The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the MoonDefoe, Daniel
Science
The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon
Defoe, Daniel
Fantasy fiction; Interplanetary voyages -- Fiction; Moon -- Fiction; Political fiction; Satire
Being very much Shockt in my Judgment of this Affair, by these
unanswerable Reasons; I enquir'd of my Author who were the Directors
of this Matter? he told me plainly it was done by those great States
Men, which the Solunarian Queen had lately very Justly turn'd out,
whose Politicks were very unaccountable in a great many other things,
as well as in that.
'Tis true, the War was carry'd on under the new Ministry, and no War
in the World can be Juster, on account of the Injustice and
Encroachment of the Gallunarian Monarch.
The Queen therefore and her present Ministers, go on with the War on
Principles of Confederacy; 'tis the business of the Solunarians to
beat the Invader out, and then let the People come and make a fair
Decision who they will have to Reign over them.
This indeed justifies the War in Ebronia to be Right, but for the
Personal Proceedure as before, 'tis all Contradiction and can never
be answer'd.
I hope no Man will be so malicious, as to say I am hereby reflecting
on our War with Spain. I am very forward to say, it is a most Just
and Reasonable War, as to paralels between the Case of the Princes,
in defending the Matter of Personal Right, Hic labor, Hoc opus.
Thus however you see Humanum eft Errare, whether in this World or in
the Moon, 'tis all one, Infallibility of Councels any more than of
Doctrine, is not in Man.
The Reader may observe, I have formerly noted there was a new
Consolidator to be Built, and observ'd what struggle there was in the
Moon about choosing the Feathers.
I cannot omit some further Remarks here, as
1. It is to be observ'd, that this last Consolidator was in a manner
quite worn out.----- It had indeed continu'd but 3 Year, which was
the stated Time by Law, but it had been so Hurry'd, so Party Rid, so
often had been up in the Moon, and made so many such extravagant
Flights, and unnecessary Voyages thither, that it began to be
exceedingly worn and defective.
2. This occasion'd that the light fluttering Feathers, and the
fermented Feathers made strange Work of it; nay, sometimes they were
so hot, they were like to ha' ruin'd the whole Fabrick, and had it
not been for the great Feather in the Center, and a few Negative
Feathers who were Wiser than the rest, all the Machines had been
broke to pieces, and the whole Nation put into a most strange
Confusion.
Sometimes their Motion was so violent an precipitant, that there was
great apprehensions of its being set on Fire by its own Velocity, for
swiftness of Motion is allow'd by the Sages and so so's to produce
Fire as in Wheels, Mills and several sorts of Mechanick Engines which
are frequently Fir'd, and so in Thoughts, Brains, Assemblies,
Consolidators, and all such combustible Things.
Indeed these things were of great Consequence, and therefore require
some more nice Examination than ordinary, and the following Story
will in part explain it.
Among the rest of the Broils they had with the Grandees, one happen'd
on this occasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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