A Voyage to the Moon

met there, and of

y was, and the I

you owe these Humilities." "You see one," answered I, "stunned with so many Wonders that I know not what to admire most; for coming from a World, which without doubt you take for a Moon here, I thought I had arrived in another, which our Worldlings call a Moon also; and b

draws the Rivers which proceed from it. When they arrived in your Earth, they dwelt betwixt Mesopotamia and Arabia:[4] Some People knew them by the name of * * * *,[5] and others under that of Prometheus, whom the Poets feigned to have stolen Fire from Heaven, by reason of his Offspring, who were endowed with a Soul as perfect as his own: So that to inhabit your World, that Man left this destitute; but the All-wise would not have so blessed an Habitation, to remain without Inhabitants; He suffered a few ages after that * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *[6] cloyed with the company of Men, whose Innocence was corrupted, had a desire to forsake them. This person,[7] however, thought no retreat secure enough from the Ambition of Men, who already Murdered one another about the distribution of your World; except that blessed Land, which his Grand-Father[8] had so often mentioned unto him, and to which no Body had as yet found out the way: But his Imagination supplied that; for seein

not to be lamented, though it slipt away fast enough. In the mean while, the more I encreased in Knowledge, the more I knew my Ignorance. Our Learned Men never put me in mind of the famous Mada,[13] but the thoughts of his perfect Philosophy made me to Sigh. I was despairing of being able to atta

unting upwards; because the Chariot flew always to the Load-stone, which I held over it. But the effort of the Iron to be united to my Bowl, was so violent that it made my Body bend double; so that I durst but once essay that new Experiment. The truth is, it was a very surprizing Spectacle to behold; for the Steel of that flying House, which I had very carefully Polished, reflected on all sides the light of the Sun with so great life and lustre, that I thought my self to be all on fire.[16] In fine, after often Bowling and following of my Cast, I came, as you did, to an Elevation from which I descended towards this World; and because at that instant I held my Bowl very fast between my hands, my Machine, whereof the Seat pressed me hard, that it might approach its Attractive, did not forsake me; all that now I feared was, that I should break my Neck: But to save me from that, ever now and then I tossed up my Bowl; that by its attracti

"I am eager to know what you understand by that Serpent which w

. God, when he had driven Adam from this fortunate country, rubbed his gums with this same Rind, that he might never find the way back again; for more than fifteen years thereafter he did dote, and did so completely forget all thing

ly had my mouth watered with it, when Universal Knowledge penetrated my being, I felt as it were a

vigilance of that Seraph whom God has ordained to guard this Paradise; but since he is pleased to use second causes, I imagined that he had inspired me to find

place where a thousand Lightnings mingled together in one blinding light that served but to make Darkness visible. I was not yet fully recovered from this dazzlement, when I saw before me a beautiful Young man. 'I am,' said he, '

s Flaming Sword in circles, all about the bounds of the Earthly Paradise; and that the light I had seen was the lightnings which the steel of it gave forth. 'Those also which you perceive from your Earth,' he added, 'are of my creation. And if sometimes you see them a

you have eaten, you will know all things even as I. But see you make no mistake, for most of the Fruits that hang from that Plant are

Enoch offered us a basketful of I know not what fruits, like to Pomegranates, which he had but discovered that same day in a distant coppice. I took some and put in my pockets, as Elijah bade me. Here-upon Eno

distaffs lying here and there; whereupon I asked my guide what use they served. "To spin," he answered me; "when the good Enoch would relax his mind from meditation, he applies himself sometimes to dressing this Lady-distaff, sometimes to weaving the cloth from which they make Shifts for the

or his Cell; in truth what made us leave him so soon was this: that he said some prayer

he had begun, of the Assumptions or Translations; and I said, t

it till the Apple of Knowledge teach you all these things b

ve his Finger in that pie; or howsoever it came about, so it

but by shutting his teeth hard; and at that moment the hour when he had foreseen that he should be translated hither was almost past; so ha

hou hast the insolence to rail at Holy Things! Surely thou shouldst not go unpunished, were it not that the All-wise determines to spare thee as a marvellous example of His long-suffering, a witness

d beside a great Tree whose branches bent almost to Earth with the burden of their Fruit, "Here," said he, "

ll against a low branch I handily filched an Apple from it. And in bu

f those Apples I had filled it with, wherein I buried my teeth as deep as I could. But so it was, that in place of taking one of those Enoch

g that befel me. When I reflected since upon that Miracle, I fanced that the skin of the Fruit which I bit had not rendered me altogether brutish; because my Teeth piercing through it were a little moistened by the Juyce within, the e

ten in the seventeenth cent

of blood an

eating of the Tree of Life) describes the place where they are as the original Garden of Eden; and tells of the Creation, the Fall, and the Bani

e she was taken. Probably only a few wor

situation of the

dam a

llows: "He suffered a few ages after that, that a holy man, w

hich Cyrano here makes Elijah ac

who was the son of Cain and so grandson of Adam. But it is more probable that he used the

scends, I could have blown into an appropriate

nageoires," = "when he aband

redited with anticipating

e passage refer

l the nam

Bowling. Cf.

f suitable size, and thrown it in the air! That way is a very good one! The magnet flies upward, the iron instantly af

which Elijah was taken up in

for the first time, from the Manuscript at the Bibliothèque Natio

as soon appears, i

nto the world, a

of "original sin" is, accord

sumes, as found in all the edi