by James Gunn
In general, the serpentine nature is predominant. For in a wonderful manner they expose themselves to the sun at noon as if for pleasure; yet they do so nowhere but behind the mouths of the caves to make sure that they may retreat safely and swiftly.
To certain of them the breath they exhaust and the life they lose on account of the heat of the day return at night; the pattern is the opposite of that governing flies among us. Scattered everywhere on the ground are objects having the shape of pine cones. Their shells are roasted during the day. In the evening when, so to say, they disclose their secrets, they beget living creatures.
Relief from the heat in the Subvolvan hemisphere is provided chiefly by the constant cloud cover and rain, which sometimes prevail over half the region or more.
When I had reached this point in my dream, a wind arose with the rattle of rain, disturbing my sleep and at the same time wiping out the end of the book acquired at Frankfurt. Therefore, leaving behind the Daemon narrator and her auditors, Duracotus the son with his mother, Fiolxhilde, as they were with their heads covered up, I returned to myself and found my head really covered with the pillow and my body with the blankets.
Commuting to the Moon
The moon always had loomed large in men’s imaginations. Today, when men have reached and explored at least a limited portion of the moon, the earth’s disproportionately large satellite has lost much of its mystery and some of its romantic appeal, but throughout most of man’s history the moon affected men’s lives in the same way it affected the tides. Civilizations worshiped the moon, considered the lunar month as sacred as the solar year, believed in the affect of the moon on men’s minds and fortunes and bodies, and saw it hanging in the sky almost near enough to touch.
The new astronomy turned humanity’s eyes toward the night sky, looking at the stars and the planets and the moon through the new telescope invented in 1608 by Hans Lippershey, a Dutch spectacle-maker. The moon, in particular, seemed so close and so obviously like the earth that the notion of getting there by some means, any means, seemed not only feasible but inevitable.
Francis Godwin (1562–1633), an English bishop, wrote The Man in the Moone (1638) about a trip to the moon by a tiny rogue named Domingo Gonsales. Set ashore on the island of St. Helena, he trains a flock of swanlike birds called gansas to pull an “engine” through the air. As he is fleeing from savages, the gansas migrate with him to the moon. Godwin describes conditions on the moon in realistic terms, although the inhabitants are fanciful and the society is utopian. Ultimately Gonsales returns safely with his gansas to China.
Another English bishop, John Wilkins (1614–1672), one of the founders and first secretary of the Royal Society, published Mercury; or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641), a nonfictional exploration of the possibilities of new inventions such as “a flying chariot,” “a trunk or hollow pipe” for preserving the voice for hours or days, a means for communicating at a distance by gunshots or other loud noises, or through walls by using “magneticall vertues.” He also published in 1638 (third edition, including a Book II, in 1640) a nonfictionalized consideration of conditions on the moon, speculation on whether the moon is inhabited, and his belief that man will journey there, A Discourse Concerning a New World.
More ingenious and more amusing than any of the moon journeys up to the time of Poe was Voyage to the Moon (1657), by Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655). An adventurer, swordsman, and wit, who was later immortalized in the romantic play by Edmond Rostand, Cyrano also became well known as a writer. Although none of his works were published during his short life, some of them were circulated in manuscript. Cyrano also wrote another imaginary extraterrestrial journey, the unfinished Voyage to the Sun (1662). It describes Cyrano’s escape from prison in a box fitted with lenses that focus the sun’s rays and create a whirlwind. In it he is drawn to the sun, finds civilized birds, and discusses utopias with Campanella.
Both narratives satirized the institutions of Cyrano’s day, mocked at a literal belief in the Old Testament, had a dismal view of man, and described certain scientific and philosophical ideas that were dangerous to publish or to popularize.
The tradition of the extraterrestrial trip, particularly to the moon, continued in literature until the first spaceship reached the moon and man set his foot on it in 1969. Notable examples are Gabriel Daniel’s A Voyage to the World of Cartesius (1691), Ralph Morris’ John Daniel (1751), Aratus’ A Voyage to the Moon (1793), George Fowler’s A Flight to the Moon (1813), George Tucker’s A Voyage to the Moon (1827), Edgar Allan Poe’s Hans Pfaall (1840), Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (1865), H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon (1901), and Robert A. Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950).
