_Of the Manner of making War in the Moon; and of how the Moon is not the
Moon, nor the Earth the Earth._
One Morning early, having started out of my Sleep, I found her
Taboring[1] upon the grates of my Cage: "Take good heart," said she to
me, "yesterday in Council a War was resolved upon, against the King
[Illustration: bar 1][2] I hope that during the hurry of Preparations,
whilst our Monarch and his Subjects are absent, I may find an occasion
to make your escape." "How, a War," said I interrupting her, "have the
Princes of this World, then, any quarrels amongst themselves, as those
of ours have? Good now, let me know their way of Fighting."
"When the Arbitrators," replied she, "who are freely chosen by the two
Parties, have appointed the time for raising Forces for their March,
the number of Combatants, the day and place of Battle, and all with
so great equality, that there is not one Man more in one Army, than
in the other: All the maimed Soldiers on the one side, are lifted in
one Company; and when they come to engage, the _Mareshalls de Camp_[3]
take care to expose them to the maimed of the other side: The Giants
are matched with Colosses, the Fencers with those that can handle their
Weapons, the Valiant with the Stout, the Weak with the Infirm, the Sick
with the Indisposed, the Sturdy with the Strong; and if any undertake
to strike at another than the Enemy he is matched with, unless he can
make it out that it was by mistake, he is Condemned for a Coward. When
the Battle is over, they take an account of the Wounded, the Dead and
the Prisoners, for Runaways they have none; and if the loss be equal on
both sides, they draw Cuts, who shall be Proclaimed Victorious.
"But though a Kingdom hath defeated the Enemy in open War, yet there
is hardly any thing got by it; for there are other smaller Armies of
Learned and Witty Men, on whose Disputations the Triumph or Servitude
of States wholly depends.
"One Learned Man grapples with another, one Wit with another, and one
Judicious Man with another Judicious Man: Now the Triumph which a State
gains in this manner is reckoned as good as three Victories by open
force. After the Proclamation of Victory, the Assembly is broken up,
and the Victorious People either chuse the Enemies King to be theirs,
or confirm their own."
I could not forbear to Laugh at this scrupulous way of giving Battle;
and for an Example of much stronger Politicks, I alledged the Customs
of our _Europe_, where the Monarch would be sure not to let slip any
favourable occasion of gaining the day; but mind what she said as to
that.
"Tell me, pray, if your Princes use not a pretext of Right, when they
levy Arms:" "No doubt," answered I, "and of the Justice of their
Cause too." "Why then," replied she, "do they not chuse Impartial and
Unsuspected Arbitrators to compose their Differences? And if it be
found, that the one has as much Right as the other, let things continue
as they were; or let them play a game at _Picket_, for the Town or
Province that's in dispute."
"But why all these Circumstances," replied I, "in your way of Fighting?
Is it not enough, that both Armies are equal in the number of Men?"
"Your Judgment is Weak," answered she. "Would you think in Conscience,
that if you had the better of your Enemy, Hand to Hand, in an open
Field, you had fairly overcome him, if you had had on a Coat of Mail,
and he none; if he had had but a Dagger, and you a Tuck[4]; and in a
Word, if he had had but one Arm, and you both yours? Nevertheless,
what Equality soever you may recommend to your Gladiators, they never
fight on even terms; for the one will be a tall Man, and the other
Short; the one skilful at his weapon, and the other a Man that never
handled a Sword; the one will be strong, and the other Weak: And though
these Disproportions were not, but that the one were as skillful and
strong as the other; yet still they might not be rightly matched; for
one, perhaps, may have more Courage than the other, who being rash and
hot-headed, inconcerned in danger, as not foreseeing it; of a bilious
Temper, a more contracted Heart, with all the qualities that constitute
Courage, (as if that, as well as a Sword, were not a Weapon which his
Adversary hath not:) He makes nothing of falling desperately upon,
terrifying, and killing this poor Man, who foresees the danger; who
has his Heat choked in Phlegme, and a Heart too wide to close in the
Spirits in such a posture as is necessary for thawing that Ice which is
called Cowardise. And now you praise that Man, for having killed his
Enemy at odds, and praising him for his Boldness you praise him for a
Sin against nature; seeing such Boldness tends to its destruction. And
this puts me in mind to tell ye, that some Years ago application was
made to the Council of War for a more circumspect and conscientious
Rule to be made, as to the way of Fighting. The Philosopher who gave
the advice, if I mistake it not, spake in this manner.
