Excerpt from War of the Worlds

H.G. Wells

The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtlety—their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours—and to have carried out their preparations with a well-nigh perfect unanimity. Had our instruments permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century. Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet—it is odd, by the way, that for countless centuries Mars has been the star of war—but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so well. All that time the Martians must have been getting ready.

In the excerpt above, what is the author’s tone toward the scientists of Earth?

In the excerpt from War of the Worlds, Wells talks about how Martians attack Earth when people, scientists, leaders are all busy and unaware of the situation they must face ahead. He ridicules every one of us of Earth stating that our knowledge, wisdom and education is very less when compared to that of Martians.

In these lines, he says that their calculations of attack, take-over and preparation has started long before we even thought of the word, war. He says that their abilities and practice of those abilities to improve started way before we did. This is our disadvantage and world is now like Martian red weed, is what he says (after the war).