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
Yet by this most dextrous way of Twisting, Extending, Contracting,
and Distinguishing of Phrases and Reasoning, they presently made it
as plain as the Sun at Noon Day; that these Prestarians were
King-killers, Common-wealths Men, Rebels, Traytors, and Enemies to
Monarchy; that they restor'd the Monarchy only in order to Destroy
it, and that they Preach'd up Sedition, Rebellion and the like: This
was prov'd so plain by these sublime Distinctions, that they
convinc'd themselves and their Posterity of it, by a rare and newly
acquir'd Art, found out by extraordinary Study, which proves the
wonderful power of Custom, insomuch, that let any Man by this method,
tell a Lye over a certain number of times, he shall arrive to a
Satisfaction of its certainty, tho' he knew it to be a Fiction
before, and shall freely tell it for a Truth all his life after.
Thus the Prestarians were call'd the Murtherers of the Father, tho'
they restor'd the Son, and all the Testimonials of their Sufferings,
Protests and Insurrections to prevent his Death, signify'd nothing,
for this method of Distinguishing has that powerful Charm in it, that
all those Trifles we call Proofs and Demonstration were of no use in
that Case. Custom brought the Story up to a Truth, and in an instant
all the Crolians were hookt in under the general Name of Prestarians,
at the same time to hook all Parties in the Crime.
Now as it happen'd at last that these Solunarian Gentlemen found it
necessary to do the same thing themselves, viz. To lay aside their
Loyalty, Depose, Fight against, shoot Bullets at, and throw Bombs at
their King till they frighted him away, and sent him abroad to beg
his Bread. The Crolians began to take Heart and tell them, now they
ought to be Friends with them, and tell them no more of Rebellion and
Disloyalty; nay, they carry'd it so far as to challenge them to bring
their Loyalty to the Test, and compare Crolian Loyalty and Solunarian
Loyalty together, and see who had rais'd more Wars, taken up Arms
oftenest, or appear'd in most Rebellions against their Kings; nay,
who had kill'd most Kings, the Crolians or the Solunarians, for there
having been then newly fought a great Battle between the Solunarian
Church-Men under their new Prince, and the Armies of Foreign Succours
under their old King, in which their old King was beaten and forc'd
to flie a second time, the Crolians told them that every Bullet they
shot at the Battle was as much a murthering their King, as cutting
off the Head with a Hatchet was a killing his Father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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