ARM. I like his vortices. PHI. And I his falling worlds. [Footnote: Notes do not seem necessary here; a good English dictionary will give better explanations than could be given except by very long notes.] ARM. I long to see our assembly opened, and to distinguish ourselves by some great discovery. TRI. Much is expected from your enlightened knowledge, for nature has hidden few things from you. PHI. For my part, I have, without boasting, already made one discovery; I have plainly seen men in the moon. BEL. I have not, I believe, as yet quite distinguished men, but I have seen steeples as plainly as I see you. [Footnote: An astronomer of the day had boasted of having done this.] ARM. In addition to natural philosophy, we will dive into grammar, history, verse, ethics, and politics. PHI. I find in ethics charms which delight my heart; it was formerly the admiration of great geniuses; but I give the preference to the Stoics, and I think nothing so grand as their founder. ARM. Our regulations in respect to language will soon be known, and we mean to create a revolution. Through a just or natural antipathy, we have each of us taken a mortal hatred to certain words, both verbs and nouns, and these we mutually abandon to each other. We are preparing sentences of death against them, we shall open our learned meetings by the proscription of the diverse words of which we mean to purge both prose and verse. PHI. But the greatest project of our assembly--a noble enterprise which transports me with joy, a glorious design which will be approved by all the lofty geniuses of posterity--is the cutting out of all those filthy syllables which, in the finest words, are a source of scandal: those eternal jests of the fools of all times; those nauseous commonplaces of wretched buffoons; those sources of infamous ambiguity, with which the purity of women is insulted. TRI. These are indeed admirable projects. BEL. You shall see our regulations when they are quite ready. TRI. They cannot fail to be wise and beautiful. ARM. We shall by our laws be the judges of all works; by our laws, prose and verse will both alike be submitted to us. No one will have wit except us or our friends. We shall try to find fault with everything, and esteem no one capable of writing but ourselves. SCENE III--PHILAMINTE, BÉLISE, ARMANDE, HENRIETTE, TRISSOTIN, LÉPINE. LEP. (_to_ TRISSOTIN). Sir, there is a gentleman who wants to speak to you; he is dressed all in black, and speaks in a soft tone. (_They all rise._) TRI. It is that learned friend who entreated me so much to procure him the honour of your acquaintance. PHI. You have our full leave to present him to us. (TRISSOTIN _goes out to meet_ VADIUS.) SCENE IV.--PHILAMINTE, BÉLISE, ARMANDE, HENRIETTE. PHI. (_to_ ARMANDE _and_ BÉLISE). At least, let us do him all the honours of our knowledge. (_To_ HENRIETTE, _who is going_) Stop! I told you very plainly that I wanted to speak to you. HEN. But what about?