heap of these small animals, which in so confined a situation find
room enough for their little movements. The leaf of a tree is a
world, inhabited by worms imperceptibly small, to which it appears
an amazing extent, having mountains and caverns, and so large that
from one side of the leaf to the other the little worms have no more
communication with each other than we have with the antipodes. From
such considerations I cannot doubt of a great planet being inhabited.
There have been found even in very hard stones an endless number of
worms lodged in every interstice, feeding on parts of the stone.
Consider the countless numbers of these little beings, and how many
years they could subsist on a quantity of food as big as a grain of
sand; and then though the moon should be but a mass of rock, we may let
it be eaten by its inhabitants rather than not assign any to it. In
short every thing is animated; every thing is full of life. Associate
in your calculation all the species that have been lately discovered,
and those that we may suppose are yet undiscovered, with all that we
are in the habit of seeing, and you will surely confess that the earth
is amply stocked with living creatures; that nature must delight in
bestowing life since she has created such infinite variety of beings so
small as to elude our sight. Can you believe that after the earth has
been thus made to abound with life, the rest of the planets have not a
living creature in them?
My reason is convinced, answered the Marchioness; but my imagination
is overwhelmed with such an infinite variety and number of inhabitants
existing in each of the planets; for as there is no dull uniformity in
nature, the difference of species must be in proportion to the number
of beings--how can imagination grasp such a vast idea? Imagination, I
replied, is not required to represent all this to us; we can penetrate
no farther than we are assisted by our sight; we can only perceive,
from a general glance, that nature has established an inconceivable
diversity in her works. The human face is formed every where on the
same plan, but still how great is the difference between the visages of
Europeans and of Africans or Tartars: not only in separate nations do
we find a distinguishing character of countenance, even among the same
people every family seems formed from a distinct model. How astonishing
is the power of nature in giving such variety to so simple an object!
In the universe we are but as a little family whose faces resemble each
other; the next planet contains another family who have a different
style of countenance. Probably the variations are greater in proportion
to the distance, and could we compare the inhabitants of the earth
and moon, we should easily see that they were nearer neighbours than
those of the earth and of Saturn. Here, for instance, our thoughts are
made vocal; the people in another planet only express themselves by
gestures; farther off, they may dispense with any sort of conversation.
Here our reason is matured by experience; elsewhere experience may add
little to the understanding; at a greater distance, children may know
as much as old men. In this world we give ourselves more uneasiness
about the future than the past; on another globe, the past afflicts
more than the future; on a third, the people are neither distressed by
one nor the other, and they perhaps are not the most unhappy. It is
said that we are possibly in want of a sixth sense belonging to our
nature, by means of which our knowledge would be greatly augmented.
This sense is most likely in some other world, where one of our five is
wanting. There may even be a very great number of natural senses, but
in the distribution of them among the planets, only five have fallen
to our share, and with these five we remain satisfied because we don't
know of any more. Our sciences have certain limits which no human
understanding has exceeded: at a particular point we stop, the rest is
reserved for other worlds, where they are ignorant of many things that
we know. This planet is blest with the delightful emotions of love, but
at the same time desolated by the fury of war. Another enjoys perpetual
tranquillity, but with this uninterrupted peace, love is unknown, and
calmness degenerates into ennui. In short whatever nature has done on
a small scale, for the distribution of happiness and talents among us,
she has undoubtedly performed on a more extensive plan for the benefit
of the universe; at once diversifying and equalizing all.
Are you satisfied, madam, said I? Have I given your imagination room to
exert itself? Do you not already see the people of different planets?
No, answered she, with a sigh: all you have been saying is so vague and
unsatisfactory; there is nothing in it for the mind to fix on. I want
something more determined; more marked. Well then, I replied, I will
not conceal any particulars that I am acquainted with: I can give you
some information that you will acknowledge to be undoubted, when I tell
you my authorities. Prepare to listen patiently if you please, for it
is a long story.
In one of the planets, I shall not at present tell you which, there is
a people that are very active, laborious and skillful. Like some of our
Arabs, they live by pillage, and that is their only fault. They live
together in the most harmonious manner, labouring incessantly and in
concert, for the common good: above all their chastity is unexampled;
it is true they have no great merit in it; they are all sterile; there
is no difference of sex among them. But, interrupted the Marchioness,
were you not aware that the author of this marvellous story wanted
to make a fool of you? How could such a nation be perpetuated? No, I
replied, very coolly, they did not intend to make a fool of me; all
that I have told you is fact, yet the nation is perpetuated. They
have a queen whose royalty consists, not in directing the business
of the state, not in leading her subjects to the field of battle,
but in her surprizing fecundity, she has millions of children; in
short the production of them occupies the whole of her time. She has
a large palace, divided into a vast number of chambers, in each of
which a cradle is prepared for a little prince, and she is confined
successively in all these chambers, always surrounded by her courtiers
who congratulate her on the noble privilege she enjoys exclusively of
her subjects.