By the 1890s the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935) was writing seriously about space flight and referring to the necessity for liquid-fuel rockets. By 1914 Robert Goddard (1882–1945) was taking out patents on rocket apparatus; he sent up experimental rockets from the twenties until his death.
The age of space travel began.
1 Rudolph II (1552–1612), Holy Roman Emperor.
2 Matthias, archduke of Austria (1557–1619).
3 Just as the rule of the Emperor Rudolph was challenged by his younger brother Matthias, so Libussa, a female ruler of the Bohemians, faced an uprising by males.
4 The moon.
5 The hemisphere of the moon that always faces the earth.
6 The earth.
7 The hemisphere of the moon that always faces away from the earth.
From A Voyage to the Moon
BY CYRANO DE BERGERAC
I had been with some Friends at Clamard, a House near Paris, and magnificently Entertain’d there by Monsieur de Cuigy, the Lord of it; when upon our return home, about Nine of the Clock at Night, the Air serene, and the Moon in the Full, the Contemplation of that bright Luminary furnished us with such variety of Thoughts as made the way seem shorter than, indeed, it was. Our Eyes being fixed upon that stately Planet, every one spoke what he thought of it: One would needs have it be a Garret Window of Heaven; another presently affirmed, That it was the Pan whereupon Diana smoothed Apollo’s Bands; while another was of Opinion, That it might very well be the Sun himself, who puffing his Locks up under his Cap at Night, peeped through a hole to observe what was doing in the World during his absence.
“And for my part, Gentlemen,” said I, “that I may put in for a share, and guess with the rest; not to amuse my self with those curious Notions wherewith you tickle and spur on slow-paced Times; I believe, that the Moon is a World like ours, to which this of ours serves likewise for a Moon.”
This was received with the general Laughter of the Company. “And perhaps,” said I, “(Gentlemen) just so they laugh now in the Moon, at some who maintain, That this Globe, where we are, is a World.” But I’d as good have said nothing, as have alledged to them, That a great many Learned Men had been of the same Opinion; for that only made them laugh the faster.
However, this thought, which because of its boldness suited my Humor, being confirmed by Contradiction, sunk so deep into my mind, that during the rest of the way I was big with Definitions of the Moon which I could not be delivered of: Insomuch that by striving to verifie this Comical Fancy by Reasons of appearing weight, I had almost perswaded my self already of the truth on’t; when a Miracle, Accident, Providence, Fortune, or what, perhaps, some may call Vision, others Fiction, Whimsey, or (if you will) Folly, furnished me with an occasion that engaged me into this Discourse. Being come home, I went up into my Closet, where I found a Book open upon the Table, which I had not put there. It was a piece of Cardanus; and though I had no design to read in it, yet I fell at first sight, as by force, exactly upon a Passage of that Philosopher where he tells us, That Studying one evening by Candle-light, he perceived Two tall old Men enter in through the door that was shut, who after many questions that he put to them, made him answer, That they were Inhabitants of the Moon, and thereupon immediately disap
peared.
I was so surprised, not only to see a Book get thither of it self; but also because of the nicking of the Time so patly, and of the Page at which it lay upon, that I looked upon that Concatenation of Accidents as a Revelation, discovering to Mortals that the Moon is a World. “How!” said I to my self, having just now talked of a thing, can a Book, which perhaps is the only Book in the World that treats of that matter so particularly, fly down from the Shelf upon my Table; become capable of Reason, in opening so exactly at the place of so strange an adventure; force my Eyes in a manner to look upon it, and then to suggest to my fancy the Reflexions, and to my Will the Designs which I hatch.
“Without doubt,” continued I, “the Two old Men, who appeared to that famous Philosopher, are the very same who have taken down my Book and opened it at that Page, to save themselves the labour of making to me the Harangue which they made to Cardan. But,” added I, “I cannot be resolved of this Doubt, unless I mount up thither.”
