Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune. English
Page 16
CHAPTER XIII.
_Of the little Animals that make up our Life, and likewise cause ourDiseases; and of the Disposition of the Towns in the Moon._
During all this Discourse, I made Signs to my Landlord, that he wouldtry if he could oblige the Philosophers to fall upon some head of theScience which they professed. He was too much my Friend, not to startan Occasion upon the Spot: But not to trouble the Reader with theDiscourse and Entreaties that were previous to the Treaty, wherein Jestand Earnest were so wittily interwoven, that it can hardly be imitated;I'll only tell you that the Doctor, who came last, after many things,spake as follows:
"It remains to be proved, that there are infinite Worlds, in aninfinite World: Fancy to your self then the Universe as a great Animal;and that the Stars, which are Worlds, are in this great Animal, asother great Animals that serve reciprocally for Worlds to otherPeoples; such as we, our Horses, &c. That we in our turns, arelikewise Worlds to certain other Animals, incomparably less than ourselves, such as Nits, Lice, Hand-worms, &c. And that these are anEarth to others, more imperceptible ones; in the same manner as everyone of us appears to be a great World to these little People. Perhapsour Flesh, Blood, and Spirits, are nothing else but a Contexture oflittle Animals[1] that correspond, lend us Motion from theirs, andblindly suffer themselves to be guided by our Will which is theirCoachman; or otherwise conduct us, and all Conspiring together, producethat Action which we call Life.
"For tell me, pray, is it a hard thing to be believed, that a Lousetakes your Body for a World; and that when any one of them travelsfrom one of your Ears to the other, his Companions say, that he hathtravelled the Earth from end to end, or that he hath run from onePole to the other? Yes, without doubt, those little People take yourHair for the Forests of their Country; the Pores full of Liquor, forFountains; Buboes and Pimples, for Lakes and Ponds; Boils, for Seas;and Defluxions, for Deluges: And when you Comb your self, forwards, andbackwards, they take that Agitation for the Flowing and Ebbing of theOcean. Doth not Itching make good what I say? What is the little Wormthat causes it but one of these little Animals, which hath broken offfrom civil Society, that it may set up for a Tyrant in its Country? Ifyou ask me, why are they bigger than other imperceptible Creatures? Iask you, why are Elephants bigger than we? And the _Irish_-men, than_Spaniards_?
"As to the Blisters, and Scurff, which you know not the Cause of;they must either happen by the Corruption of their Enemies, whichthese little Blades have killed, or which the Plague has caused by thescarcity of Food, for which the Seditious worried one another[2] andleft Mountains of Dead Carcases rotting in the Field; or because theTyrant, having driven away on all Hands his Companions, who by theirBodies stopt up the Pores of ours, hath made way out for the waterishmatter, which being extravasted out of the Sphere of the Circulationof our Blood, is corrupted. It may be asked, perhaps, why a Nit, orHand-worm, produces so many disorders: But that's easily conceived,for as one Revolt begets another, so these little People, egg'd on bythe bad Example of their Seditious Companions, aspire severally toSovereign Command; and occasion every where War, Slaughter, and Famine.
"But you'll say, some are far less subject to Itching than others;and, nevertheless, all are equally inhabited by these little Animals,since you say they are the Cause of our Life. That's true; for weobserve, that Phlegmatick People are not so much given to scratching asthe Cholerick; because the People sympathizing with the Climate theyinhabit, are slower in a cold Body, than those others that are heatedby the temper of their Region, who frisk and stir, and cannot rest ina place: Thus a Cholerick Man is more delicate than a Phlegmatick;because being animated in many more Parts, and the Soul being theAction of these little Beasts, he is capable of Feeling in allplaces where these Cattle stir. Whereas the Phlegmatick Man, wantingsufficient Heat to put that stirring Mobile in Action, is sensible butin a few places.