I see, madam, that you wish to enquire who are her lovers, or, to give
them a more respectable appellation, her husbands. Some of the eastern
queens have seraglios of men; she apparently does the same, but she
keeps it a greater secret than they; this may arise from modesty, but
it is acting with little dignity. Among these Arabs who are always
in action, are found a few strangers, in person very much resembling
the natives of the country, though extremely different in disposition,
for they are remarkably indolent; they never stir out nor engage in
any business; and were not these persons kept for the pleasure of the
queen, they would hardly be suffered to remain amongst so industrious a
people. If, in reality, notwithstanding the smallness of their number,
they are the fathers of many thousands of children, they deserve to be
excused from any other employment; and it is a striking proof that this
is their only function, that as soon as the queen has brought forth
her ten thousand children, the Arabs kill, without mercy, the unhappy
foreigners, then become useless to the state.
Have you done? enquired the Marchioness. Thank heavens! Let us now
resume a little common sense, if we can. Where have you picked up this
romance? What poet is the inventor of it? I again tell you, answered I,
that it is no romance. All this takes place on our globe, even under
our eyes.--If I must explain the mystery, these Arabs are no other than
bees.
After this I gave her the natural history of bees, of which she had
before scarcely ever heard more than the name. In concluding, you see,
said I, that in attributing to other planets what is daily passing
here, we should be accused of telling the most extravagant falsehoods.
The history of insects, in particular, is a collection of wonders. I
have no doubt of it, she replied: the silk-worm alone, with which I was
better acquainted than the bees, would afford abundant materials for
your descriptions. A people undergoing such wonderful changes as to
be totally unlike what they formerly were; at one part of their lives
crawling, at another, flying: in short a thousand incredible things
might be told of the character and manners of this nation.
My imagination continued the Marchioness, is beginning to work on the
subject you have given me--the inhabitants of all the planets: I am
conjecturing their figures; I can discern some of them very distinctly,
but I don't know how to describe them to you. As to their figures, said
I, I advise you to leave the formation of them to your dreams: we shall
hear to-morrow what they have suggested, and whether they have been
able to represent the inhabitants of any of the planets.
══════════════
_FOURTH EVENING._
══════════════
PARTICULARS CONCERNING THE PLANETS VENUS, MERCURY,
MARS, JUPITER AND SATURN.
══════════════
The dreams of the Marchioness did not assist her; they represented
nothing that did not bear a resemblance to what we see here. I
had the same complaints to make as certain people, whose
paintings are always fanciful and grotesque, do at the sight of our
pictures,--_Pshaw_, say they, _these are all men; here are no objects
of imagination_. We therefore resolved to content ourselves with the
conjectures we should be able to make concerning the inhabitants of
the planets as we continued our journey: we had last night got as far
as Venus. We are assured, said I, that Venus turns on her axis, but it
is not ascertained in how long a time, consequently we cannot tell the
length of her days. Her years lasts but about eight months, as she is
not longer than that in performing her revolution round the sun. She
is of the same size as the earth, therefore the earth and Venus appear
equally large to each other. I am glad of that, said the Marchioness;
then I hope the earth is to Venus the shepherd's star, and the parent
of love, as Venus is to us. These appellations can be proper only for
a pretty little, brilliant, gay looking planet. True, answered I; but
do you know what makes Venus look so beautiful at a distance?--it is
the effect of her being very frightful when near. With good telescopes
it has been seen that she is covered with mountains, much higher than
ours, sharp-pointed, and apparently very dry.[33] This kind of surface
is the best calculated to reflect the light with great brilliancy.
Our earth, whose surface is very smooth, compared with that of Venus,
and partly covered with water, probably looks less beautiful at a
distance. So much the worse, said the Marchioness; I should like her to
preside over the loves of the inhabitants of Venus; they must certainly
understand what love is. Oh! undoubtedly, I replied; the people in
that planet, are all Celadons and Sylvanders, and their every-day
conversations are finer than the most admired in Clelia. Their climate
is very favourable to the tender passion. Venus is nearer to the sun
than we; and receives more light and heat: she is about two thirds the
distance of the earth, from the sun.
[Footnote 33: M. Herschel's observations contradict this idea. Venus
has a very dense atmosphere, which prevents us from distinguishing any
thing on her surface; the brilliant appearance of this planet arises
from her proximity to the earth.]
I can see, interrupted the Marchioness, what sort of people the
inhabitants are. They are much like the Moors of Granada: a little
dark, sun-burnt people, scorched with the sun; full of wit and
animation, always in love, always making verses, listening to music,
having galas, dances and tournaments. Give me leave to tell you, madam,
answered I, that you know but little of the inhabitants of Venus. Our
Moors of Granada when compared with them would appear as cold and
stupid as Greenlanders.