“And why not?” said I instantly to myself. “Prometheus heretofore went up to Heaven, and stole fire from thence. Have not I as much Boldness as he? And why should not I then, expect as favourable a Success?”
After these sudden starts of Imagination, which may be termed, perhaps, the Ravings of a violent Feaver, I began to conceive some hopes of succeeding in so fair a Voyage. Insomuch that to take my measures aright, I shut myself up in a solitary Country-house; where having flattered my fancy with some means, proportioned to my design, at length I set out for Heaven in this manner.
I planted myself in the middle of a great many Glasses full of Dew, tied fast about me; upon which the Sun so violently darted his Rays, that the Heat, which attracted them, as it does the thickest Clouds, carried me up so high, that at length I found my self above the middle Region of the Air. But seeing that Attraction hurried me up with as much rapidity that instead of drawing near the Moon, as I intended, she seem’d to me to be more distant than at my first setting out; I broke several of my Vials, until I found my weight exceed the force of the Attraction, and that I began to descend again towards the Earth. I was not mistaken in my opinion, for some time after I fell to the ground again; and to reckon from the hour that I set out at it must then have been about midnight. Nevertheless I found the Sun to be in the Meridian, and that it was Noon. I leave it to you to judge, in what Amazement I was; The truth is, I was so strangely surprised, that not knowing what to think of that Miracle, I had the insolence to imagine that in favour of my Boldness God had once more nailed the Sun to the Firmament, to light so generous an Enterprise. That which encreased my Astonishment was, That I knew not the Country where I was; it seemed to me, that having mounted straight up, I should have fallen down again in the same place I parted from.
However, in the Equipage I was in, I directed my course towards a kind of Cottage, where I perceived some smoke; and I was not above a Pistol-shot from it, when I saw my self environed by a great number of People, stark naked: They seemed to be exceedingly surprised at the sight of me; for I was the first, (as I think) that they had ever seen clad in Bottles. Nay, and to baffle all the Interpretations that they could put upon that Equipage, they perceived that I hardly touched the ground as I walked; for, indeed, they understood not that upon the least agitation I gave my Body the Heat of the beams of the Noon-Sun raised me up with my Dew; and that if I had had Vials enough about me, it would possibly have carried me up into the Air in their view. I had a mind to have spoken to them; but as if Fear had changed them into Birds, immediately I lost sight of them in an adjoyning Forest. However, I catched hold of one, whose Legs had, without doubt, betrayed his Heart. I asked him, but with a great deal of pain, (for I was quite choked) how far they reckoned from thence to Paris? How long Men had gone naked in France? and why they fled from me in so great Consternation? The Man I spoke to was an old tawny Fellow, who presently fell at my Feet, and with lifted-up Hands joyned behind his Head, opened his Mouth and shut his Eyes: He mumbled a long while between his Teeth, but I could not distinguish an articulate Word; so that I took his Language for the muffling noise of a Dumb-man.
Some time after, I saw a Company of Souldiers marching, with Drums beating; and I perceived Two detached from the rest, to come and take speech of me. When they were come within hearing, I asked them, Where I was? “You are in France,” answered they: “But what Devil hath put you into that Dress? And how comes it that we know you not? Is the Fleet then arrived? Are you going to carry the News of it to the Governor? And why have you divided your Brandy into so many Bottles?” To all this I made answer, That the Devil had not put me into that Dress: That they knew me not; because they could not know all Men: That I knew nothing of the Seine’s carrying Ships to Paris: That I had no news of the Marshal de l’Hospital; and that I was not loaded with Brandy. “Ho, ho,” said they to me, taking me by the Arm, “you are a merry Fellow indeed; come, the Governor will make a shift to know you, no doubt on’t.”
