From the Earth to the Moon quotes

This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are born engineers, just as Italians are musicians and Germans metaphysicians. Thence nothing more natural than to see them bring their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of ballistics.

Hence those gigantic cannons, much less useful than sewing-machines, but quite as astonishing, and much more admired.

The marvels of this style by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known. There was nothing left the Armstrongs, Pallisers, and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before their transatlantic rivals.

the Union newspapers published their inventions with enthusiasm, and there was no little tradesman nor naif “booby” who did not bother his head day and night with calculations about impossible trajectory engines.

Now when an American has an idea he seeks another American to share it. If they are three, they elect a president and two secretaries.

Given four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established. Five convoke a general meeting, and the club is formed. It thus happened at Baltimore.

“The estimation in which they are held,” said one day a learned orator of the Gun Club, “is in proportion to the size of their cannons, and in direct ratio to the square of distance attained by their projectiles!”

A little more and it would have been Newton’s law of gravitation applied to moral order.

Once the Gun Club founded, it can be easily imagined its effect upon the inventive genius of the Americans. War-engines took colossal proportions, and projectiles launched beyond permitted distances cut inoffensive pedestrians to pieces.

The Rodman gun that sent a projectile weighing half a ton a distance of seven miles could easily have cut up a hundred and fifty horses and three hundred men. There was some talk at the Gun Club of making a solemn experiment with it.

But if the horses consented to play their part, the men unfortunately were wanting.

However that may be, the effect of these cannons was very deadly, and at each discharge the combatants fell like ears before a scythe. After such projectiles what signified the famous ball which, at Coutras, in 1587, disabled twenty-five men;

By considering such a result it will be seen that the single preoccupation of this learned society was the destruction of humanity philanthropically, and the perfecting of firearms considered as instruments of civilisation.

It was a company of Exterminating Angels, at bottom the best fellows in the world.

It must be added that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved themselves, did not confine themselves to formulae, but sacrificed themselves to their theories.

Barbicane had made a great fortune as a timber-merchant; named director of artillery during the war, he showed himself fertile in inventions; enterprising in his ideas, he contributed powerfully to the progress of ballistics, gave an immense impetus to experimental researches.

He was a person of average height, having, by a rare exception in the Gun Club, all his limbs intact.

His strongly-marked features seemed to be drawn by square and rule, and if it be true that in order to guess the instincts of a man one must look at his profile, Barbicane seen thus offered the most certain indications of energy, audacity, and sangfroid.

This treatise, the work of an American named Locke, had a very great success. But it was soon found out that it was a scientific mystification, and Frenchmen were the first to laugh at it.”

“Laugh at an American!” cried J. T. Maston; “but that’s a casus belli!”

“Be comforted, my worthy friend; before Frenchmen laughed they were completely taken in by our countryman.

It was an indescribable hubbub and disorder. Mouths, hands, and feet made as much noise as they could. All the weapons in this artillery museum going off at once would not have more violently agitated the waves of sound.

That is not surprising; there are cannoneers nearly as noisy as their cannons.

Barbicane remained calm amidst these enthusiastic clamours; perhaps he again wished to address some words to his colleagues, for his gestures asked for silence, and his fulminating bell exhausted itself in violent detonations; it was not even heard.

it was not even heard. He was soon dragged from his chair, carried in triumph, and from the hands of his faithful comrades he passed into those of the no less excited crowd.

Nothing can astonish an American. It has often been repeated that the word “impossible” is not French; the wrong dictionary must have been taken by mistake.

In America everything is easy, everything is simple, and as to mechanical difficulties, they are dead before they are born. Between the Barbicane project and its realisation not one true Yankee would have allowed himself to see even the appearance of a difficulty.

Nothing can astonish an American. It has often been repeated that the word “impossible” is not French; the wrong dictionary must have been taken by mistake.

In America everything is easy, everything is simple, and as to mechanical difficulties, they are dead before they are born.

Between the Barbicane project and its realisation not one true Yankee would have allowed himself to see even the appearance of a difficulty. As soon said as done.