But what must the inhabitants of Mercury be? We are above twice the
distance from the sun that they are. They must be almost mad with
vivacity. Like most of the negroes, they are without memory; never
reflecting; acting by starts and at random: in short Mercury is the
bedlam of the universe. The sun appears there nine times larger than it
does to us: the light they receive is so brilliant that our finest days
would be but twilight in comparison of theirs; perhaps they would find
them so dark as not to be able to distinguish one thing from another.
The heat to which they are accustomed is so intense, that they would
be almost frozen in our Africa. In all probability our iron, silver
and gold would be melted in their world, and only be seen in a liquid
state, as we in general have water, which in some degrees of cold
becomes a solid body. The inhabitants of Mercury would not imagine
that in another world those liquors, which perhaps form their rivers,
are the hardest of all bodies. Their year lasts but three months. The
length of their day is not known to us, because Mercury is so small
and so near the sun, that it exceeds the art of all our astronomers to
observe him with sufficient accuracy to determine what sort of motion
he has on his centre: the inhabitants, I think, must wish it to be
performed in a short time, for scorched as they are with the fierceness
of the sun, the coolness of night is undoubtedly very desirable to
them. The part which by rotation is deprived of the sun's light, is
illumined by Venus and the earth, which must appear very large. As to
the other planets, being farther off than the earth, they, seen from
Mercury, appear much smaller than to us, and afford very little light
to that planet.
I don't feel so much for its inhabitants on that account, replied the
Marchioness, as from the inconvenience they must suffer from such
excessive heat. Let us try if we can't relieve them in some way. Is it
not probable they have long and plentiful showers, such as we are told
fall continually for four months together, in our hot countries, at the
seasons when the heat is most intense?
It may be the case, answered I; and we have another way of giving
them relief. There are some parts of China which from their situation
ought to be very hot, and yet, even in the month of July and August
the weather is so cold that their rivers freeze. This coldness arises
from the quantities of salt-petre with which the countries abound;
the exhalations, drawn up in great abundance by the heat are of a
cold nature. Mercury, if you please, shall be a little planet made of
salt-petre, and the sun, by attracting the cooling exhalations, will
thus prevent the evil it would otherwise be the cause of. However,
we may rest assured that nature would not place beings where it was
impossible for them to exist; and that habit, and ignorance of a better
climate, render this situation agreeable: Mercury therefore may perhaps
do very well without salt-petre, or abundant rains.
After Mercury, you know, we find the sun. We cannot possibly place
inhabitants there: the _why not_ fails in this case. We conclude from
the earth being inhabited that other bodies of the same nature must
be so too: but the sun does not resemble the earth, and the rest of
the planets. He is the source of all that light which the planets only
reflect to each other after they have received it from him. They make
exchanges, if I may so express myself, with one another, but none of
them can bestow an original light. The sun is the sole proprietor of
that treasure; which he distributes freely on every side. The light,
thus issuing from the centre, is reflected from every solid body it
meets, and from one planet to another it proceeds in bright streams
that intermix, and cross each other in a thousand directions, forming
a splendid tissue of the richest materials. The grand luminary by
being placed in the centre is in the most advantageous situation for
animating each planet with his heat and radiance. The sun, then, is
of a peculiar nature, but what that nature is, we find it difficult
to imagine. Formerly it was believed to be a pure fire, but lately we
have been undeceived by observing spots on the surface. As certain new
planets had just before been discovered, (I shall give you an account
of these planets hereafter;) which entirely engrossed the attention
of the philosophers, a sort of mania for new planets seized their
minds, and they immediately concluded these spots were some; that they
performed a circle round the sun, and necessarily concealed some part
of his light by turning their dark side towards the earth. The learned
already, through these planets, complimented the different princes of
Europe. Some gave them the name of one prince; some of another, and
perhaps in time there would have been a great contest to know who had
the best right to name these spots.
I don't like their plan, said the Marchioness. You told me, the other
day, that the different parts of the moon were named after learned
men; I thought that very proper: as princes monopolize the earth, it
is but fair that astronomers should have the sky for their share, and
not suffer princes to intrude on their domain. Allow them, however,
I replied, if territory should be wanting, to consign to them some
planet, or some part of the moon. As to these spots on the sun, they
can make no use of them; for instead of planets, we find they are only
clouds of smoke or dross arising from the sun. Sometimes these clouds
are greatly accumulated, sometimes we see little of them, and at other
times they totally disappear. Sometimes a number of them are combined
together, then they are separated into small parts; at one time they
are very dark, at another they grow pale. It appears as if the sun
was some kind of liquid; many people think it is melted gold, in a
continual state of ebullition, producing impurities, which the rapidity
of its motion casts up from the surface; they are afterwards consumed
and others produced. Only think what amazing bodies these are. Some
of them are seventeen hundred times[34] larger than the earth, for
you must know, the earth is more than a million times smaller than the
sun.[35] Imagine therefore what must be the quantity of this liquid
gold, or the extent of this ocean of light and fire!