They led me to their Company, where I learnt that I was in reality in France, but that it was in New-France: So that some time after, I was presented before the Governor, who asked me my Country, my Name and Quality; and after that I had satisfied him in all Points, and told him the pleasant Success of my Voyage, whether he believed it, or only pretended to do so, he had the goodness to order me a Chamber in his Apartment. I was very happy, in meeting with a Man capable of lofty Opinions, and who was not at all surprised when I told him that the Earth must needs have turned during my Elevation; seeing that having begun to mount about Two Leagues from Paris, I was fallen, as it were, by a perpendicular Line in Canada.
Next Day, and the Days following, we had some Discourses to the same purpose: But some time after, since the hurry of Affairs suspended our Philosophy, 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 might manage and succeed in my Enterprise; and at length on St. John’s-Eve, when they were at Council in the Fort, whether they should assist the Wild Natives of the Country against the Iroqueans; I went all alone to the top of a little Hill at the back of our Habitation, where I put in Practice what you shall hear. I had made a Machine which I fancied might carry me up as high as I pleased, so that nothing seeming to be wanting to it, I placed my self within, and from the Top of a Rock threw my self in the Air: But because I had not taken my measures aright, I fell with a sosh in the Valley below.
Bruised as I was, however, I returned to my Chamber without losing courage, and with Beef-Marrow I anointed my Body, for I was all over mortified from Head to Foot: Then having taken a dram of Cordial Waters to strengthen my Heart, I went back to look for my Machine; but I could not find it, for some Souldiers, that had been sent into the Forest to cut wood for a Bonefire, meeting with it by chance, had carried it with them to the Fort: Where after a great deal of guessing what it might be, when they had discovered the invention of the Spring, some said, that a good many Fire-Works should be fastened to it, because their Force carrying them up on high, and the Machine playing its large Wings, no Body but would take it for a Fiery Dragon. In the mean time I was long in search of it, but found it at length in the Market-place of Kebeck (Quebec), just as they were setting Fire to it. I was so transported 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 of his Arm, pluckt the Match out of his Hand, and in great rage threw my self into my Machine, that I might undo the Fire-Works that they had stuck about it; but I came too late, for hardly were both my Feet within, when whip, away went I up in a Cloud.
The Horror and Consternation I was in did not so confound the faculties of my Soul, but I have since remembered all that happened to me at that instant. 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 reached every half-dozen, another tier went off, and then another so that the Salt-Peter taking Fire, put off the danger by encreasing it. However, all the combust
ible matter being spent, there was a period put to the Fire-work; and whilst I thought of nothing less than to knock my Head against the top of some Mountain, I felt, without the least stirring, my elevation continuing; and adieu Machine, for I saw it fall down again towards the Earth.
That extraordinary Adventure puffed up my Heart with so uncommon a Gladness; that, ravished to see my self delivered from certain danger, I had the impudence to philosophize upon it. Whilst then with Eyes and Thought I cast about to find what might be the cause of it, I perceived my flesh blown up, and still greasy with the Marrow, that I had daubed my self over with for the Bruises of my fall: I knew that the Moon being then in the Wain, and that it being usual for her in that Quarter to suck up the Marrow of Animals, she drank up that wherewith I was anointed, with so much the more force that her Globe was nearer to me, and that no interposition of Clouds weakened her Attraction.
When I had, according to the computation I made since, advanced a good deal more than three quarters of the space that divided the Earth from the Moon; all of a sudden I fell with my Heels up and Head down, though I had made no Trip; and indeed, I had not been sensible of it, had not I felt my Head loaded under the weight of my Body: The truth is, I knew very well that I was not falling again towards our World; for though I found my self to be betwixt two Moons, and easily observed, that the nearer I drew to the one, the farther I removed from the other; yet I was certain, that ours was the bigger Globe of the two: Because after one or two days Journey, the remote Refractions of the Sun, confounding the diversity of Bodies and Climates, it appeared to me only as a large Plate of Gold: that made me imagine, that I descended towards the Moon; and I was confirmed in that Opinion, when I began to call to mind, that I did not fall till I was past three quarters of the way. For, said I to myself, that Mass being less than ours, the Sphere of its Activity must be of less Extent also; and by consequence, it was later before I felt the force of its Center.