Moon -- Fiction; Science fiction, French -- Translations into English; Space flight to the moon -- Fiction
As I opened the Box, I found within somewhat of Metal, almost like to
our Clocks, full of I know not what little Springs and imperceptible
Engines: It was a Book, indeed; but a Strange and Wonderful Book, that
had neither Leaves nor Letters: In fine, it was a Book made wholly for
the Ears, and not the Eyes. So that when any Body has a mind to read in
it, he winds up that Machine with a great many Strings; then he turns
the Hand to the Chapter which he desires to hear, and straight, as from
the Mouth of a Man, or a Musical Instrument, proceed all the distinct
and different Sounds,[3] which the _Lunar_ Grandees make use of for
expressing their Thoughts, instead of Language.
When I since reflected on this Miraculous Invention, I no longer
wondred that the Young--Men of that Country were more knowing at
Sixteen or Eighteen years Old, than the Gray-Beards of our Climate;
for knowing how to Read as soon as Speak, they are never without
Lectures,[4] in their Chambers, their Walks, the Town, or Travelling;
they may have in their Pockets, or at their Girdles, Thirty of these
Books, where they need but wind up a Spring to hear a whole Chapter,
and so more, if they have a mind to hear the Book quite through; so
that you never want the Company of all the great Men, living and Dead,
who entertain you with Living Voices. This Present employed me about an
hour; and then hanging them to my Ears, like a pair of Pendants, I went
a Walking; but I was hardly at End of the Street when I met a Multitude
of People very Melancholy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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