[20] Scarcely had I tasted it, when a thick Cloud overcast my Soul: I saw no body now near me; and in the whole Hemisphere my Eyes could not discern the least Tract of the way I had made; yet nevertheless I fully remembered every thing 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 efficacy whereof had dissipated the Malignities of the Rind. I was not a little surprised to see my self all alone, in a Country I knew not. It was to no purpose for me to stare and look about me; for no Creature appeared to comfort me. [1] "Quality" = _title_--as often in the seventeenth century; _cf_. Shakspere, _Henry V_.: "Gentlemen of blood and quality." [2] Probably a long passage has been lost here, in which the "Youth" (the Prophet Elijah, who had "translated" himself hither and become young by 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 Banishment of Adam and Eve. At the beginning of the next paragraph he is still speaking, and telling of Adam's transference from the Moon to the Earth. [3] The woman to the man, from whose side she was taken. Probably only a few words have been omitted at the last hiatus. [4] The supposed situation of the Earthly Paradise. [5] Adam and Eve. [6] We may imagine this a short hiatus, to be filled in as follows: "He suffered a few ages after that, _that a holy man, whose name was Enoch_, cloyed with the company of men...." etc. [7] Enoch. On his translation, which Cyrano here makes Elijah account for, see Genesis, chapter v. [8] Adam. Cyrano may possibly have confused the Enoch who was translated with another Enoch who was the son of Cain and so grandson of Adam. But it is more probable that he used the word _aïeul_ in its common sense of _ancestor_; as indeed "grandfather" was used in old English. [9] _Cf_. the play: "Since smoke by its nature ascends, I could have blown into an appropriate globe a sufficient quantity to ascend with me." [10] "Qu'il prit congé de ses nageoires," = "when he _abandoned_ his _floats_ (or _bladders_)." [11] Cyrano may here be credited with anticipating the idea of the parachute. [12] Elijah, The passage referred to is lost. [13] Spell the name backward. [14] _Ball_ Cf. _Bowling_. Cf. also p. 177. (Search: start p. 177: "... mentally divided every little Visible Body...") [15] _Cf_. the "sixth means" in the play: "Or else, I could have placed myself upon an iron plate, have taken a magnet of suitable size, and thrown it in the air! That way is a very good one! The magnet flies upward, the iron instantly after; the magnet no sooner overtaken than you fling it up again.... The rest is clear! You can go upward indefinitely."