Until now the president of the Gun Club had reason to be very satisfied with the discussion. It had rolled upon speculative theories, upon which Michel Ardan, carried away by his lively imagination, had shown himself very brilliant. He must, therefore, be prevented from deviating towards practical questions, which he would doubtless not come out of so well. Barbicane made haste to speak, and asked his new friend if he thought that the moon or the planets were inhabited. "That is a great problem, my worthy president," answered the orator, smiling; "still, if I am not mistaken, men of great intelligence--Plutarch, Swedenborg, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others--answered in the affirmative. If I answered from a natural philosophy point of view I should do the same--I should say to myself that nothing useless exists in this world, and, answering your question by another, friend Barbicane, I should affirm that if the planets are inhabitable, either they are inhabited, they have been, or they will be." "Very well," cried the first ranks of spectators, whose opinion had the force of law for the others. "It is impossible to answer with more logic and justice," said the president of the Gun Club. "The question, therefore, comes to this: 'Are the planets inhabitable?' I think so, for my part." "And I--I am certain of it," answered Michel Ardan. "Still," replied one of the assistants, "there are arguments against the inhabitability of the worlds. In most of them it is evident that the principles of life must be modified. Thus, only to speak of the planets, the people must be burnt up in some and frozen in others according as they are a long or short distance from the sun."