[Footnote 34: The largest of the sun's spots are scarcely three times
larger than the diameter of the earth, or twenty-seven times its bulk.]
[Footnote 35: The earth is only a hundred, or to speak with more
exactness, a hundred and eleven times, smaller.]
Other philosophers say, and with great plausibility, that the spots, or
at least the greatest part of them, are not newly produced, and then
destroyed after a certain time; but large, solid, masses, of irregular
forms, always subsisting; sometimes floating on the surface of the
sun, sometimes partly, or entirely buried in the liquid substance, and
presenting to our view different projections according to the size of
the part that remains uncovered. Perhaps they may be parts of some
great mass of matter which serves as aliment to the fire of the sun.
However, let the sun be what it will, it does not by any means appear
habitable.[36] It is a pity; the situation would be advantageous:
placed at the centre, its inhabitants would see the planets going
round them in regular orbits, whilst to us their motions seem to have
perplexing varieties, which are merely the effect of our not observing
them from the best place; that is, the centre of their circles. What a
sad thing it is: there is but one spot where the study of the celestial
bodies would be extremely easy, and at that spot there is nobody to
pursue the study. You forget yourself, answered the Marchioness. Were
any one placed on the sun, he would neither see the planets nor the
fixed stars; would not the light of the sun efface every other object?
The inhabitants would doubtless think themselves the only people in
existence.
[Footnote 36: Some natural philosophers have however thought that the
sun might be the cause of heat without being itself hot; and that there
was a possibility of its being inhabited. M. Herschel believes its
population very abundant. Trans. Philos. 1795. Décade Philosophique.]
I acknowledge my error, I replied: I was thinking of the situation of
the sun, without considering the effect of such an excessive light: but
although you have so properly corrected my mistake, yet you must allow
me to tell you that you have fallen into one yourself. The inhabitants
of the sun would not see any thing: they would be either incapable
of enduring so immoderate a light, or, were their eyes sufficiently
strong, of receiving it unless they were at some distance; therefore
the sun could only be a habitation for people without sight. In short,
we have abundant proofs that this luminary was not intended to be a
dwelling-place; and therefore we may as well continue our planetary
journey. We are now stopping at the central point which is always the
lowest part in any thing that is round; and, by the way, I should tell
you that in going from our world to this centre we have travelled
thirty-three millions of leagues. We must now return the way we came.
We pass by Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon; all which we have
visited. Then we arrive at Mars. I don't know that there is any thing
remarkable in this planet. The days there are about half an hour longer
than ours; and the years twice the length of ours, except a month and a
half. Mars is four times less than the earth,[37] and the sun appears
rather smaller and less brilliant than it does to us.--In short, Mars
contains nothing calculated to arrest our attention.
[Footnote 37: Its volume, or bulk is five times smaller.]
But what a beautiful object is Jupiter, surrounded by his four moons,
or satellites! These moons are four little planets which, whilst
Jupiter revolves in twelve years round the sun, constantly go round him
as the moon does round the earth. But, interrupted the Marchioness,
how is it that there are planets which go round other planets, no
better than themselves? It seems to me that there would be much more
regularity and uniformity in assigning to all the planets but one sort
of orbit in which they should move round the sun.
Ah! madam, I replied, were you but acquainted with the vortices of
Descartes; those vortices, so terrible in name, and so charming in the
ideas they give rise to; you would not talk in this way. My wits must
all go, said she, laughing. I must know what these vortices are. Make
me quite mad at once: now I have dipped into philosophy I can't trouble
myself about the care of my senses: spite of the world's laughter, we
will talk of the vortices. I did not know you had so much enthusiasm,
said I; 'tis pity it has no other object than vortices.
What we call a vortex is a quantity of matter, whose detached parts
move all in the same direction, but allowed at the same time to have
some little movements peculiar to themselves, provided they still
pursue the general course. A vortex of wind, for instance, is a vast
number of little particles of air, turning all together in a circular
direction, and involving whatever comes in their way. The planets you
know are borne along by the celestial fluid, which is prodigiously
subtle and active. All the celestial matter, from the sun to the fixed
stars, constantly turns round, carries the planets along with it, and
makes them proceed round the sun in the same direction, but in longer
or shorter periods, according to their distance from the centre. Even
the sun is made to turn on his axis by being exactly in the midst of
this moving matter; you will therefore observe, that if the earth were
in the central situation she could not be exempted from this rotation.