Moon -- Fiction; Science fiction, French -- Translations into English; Space flight to the moon -- Fiction
"But let us trace the Fortune of the other Elements that composed that
Billet. The Air retreats to its own Quarters also, though blended
with Vapours; because the Fire all in a rage drove them briskly
out _Pell-mell_ together. Now you have it serving the Winds for a
Tennis-ball, furnishing Breath to Animals, filling up the Vacuities
that Nature hath left; and, it may be also, wrapt up in a drop of Dew,
suckling the thirsty Leaves of that Tree, whither our Fire retreated:
The Water driven from its Throne by the Flame, being by the heat
elevated to the Nursery of the Meteors, will distil again in Rain upon
our Oak, as soon as upon another; and the Earth being turned to Ashes,
and then cured of its Sterility, either by the nourishing Heat of a
Dunghill on which it hath been thrown, or by the vegetative Salt of
some neighbouring Plants, or by the teeming Waters of some Rivers, may
happen also to be near this Oak, which by the heat of its Germ will
attract it, and convert it into a part of its bulk.
"In this manner, these Four Elements undergo the same Destiny, and
return to the same State, which they quitted but a few days before: So
that it may be said, that all that's necessary for the composition of
a Tree, is in a Man; and in a Tree, all that's necessary for making of
a Man. In fine, according to this way, all things will be found in all
things; but we want a _Prometheus_, to pluck us out of the Bosom of
Nature, and render us sensible, which I am willing to call the _First
Matter_"[7]
These were the things, I think, with which we past the time; for that
little _Spaniard_ had a quaint Wit. Our conversation, however, was only
in the Night time; because from Six a clock in the morning until night,
Crowds of the People, that came to stare at us in our Lodging, would
have disturbed us: For some threw us Stones, others Nuts, and others
Grass; there was no talk, but of the Kings Beasts; we had our Victuals
daily at set hours. I cannot tell, whether it was that I minded their
Gestures and Tones more than my Male did: But I learnt sooner than he
to understand their Language, and to smatter a little of it, which made
us to be lookt upon in another guess manner than formerly; and the news
thereupon flew presently all over the Kingdom, that two Wild Men had
been found, who were less than other Men, by reason of the bad Food we
had had in the Desarts; and who through a defect of their Parents Seed,
had not the fore Legs strong enough to support their Bodies.
[1] "Your excellency's servant."
[2] Domingo Gonzales, the hero of Bishop Francis Godwin's _The Man in
the Moone_ (see Translator to Reader, note 2), who says of himself: "I
must acknowledge my Stature is so little, as I think no Man living is
less."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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