"Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight nothing would keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel; nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight! Not even ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence of weight. Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held in equilibrium by terrestrial attraction. Lastly, not even the atmosphere, the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperse into space!" "That is a pity," replied Michel. "There is nothing like positive people for recalling you brutally to reality!" "Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel," resumed Barbicane, "for if no star could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are at least going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth." "The moon?" "Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times less than upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy to demonstrate." "And shall we perceive it?" asked Michel. "Evidently, for 400 lbs. only weigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon." "Will not our muscular strength be diminished?" "Not at all. Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six." "Then we shall be Hercules in the moon," cried Michel. "Yes," replied Nicholl, "and the more so because if the height of the Selenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will be hardly a foot high." "Liliputians!" replied Michel. "Then I am going to play the _rôle_ of Gulliver! We shall realise the fable of the giants! That is the advantage of leaving one's own planet to visit the solar world!" "But if you want to play Gulliver," answered Barbicane, "only visit the inferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is rather less than that of the earth. But do not venture into the big planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the _rôles_ would be inverted, and you would become Liliputian." "And in the sun?" "In the sun, though its density is four times less than that of the earth, its volume is thirteen hundred and twenty-four thousand times greater, and gravitation there is twenty-seven times greater than upon the surface of our globe. Every proportion kept, the inhabitants ought on an average to be two hundred feet high." "The devil!" exclaimed Michel. "I should only be a pigmy!" "Gulliver amongst the giants," said Nicholl. "Just so," answered Barbicane. "It would not have been a bad thing to carry some pieces of artillery to defend oneself with." "Good," replied Barbicane; "your bullets would have no effect on the sun, and they would fall to the ground in a few minutes." "That's saying a great deal!"