Adventures in the Moon, and Other WorldsRussell, John Russell, Earl
Science
Adventures in the Moon, and Other Worlds
Russell, John Russell, Earl
Utopias
The nature of this invention is so well known, that I need give no
description of the journey. I saw great numbers travelling on the same
expedition; some being led by curiosity, but most by a hope of
retrieving the several losses that they had met with during life. I
inquired of many, what prizes they hoped to recover. Some decayed
people were going up in search of the health which they had once
enjoyed; a woman with a melancholy look told me she had undertaken this
journey with the hope of recovering her husband's good humour, which he
had totally lost, to her great discomfort. There was a lady who refused
to tell the motive of her journey, but it was whispered that she went to
look for her character. Many old people were going to regain their
youth. There seemed a great uncertainty as to the success of all these
projects; for, first, it might be very difficult to find the lost
advantages, and if they were found, none knew whether they could be used
a second time: all, however, had great hopes; and I saw two or three
men, who appeared incurably old, and were nevertheless convinced that,
as soon as they arrived in the moon, they should revoke their wrinkles,
and find some contrivance for not having lived the last fifty years.
As I approached the moon, I enjoyed the splendour of the sight. Its
mountains far surpass ours in size; and in the shape of the surface
there is a greatness not to be found in the noblest parts of our earth.
I landed in the moon upon a plain, where I found grass and trees, the
particular nature of which I shall not describe, as this short narrative
is not intended to include botany and natural history--subjects which I
leave to those who travelled into our satellite for the express purpose
of studying them. I wish that my forbearance in this instance may be
imitated by some of the more confined travellers on this earth, who, in
the description of a country, thinking that no circumstance or
production must be omitted, are very apt to give information on subjects
of which they are profoundly ignorant. A traveller, who, in his own
country, has not skill to distinguish one herb from another, is a sudden
botanist on the other side of the globe, lest the book he is writing
should be incomplete. Many of them involve themselves in shells,
minerals, and other intricacies, on which they would not hazard a
conjecture at home. He who is silent on any subject, leaves his
knowledge in doubt; whereas, if he speaks, there can no longer be a
question. Upon many productions of the moon, therefore, I shall avoid
the indiscretion of being learned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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