_Earth_. Nor do I; save only the whistling of the wind, which blows from my poles to the equator, and from the equator to the poles, and which is far from musical. But Pythagoras asserts that the celestial spheres make an incredibly sweet harmony, and that you take part in the concert, and are the eighth chord of this universal lyre. As for me, I am so deafened by my own noise that I hear nothing. _Moon_. I also am doubtless deafened, since I hear no more than you. But it is news to me that I am a chord. _Earth_. Now let us change the subject. Tell me; are you really inhabited, as thousands of ancient and modern philosophers affirm--from Orpheus to De Lalande? In spite of all my efforts to prolong these horns of mine, which men call mountains and hills, and from the summits of which I look at you in silence, I have failed to discern a single one of your inhabitants. Yet I am told that a certain David Fabricius, whose eyes were keener than those of Lynceus, at one time observed your people extending their linen to be dried by the sun. _Moon_. I know nothing about your horns. I will admit that I am inhabited. _Earth_. What colour are your men? _Moon_. What men? _Earth_. Those that you contain. Did you not say you were inhabited? _Moon_. Yes, what then? _Earth_. Does it not follow that all your inhabitants are animals? _Moon_. Neither animals nor men, though I am really in ignorance as to the nature of either the one or the other. As for the men you speak of, I have not an idea what you mean. _Earth_. Then what sort of creatures are yours? _Moon_. They are of very many different kinds, as unknown to you, as yours are to me. _Earth_. This is so strange that if you yourself had not informed me of it, I would never have believed it. Were you ever conquered by any of your inhabitants? _Moon_. Not that I know of. But how? And for what reason? _Earth_. Through ambition and jealousy; by means of diplomacy and arms. _Moon_. I do not know what you mean by arms, ambition, and diplomacy. Indeed, I understand nothing of what you say. _Earth_. But surely if you do not understand the meaning of arms, you know something of war; because, not long ago, a certain doctor discovered through a telescope, which is an instrument for seeing a long distance, that you possessed a fine fortress with proper bastions. Now this is certain proof that your races are at any rate accustomed to sieges and mural battles.