The triumphant march of the president was prolonged during the evening. A veritable torchlight procession—Irish, Germans, Frenchmen, Scotchmen—all the heterogeneous individuals that compose the population of Maryland—shouted in their maternal tongue, and the cheering was unanimous.

Precisely as if she knew it was all about her, the moon shone out then with serene magnificence, eclipsing other lights with her intense irradiation.

All the Yankees directed their eyes towards the shining disc; some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the sweetest names; between eight o’clock and midnight an optician in Jones-Fall street made a fortune by selling field-glasses.

All the Yankees directed their eyes towards the shining disc; some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the sweetest names; between eight o’clock and midnight an optician in Jones-Fall street made a fortune by selling field-glasses.

The Queen of Night was looked at through them like a lady of high life.

The Americans acted in regard to her with the freedom of proprietors. It seemed as if the blonde Phoebe belonged to these enterprising conquerors and already formed part of the Union territory.

some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the sweetest names; between eight o’clock and midnight an optician in Jones-Fall street made a fortune by selling field-glasses. The Queen of Night was looked at through them like a lady of high life.

The Americans acted in regard to her with the freedom of proprietors.

It seemed as if the blonde Phoebe belonged to these enterprising conquerors and already formed part of the Union territory.

all the “life-preservers” in the world would have been powerless to guarantee him against the general indignation.

There are things that are not to be laughed at in the New World.

Impey Barbicane became from that day one of the greatest citizens of the United States, something like a Washington of science, and one fact amongst several will serve to show the sudden homage which was paid by a nation to one man.

but the sun tires the eyesight, and the splendour of its light forces its admirers to lower their eyes.

The blonde Phoebe, more humane, graciously allows herself to be seen in her modest grace; she is gentle to the eye, not ambitious, and yet she sometimes eclipses her brother the radiant Apollo, without ever being eclipsed by him.

The Muhammadans understood what gratitude they owed to this faithful friend of the earth, and they ruled their months at 29½ days on her revolution.

Everybody began to study her assiduously. It seemed as if the moon had appeared on the horizon for the first time, and that no one had ever seen her in the sky before.

She became the fashion; she was the lion of the day, without appearing less modest on that account, and took her place amongst the “stars” without being any the prouder.

The newspapers revived old anecdotes in which this “Sun of the wolves” played a part; they recalled the influence which the ignorance of past ages had ascribed to her; they sang about her in every tone;

“My dear colleagues,” he continued, “I will be brief. I will lay aside the material projectile—the projectile that kills—in order to take up the mathematical projectile—the moral projectile.

A cannonball is to me the most brilliant manifestation of human power, and by creating it man has approached nearest to the Creator!

”

Cheers greeted this brilliant peroration, and J. T. Maston, overcome with emotion, sat down amidst the felicitations of his colleagues.

“And now,” said Barbicane, “that we have given some time to poetry, let us proceed to facts.”

“We are ready,” answered the members of the committee as they each demolished half-a-dozen sandwiches.

“The Rodman Columbiad, tried at Fort Hamilton, near New York, hurled a projectile, weighing half a ton, a distance of six miles, with a speed of 800 yards a second, a result which neither Armstrong nor Palliser has obtained in England.”

“Englishmen are nowhere!” said J. T. Maston, pointing his formidable steel hook eastward.

“Then,” resumed Barbicane, “a speed of 800 yards is the maximum obtained at present.”

“Because you go too far.”

“You must know, sir,” answered J. T. Maston, looking dignified, “that an artilleryman is like a cannonball, he can never go too far.”

The debate was getting personal, but the president interfered.

“Yes, but it possesses resistance too. Besides, we shall not let it explode, I can answer for that.”

“It is possible to explode and yet be honest,” replied J. T. Maston sententiously.

“Evidently,” answered Barbicane. “I am, therefore, going to beg our worthy secretary to calculate the weight of a cast-iron cannon 900 feet long, with an inner diameter of nine feet, and sides six feet thick.”

Here J. T. Maston could not contain his emotion.