"You imagine, Gentlemen, that you have very equally balanced the
advantages of two Enemies, when you have chosen both Tall Men, both
skillful, and both couragious: But that's not enough, seeing after all
the Conquerour must have the better on't either through his Skill,
Strength, or good Fortune. If it be by Skill, without doubt he hath
taken his Adversary on the blind side, which he did not expect; or
struck him sooner than was likely, or faining to make his Pass on one
side, he hath attacked him on the other: Nevertheless all this is
Cunning, Cheating, and Treachery, and none of these make a brave Man:
If he hath triumphed by Force, would you judge his Enemy overcome,
because he hath been over-powered? No; doubtless, no more than you'll
say that a Man hath lost the Victory, when, overwhelm'd by a Mountain,
it was not in his power to gain it: Even so, the other was not
overcome, because he was not in a suitable Disposition, at that nick of
time, to resist the violences of his Adversary. If Chance hath given
him the better of his Enemy, Fortune ought then to be Crowned, since he
hath contributed nothing to it; and, in fine, the vanquished is no more
to be blamed, than he who at Dice having thrown Seventeen, is beat by
another that throws three Sixes.'
"They confessed he was in the right; but that it was impossible,
according to humane Appearances, to remedy it; and that it was better
to submit to a small inconvenience, than to open a door to a hundred of
greater Importance."
She entertained me no longer at that time, because she was afraid to
be found alone with me so early; not that Impudicity is a Crime in
that Country: On the contrary, except Malefactors Convicted, all Men
have power over all Women; and in the same manner, a Woman may bring
her Action against a Man for refusing her: But she durst not keep
me company publickly, because the Members of Council, at their last
meeting, had said, That it was chiefly the Women who gave it out that I
was a Man; which was the reason that for a long time I neither saw her,
nor any other of her Sex.
[Sidenote: Moon Not the Moon]
In the mean time, some must needs have revived the Disputes about
the Definition of my Being; for whilst I was thinking of nothing
else but of dying in my Cage, I was once more brought out to have
another Audience. I was then questioned, in presence of a great many
Courtiers, upon some points of Natural Philosophy; and, as I take it,
my Answers gave some kind of Satisfaction; for the President declared
to me at large his thoughts concerning the structure of the World.
They seemed to me very ingenious; and had he not traced it to its
Original,[5] which he maintained to be Eternal, I should have thought
his Philosophy[6] more rational than our own: But as soon as I heard
him maintain a Foppery[6b] so contrary to our Faith. I broke with him;
at which he did but laugh; and that obliged me to tell him, That since
they were thereabouts with it, I began again to think that their World
was but a Moon.
But then all cried, "Don't you see here Earth, Rivers, Seas? what's
all that then?" "No matter," said I, "Aristotle assures us it is but
a Moon; and if you had said the contrary in the Schools, where I have
been bred, you would have been hissed at." At this they all burst out
in laughter; you need not ask, if it was their Ignorance that made them
do so; for in the mean time I was carried back to my Cage.
But some more passionate Doctors, being informed that I had the
boldness to affirm, That the Moon, from whence I came, was a World; and
that their World was no more but a Moon, thought it might give them a
very just pretext to have me condemned to the Water, for that's their
way of rooting out Hereticks. For that end, they went in a Body, and
complained to the King, who promised them Justice; and order'd me once
more to be brought to the Bar.
Now was I the third time Un-caged; and then the most Ancient spoke, and
pleaded against me. I do not well remember his Speech; because I was
too much frighted to receive the tones of his Voice without disorder;
and because also in declaiming, he made use of an Instrument which
stunn'd me with its noise: It was a Speaking-Trumpet, which he had
chosen on purpose that by its Martial Sound he might rouse them to
my death; and by that Emotion of their Spirits, hinder Reason from
performing its Office: As it happens in our Armies, where the noise of
Drums and Trumpets hinders the Souldiers from minding the importance of
their Lives.
