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
This was the fatal Stroke, for having possest the Prince with the
belief of this, he let loose the Reins to all his long conceal'd
Desires. Down went their Laws, their Liberties, their Corporations,
their Churches, their Colleges, all went to wreck, and the eager
Abrograzians thought the Day their own. The Solunarians made no
opposition, but what was contain'd within the narrow circumference of
Petitions, Addresses, Prayers, and Tears; and these the Prince was
prepar'd to reject, and upon all occasions to let them know he was
resolv'd to be obey'd.
Thus he drove on by the treacherous Advice of his new Counsels, till
he ripen'd all the Nation for the general Defection which afterward
follow'd.
For as the Encroachments of the Prince push'd especially at their
Church Liberties, and threatened the overthrow of all their
Ecclesiastical Privileges, the Clergy no sooner began to feel that
they were like to be the first Sacrifice, but they immediately
threw off the Vizor, and beat the Concionazimir; this is a certain
Ecclesiastick Engine which is usual in cases of general Alarm, as
the Churches Signal of Universal Tumult.
This is truly a strange Engine, and when a Clergy-Man gets into the
Inside of it, and beats it, it Roars, and makes such a terrible
Noise from the several Cavities, that 'tis heard a long way; and
there are always a competent number of them plac'd in all Parts so
conveniently, that the Alarm is heard all over the Kingdom in one Day.
I had some Thoughts to have given the Reader a Diagram of this piece
of Art, but as I am but a bad Drafts Man, I have not yet been able
so exactly to describe it, as that a Scheme can be drawn, but to the
best of my Skill, take it as follows. 'Tis a hollow Vessel, large
enough to hold the biggest Clergy-Man in the Nation; it is generally
an Octagon in Figure, open before, from the Wast upward, but whole
at the Back, with a Flat extended over it for Reverberation, or
doubling the Sound; doubling and redoubling, being frequently
thought necessary to be made use of on these occasions; 'tis very
Mathematically contriv'd, erected on a Pedestal of Wood like a
Windmil, and has a pair of winding Stairs up to it, like those at
the great Tun at Hiedlebergh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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