Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune. English
Page 7
CHAPTER IV.
_Of how at last he set out again for the Moon, tho without his ownWill._
Next Day, and the Days following, we had some Discourses to the samepurpose: But some time after, since the hurry of Affairs suspended ourPhilosophy, I fell afresh upon the design of mounting up to the Moon.
So soon as she was up, I walked about musing in the Woods, how I mightmanage and succeed in my Enterprise; and at length on St. John's[1]Eve, when they were at Council in the Fort, whether they should assistthe Wild Natives of the Country against the _Iroqueans_; I went allalone to the top of a little Hill at the back of our Habitation, whereI put in Practice what you shall hear. I had made a Machine which Ifancied might carry me up as high as I pleased, so that nothing seemingto be wanting to it, I placed my self within, and from the Top of aRock threw my self in the Air: But because I had not taken my measuresaright, I fell with a sosh in the Valley below.
Bruised as I was, however, I returned to my Chamber without loosingcourage, and with Beef-Marrow I anointed my Body, for I was all overmortified from Head to Foot: Then having taken a dram of Cordial Watersto strengthen my Heart, I went back to look for my Machine; but I couldnot find it, for some Soldiers, that had been sent into the Forest tocut wood for a Bonnefire, meeting with it by chance, had carried itwith them to the Fort: Where after a great deal of guessing what itmight be, when they had discovered the invention of the Spring, somesaid, that a good many Fire-Works should be fastened to it, becausetheir Force carrying them up on high, and the Machine playing its largeWings, no Body but would take it for a Fiery Dragon. In the mean timeI was long in search of it, but found it at length in the Market-placeof Kebeck (Quebec), just as they were setting Fire to it. I was sotransported with Grief, to find the Work of my Hands in so great Peril,that I ran to the Souldier that was giving Fire to it, caught hold ofhis Arm, pluckt the Match out of his Hand, and in great rage threwmy self into my Machine, that I might undo the Fire-Works that theyhad stuck about it; but I came too late, for hardly were both my Feetwithin, when whip, away went I up in a Cloud.
The Horror and Consternation I was in did not so confound the facultiesof my Soul, but I have since remembered all that happened to me at thatinstant. For so soon as the Flame had devoured one tier of Squibs,which were ranked by six and six, by means of a Train that reachedevery half-dozen, another tier went off, and then another;[2] so thatthe Salt-Peter taking Fire, put off the danger by encreasing it.However, all the combustible matter being spent, there was a period putto the Fire-work; and whilst I thought of nothing less than to knockmy Head against the top of some Mountain, I felt, without the leaststirring, my elevation continuing; and adieu Machine, for I saw it falldown again towards the Earth.
CYRANO en route FOR THE MOON.--From a 17th CenturyEngraving.]
That extraordinary Adventure puffed up my Heart with so uncommon aGladness; that, ravished to see my self delivered from certain danger,I had the impudence to philosophize upon it. Whilst then with Eyes andThought I cast about to find what might be the cause of it, I perceivedmy flesh blown up, and still greasy with the Marrow, that I had daubedmy self over with for the Bruises of my fall: I knew that the Moonbeing then in the Wain, and that it being usual for her in that Quarterto suck up the Marrow of Animals, she drank up that wherewith I wasanointed, with so much the more force that her Globe was nearer to me,and that no interposition of Clouds weakened her Attraction.[3]
When I had, according to the computation I made since, advanced a gooddeal more than three quarters of the space that divided the Earth fromthe Moon; all of a sudden I fell with my Heels up and Head down, thoughI had made no Trip; and indeed, I had not been sensible of it, had notI felt my Head loaded under the weight of my Body: The truth is, I knewvery well that I was not falling again towards our World; for though Ifound my self to be betwixt two Moons, and easily observed, that thenearer I drew to the one, the farther I removed from the other; yet Iwas certain, that ours was the bigger Globe of the two: Because afterone or two days Journey, the remote Refractions of the Sun, confoundingthe diversity of Bodies and Climates, it appeared to me only as alarge Plate of Gold: That made me imagine, that I byassed[4] towardsthe Moon; and I was confirmed in that Opinion, when I began to call tomind, that I did not fall till I was past three quarters of the way.For, said I to my self, that Mass being less than ours, the Sphere ofits Activity must be of less Extent also; and by consequence, it waslater before I felt the force of its Center.
[1] The Feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24.
[2] _Cf_. the play of _Cyrano de Bergerac_, act III., scene xi.:"Or else, mechanic as well as artificer, I could have fashioned agiant grasshopper, with steel joints, which, impelled by successiveexplosions of saltpetre, would have hopped with me to the azure meadowswhere graze the starry flocks."
[3] _Cf_., in the play, the fifth of Cyrano's means for scaling thesky: "Since Phoebe, the moon-goddess, when she is at wane, is greedy, Obeeves! of your marrow,... with that marrow have besmeared myself!"
[4] The translator has apparently misread _biaisais_ where the Frencheditions have _baissais_: _i.e._, I _was descending_ toward the moon.