When he had done, I rose up to defend my Cause; but I was excused from
it, by an Accident that will surprize you. Just as I had opened my
Mouth, a Man, who with much ado had pressed through the Crowd, fell at
the King's Feet, and a long while rouled himself upon his Back in his
presence. This practice did not at all surprize me, because I knew it
to be the posture they put themselves into, when they have a mind to be
heard in publick: I only stopt my own Harangue, and gave Ear to his.
"Just Judges," said he, "listen to me; you cannot Condemn that Man,
that Monkey or Parrot, for saying, That the Moon from whence he comes
is a World; for if he be a Man, though he were not come from the
Moon, since all Men are free, is not he free also to imagine what he
pleases? How can you constrain him not to have Visions, as well as
you? You may very well force him to say, That the Moon is not a World,
but he will not believe it for all that; for to believe a thing, some
possibilities enclining more to the Yea than to the Nay, must offer to
ones Imagination: And unless you furnish him that Probability, or his
own mind hit upon it, he may very well tell you that he believes, but
still remain an Infidel.[8]
[Sidenote: Earth Not the Earth]
"I am now to prove, that he ought not to be condemned if you lift him
in the Catalogue of Beasts.
"For suppose him to be an Animal without Reason, would it be rational
in you to Condemn him for offending against it? He hath said, that the
Moon is a World. Now Beasts act only by the instinct of Nature: it
is Nature then that says so, and not he: To think that wise Nature,
who hath made the World and the Moon, knows not her self what it is;
and that ye who have no more Knowledge but what ye derive from her,
should more certainly know it, would be very Ridiculous. But if Passion
should make you renounce your Principles, and you should suppose that
Nature does not guide Beasts; blush, at least, to think on't, that the
Caprices of a Beast should so discompose you.
"Really, Gentlemen, should you meet with a Man come to the Years of
Discretion, who made it his business to inspect the Government of
_Pismires_, giving a blow to one that had overthrown its Companion,
imprisoning another that had robb'd its Neighbour of a grain of Corn,
and inditing a third for leaving its Eggs; would you not think him a
mad Man, to be employed in things so far below him, and to pretend to
give Laws to Animals, that never had Reason? How will you then, most
Venerable Assembly, justifie your selves for being so concerned at the
Caprices of that little Animal? Just Judges, I have no more to say."
When he had made an end, all the Hall rung again with a kind of Musical
Applause; and after all the Opinions had been canvased, during the
space of a large quarter of an hour, the King gave Sentence:
That for the future, I should be reputed to be a Man, accordingly
set at liberty, and that the Punishment of being Drowned, should
be converted into a publick Disgrace (the most honourable way of
satisfying the Law in that Country) whereby I should be obliged to
retract openly what I had maintained in saying, That the Moon was a
World, because of the Scandal that the novelty of that opinion might
give to weak Brethren.
This Sentence being pronounced, I was taken away out of the Palace,
richly Cloathed; but in derision, carried in a magnificent Chariot,
as on a Tribunal, which four Princes in Harness drew; and in all the
publick places of the Town, I was forced to make this Declaration:
"Good People, I declare to you, That this Moon here is not a Moon, but
a World; and that that World below is not a World, but a Moon: This the
Council thinks fit you should believe."
[1] Drumming, striking; _cf_. Nahum ii. 7: "And her maids shall lead
her as with the voice of doves, tabouring upon their breasts."
[2] Cyrano writes all proper names by musical notation, in imitation of
the language of the moon as he has described it.
[3] Possibly "field officers" here; in exact ranking, the Maréchal de
Camp stands between Colonel and Lieutenant-Général, and corresponds to
Brigadier-General.
[4] Fencing sword. _Cf_. Shakspere, _Hamlet_:
"If he by chance escape your venomed tuck."
[5] _Cf_. P. 95, n. 1. (See note 3 chap. VIII)
[6] Folly, foolishness, ridiculous belief. _Cf_. Shakspere. _Merry
Wives of Windsor_: "... drove the grossness of the _foppery_ into a
received belief."
[7] _Cf_. the saying attributed to Galileo immediately after his public
recantation (June 22, 1633): "E pur si muove"--"yet it does move."