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
The Hieroglyphical Discoveries of the Soul make it appear in the
Image of its Maker; and the Analogy is remarkable, even in the very
Simily; for as they represent the Original of Nature as One Great
Eye, illuminating as well as discerning all things; so the Soul,
in its Allegorical, or Hieroglyphical Resemblance, appears as a
Great Eye, embracing the Man, enveloping, operating, and informing
every Part; from whence those sort of People who we falsly call
Politicians, acting so much to put out this Great Eye, by acting
against their common Understandings, are very aptly represented by a
great Eye, with Six or Seven pair of Spectacles on; not but that the
Eye of their Souls may be clear enough of it self, as to the common
Understanding; but that they happen to have occasion to look
sometimes so many ways at once, and to judge, conclude, and
understand so many contrary ways upon one and the same thing; that
they are fain to put double Glasses upon their Understanding, as we
look at the Solar Ecclipses, to represent 'em in different Lights,
least their Judgments should not be wheadled into a Compliance with
the Hellish Resolutions of their Wills; and this is what I call the
Emblematick Representation of the Soul.
As for the Demonstrations of the Soul's Existence, 'tis a plain case,
by these Explicative Glasses, that it is, some have pretended to give
us the Parts; and we have heard of Chyrurgeons, that could read an
Anatomical Lecture on the Parts Of the Soul; and these pretend it to
be a Creature in form, whether Camelion or Salamandar, Authors have
not determin'd; nor is it compleatly discover'd when it comes into
the Body, or how it goes out, or where its Locality or Habitation is,
while 'tis a Resident.
But they very aptly show it, like a Prince, in his Seat, in the
middle of his Palace the Brain, issuing out his incessant Orders
to innumerable Troops of Nerves, Sinews, Muscles, Tendons, Veins,
Arteries, Fibres, Capilaris, and useful Officers, call'd Organici,
who faithfully execute all the Parts of Sensation, Locomotion,
Concoction, &c. and in the Hundred Thousandth part of a Moment,
return with particular Messages for Information, and demand New
Instructions. If any part of his Kingdom, the Body, suffers a
Depredation, or an Invasion of the Enemy, the Expresses fly to the
Seat of the Soul, the Brain, and immediately are order'd back to
smart, that the Body may of course send more Messengers to complain;
immediately other Expresses are dispatcht to the Tongue, with Orders
to cry out, that the Neighbours may come in and help, or Friends send
for the Chyrurgeon: Upon the Application, and a Cure, all is quiet,
and the same Expresses are dispatcht to the Tongue to be hush, and
say no more of it till farther Orders: All this is as plain to be
seen in these Engines, as the Moon of Our World from the World in
the Moon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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