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
One of the Tacking Feathers being accidentally met by a Grandee's
Footman, whom it seems wanted some Manners, the Slave began to haloo
him in the Street, with a Tacker, a Tacker, a Feather-Fool, a Tacker,
&c. and so brought the Mob about him, and had not the Grandee himself
come in the very interim, and rescu'd the Feather, the Mob had
demolisht him, they were so enrag'd.
As this Gentleman-Feather was rescu'd with great Courtesie by the
Grandee, taken into his Coach and carry'd home to his House, he
desir'd to speak with the Footman.
The Fellow being call'd in, was ask't by him who employ'd him, or set
him on to offer him this Insult? the Footman being a ready bold
Fellow, told him no Body Sir, but you are all grown so ridiculous to
the whole Nation, that if the 134 of you were left but to us Footmen,
and it was not in more respect to our Masters, than you, we should
Cure you of ever coming into the Consolidator again, and all the
People in the Moon are of our Mind.
But says the Feather, why do you call me Fool too? why Sir, says he,
because no Body could ever tell us what it was you drove at, and we
ha' been told you never knew your selves; now if one of you Tacking
Feathers would but tell the World what your real Design was, they
would be satisfy'd, but to be leaders in the Consolidator, and to Act
without Meaning, without Thought or Design, must argue your' Fools,
or worse, and you will find all the Moon of my Mind.
But what if we had a meaning, says the Feather-Man? why then, says
the Footman, we shall leave calling you Fools, and call you Knaves,
for it could never be an Honest one, so that you had better stand as
you do: and I make it out thus.
You knew, that upon your Tacking the Crolians to the Tribute Bill,
the Grandees must reject both, they having declar'd against reading
any Bills Tackt together, as being against their Priviledges. Now if
you had any Design, it must be to have the Bill of Tribute lost, and
that must be to disappoint all the publick Affairs, expose the Queen,
break all Measures, discourage the Confederates, and putting all
things backward, bring the Gallunarian Forces upon them, and put all
Solunaria into Confusion. Now Sir, says he, we cannot have such
course Thoughts of you, as to believe you could design such dark,
mischievous things as these, and therefore we chose to believe you
all Fools, and not fit to be put into a Consolidator again; than
Knaves and Traytors to your Country, and consequently fit for a worse
Place.
The plainness of the Footman was such, and so unanswerable, that his
Master was fain to check him, and so the Discourse broke off, and we
shall leave it there, and proceed to the Story.
The Men of the Feather as I have noted, who are represented here by
the Consolidator, fell all together by the Ears, and all the Moon was
in a combustion. The Case was as follows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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