Life in a Thousand WorldsHarris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Science
Life in a Thousand Worlds
Harris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Utopias
Their paintings express so accurately the emotions of the heart that I
found myself in tears as I saw their masterpieces. For a time I forgot
that I was on the Moon, so lost was I in elevated reflections all
suggested by their art creations. How I wished that I could have taken
some of these specimens with me!
From the Moon our Earth looks like a large wagon-wheel hanging in the
heavens. It is amusing to learn of the various opinions and
superstitions that are held regarding this wagon-wheel world. Some of
the Moonites declare that it is a huge lantern, hung solely for their
benefit, and scoff at the idea that it might be a world inhabited by
civilized beings. More intelligent Moonites venture the theory that
human life could exist on the great wagon-wheel, but declare that this
is quite improbable, as the whole planet is enveloped by some thick,
smoky substance in which they believe it would be impossible for human
life to exist. Some look upon the Earth as the mother of the Moon, and
regard the Sun as the father. This sex idea runs through most of their
heathen religion, and there are more who worship the Earth and the Sun
than there are who worship the God who created these heavenly bodies.
I prolonged my investigations without becoming visible, taking note of
numberless facts of interest which will ever be a source of pleasure and
value to me. At length, however, I concluded to take advantage of a
privilege and power I possessed and, becoming visible, I entered a quiet
room in the presence of a very distinguished man. He was by far the most
highly educated person on the Moon.
I was more surprised than he, for I expected that he would be greatly
agitated at my unaccountable appearance. Imagine my surprise when he sat
motionless, gazing firmly into my face which to him was out of harmony
with all ideas of correct form.
I was the first to speak, and although he had manifested outwardly such
self possession, I soon learned that it was a mere show of stoicism in
the presence of one whom he thought to be a spirit. In an incredibly
short time we were on easy speaking terms and I was gaining the object
of my visit.
Among the many things of interest that I learned from this famous
character were facts concerning the history of the Moon. According to
the information he gave me, I figured that human life had existed on the
Moon thousands of years before its appearance on the Earth.
Scientifically I could not account for this on any other ground than
that the Moon, being a much smaller orb, cooled off sufficiently to
sustain life on its surface long before any form of life could exist on
our Earth.
The Moonities of the old era were a prosperous and progressive people,
far outshining their successors who now occupy the sphere. After making
history for several thousand years, the human race had grown to one
hundred million in numbers, and civilization had reached a surprising
degree of perfection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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