"To prove more plainly that universal _Vermicularity_, you need butconsider, when you are wounded, how the Blood runs to the Sore: YourDoctors say that it is guided by provident Nature, who would succourthe parts debilitated; which might make us conclude, that, besides theSoul and Mind, there were a third intellectual Substance, that haddistinct Organs and Functions: And therefore, it seems to me far moreRational to say, That these little Animals finding themselves attackedsend to demand Assistance from their Neighbours, and thus, Recruitsflocking in from all Parts and the Country being too little to containso many, they either die of Hunger or We stifled in the Press. ThatMortality happens when the Boil is ripe; for as an Argument that theseAnimals at that time are stifled, the Flesh becomes insensible: Now,if Blood-letting, which is many times ordered to divert the Fluxion,do any good, it is because, much being lost by the Orifice which theselittle Animals laboured to stop, they refuse their Allies Assistance,having no more Forces than is enough to defend themselves at home."
Thus he concluded, and when the second Philosopher perceived by all ourLooks that we longed to hear him speak in his turn:
"Men," said he, "seeing you are curious to instruct this littleAnimal, (our like), in somewhat of the Science which we profess, I amnow dictating a Treatise which I wish he might see, because of theLight it gives to the Understanding of our Natural Philosophy; it isan Explication of the Original[3] of the World: But seeing I am inhaste to set my Bellows at work, (for to Morrow, without delay, theTown departs;) I hope you'll excuse my want of time, and I promise tosatisfie you as soon as the Town is arrived at the place whither it isto go."
[Sidenote: Towns in the Moon]
At these words, the Landlord's Son called his Father, to know whatit was a Clock? who having answered him, that it was past Eight, heasked him in a great Rage, Why he did not give him notice at Seven,according as he had commanded him; that he knew well enough the Houseswere to be gone to Morrow; and that the City Walls were already upontheir Journey? "Son," replyed the good Man, "since you sate down toTable, there is an Order published, That no House shall budg beforenext day:" "That's all one," answered the young Man; "you ought blindlyto obey, not to examine my Orders, and only remember what I commandedyou. Quick, go fetch me your Effigies:" So soon as it was brought, hetook hold on't by the Arm, and Whipt it a whole quarter of an Hour:"Away you ne'er be good," continued he; "as a Punishment for yourdisobedience, it's my Will and Pleasure, that this day you serve fora Laughing-stock to all People; and therefore I command you, not towalk but upon two Legs, till Night." The Poor Man went out in a verymournful Condition, and the Young man excused to us his Passion.
I had much ado, though I bit my Lip, to forbear Laughing at so pleasanta Punishment; and therefore to take me off of this odd piece ofPedantick Discipline, which, without doubt, would have made, me burstout at last; I prayed my Philosopher to tell me what he meant by thatJourney of the Town he talked of, and if the Houses and Walls Travelled?
"Dear Stranger," answered he, "we have some Ambulatory Towns, and someSedentary; the Ambulatory, as for instance this wherein now we are, areBuilt in this manner: The Architector, as you see, builds every Palaceof a very light sort of Timber; supported by four Wheels underneath; inthe thickness of one of the Walls he places ten large pair of Bellows,whose Snouts pass in a Horizontal Line through the upper Story, fromone Pinacle to the other; so that when Towns are to be removed from oneplace to another, (for according to the Seasons they change the Air)every one spreads a great many Sails upon one side of the House, beforethe Noses of the Bellows; then having wound up a Spring to make themplay, in less than Eight days time their Houses, by the continual Puffswhich these Windy Monsters blow, are driven, if one pleases, an HundredLeagues and more.
"For those which we call Sedentary, they are almost like to yourTowers; save that they are of Timber, and that they have a Great andStrong Skrew or Vice in the Middle, reaching from the top to theBottom; whereby they may be hoisted up or let down as People please.Now the Ground under neath is dugg as deep as the House is high; and itis so ordered, that so soon as the Frosts begin to chill the Air, theymay sink their H
ouses down under Ground, where they keep themselvessecure from the Severity of the Weather: But as soon as the gentleBreathings of the Spring begin to soften and qualifie the Air; theyraise them above Ground again, by means of the great Skrew I told youof."
[1] This and the following paragraphs appear to be an anticipation ofthe microbe theory.
[2] Fr., "dont les Seditieux se sont gorges"--with which the rebelshave filled their bellies.
[3] Cf. p. 95, n. 1.