soul lies the truth--that mortals exist on other spheres?

From a fanciful vision of other worlds where all is beautiful and good and just, we come back in somber mood to Earth which seems indeed a sad and silent planet. Man on Earth knows in his heart that other worlds are also inhabited, but he is reluctant to admit even to himself that Earth is only one small house of the many mansions in the Father's House; and worse, that she is a fallen house; a disobedient house; a wayward house.

In 1867, Matthew Arnold described the Earth well when he said: ". . . a darkling plain, swept with con-fused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night."

The people of Earth today are either confused, amused, or simply terrified by the reports of Unidentified Flying Objects and various types of extraterrestrial space craft seen in the skies and detected under the seas. If they accept the theory that life exists on other worlds besides our own, they cannot believe anything but stories of monsters, robots, sinister vegetables, or armies of evil, invading, mechanical Frankensteins.

Many people today are asking: "If spacemen are here, why don't they land and contact our leaders? Why don't they explain their mission?" Did these same individuals ever stop to think that no sane Earthman would descend into a pit of crawling rattlesnakes? With all Earth's strife, with bloody wars that carry thousands of men, women and children to slaughter worse than any Circus of Nero or Medieval Inquisition, is it any wonder that spacemen have not landed here?

However, these brothers from outer space have landed here, and they have contacted those whom they knew would receive them in the spirit of brotherly love and truth. It is now reliably reported that over one-hundred personal contacts have been made between Earthmen and Saucer occupants. They sought and seek those who have been looking for them. This is what they mean when they say: "We do not choose you; you choose us!"

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