He threw himself into the arms of his friend with the violence of a projectile, and he would have been stove in had he not have been bombproof.

This incident ended the first sitting of the committee. Barbicane and his enterprising colleagues, to whom nothing seemed impossible, had just solved the complex question of the projectile, cannon, and powder. Their plan being made, there was nothing left but to put it into execution.

Ships armed with formidable guns went into the fire under shelter of their invulnerable armour. The Merrimac, Monitor, ram Tennessee, and Wechhausen shot enormous projectiles after having made themselves proof against the projectiles of other ships.

They did to others what they would not have others do to them, an immoral principle upon which the whole art of war is based.

Now Barbicane was a great caster of projectiles, and Nicholl was an equally great forger of plate-armour. The one cast night and day at Baltimore, the other forged day and night at Philadelphia. Each followed an essentially different current of ideas.

As soon as Barbicane had invented a new projectile, Nicholl invented a new plate armour. The president of the Gun Club passed his life in piercing holes, the captain in preventing him doing it. Hence a constant rivalry which even touched their persons.

Nicholl appeared in Barbicane’s dreams as an impenetrable ironclad against which he split, and Barbicane in Nicholl’s dreams appeared like a projectile which ripped him up.

Still, although they ran along two diverging lines, these savants would have ended by meeting each other in spite of all the axioms in geometry; but then it would have been on a duel field.

The decision, therefore, was hardly made public before the Floridian and Texican deputies flocked to Baltimore by the shortest way. From that moment President Barbicane and the influential members of the Gun Club were besieged day and night by formidable claims.

If seven towns of Greece contended for the honour of being Homer’s birthplace, two entire states threatened to fight over a cannon.

These rival parties were then seen marching with weapons about the streets of the town. Every time they met a fight was imminent, which would have had disastrous consequences. Happily the prudence and skill of President Barbicane warded off this danger.

Making allusion to the width of Florida, a simple peninsula between two seas, they pretended it would not resist the shock, and would be blown up the first time the cannon was fired.

“Very well! let it be blown up!” answered the Floridians with a laconism worthy of ancient times.

France began by laughing at the pretensions of the Americans. The moon served as an excuse for a thousand stale puns and a score of vaudevilles in which bad taste contested the palm with ignorance.

But, as the French formerly paid after singing, they now paid after laughing, and subscribed a sum of 1,258,930 francs. At that price they bought the right to joke a little.

Austria, in the midst of her financial difficulties, was sufficiently generous. Her part in the public subscription amounted to 216,000 florins, which were welcome.

Denmark, rather confined for room, gave, notwithstanding, 9,000 ducats, proving her love for scientific experiments.

The Germanic Confederation subscribed 34,285 florins; more could not be asked from her; besides, she would not have given more.

Although in embarrassed circumstances, Italy found 2,000,000 francs in her children’s pockets, but by turning them well inside out. If she had then possessed Venetia she would have given more, but she did not yet possess Venetia.

The Germanic Confederation subscribed 34,285 florins; more could not be asked from her; besides, she would not have given more.

Although in embarrassed circumstances, Italy found 2,000,000 francs in her children’s pockets, but by turning them well inside out.

If she had then possessed Venetia she would have given more, but she did not yet possess Venetia.

The Pontifical States thought they could not send less than 7,040 Roman crowns, and Portugal pushed her devotion to the extent of 3,000 cruzades.

Mexico sent the widow’s mite, 86 piastres; but empires in course of formation are always in rather embarrassed circumstances.

Switzerland sent the modest sum of 257 francs to the American scheme. It must be frankly stated that Switzerland only looked upon the practical side of the operation;

It is known how American railways are constructed, with capricious bends, bold slopes, steep hills, and deep valleys.

They do not cost much and are not much in their way, only their trains run off or jump off as they please.

The railway from Tampa Town to Stony Hill was but a trifle, and wanted neither much time nor much money for its construction.

The line made by these 1,200 furnaces was two miles long. They were all built on the same model, with high quadrangular chimneys, and had a singular effect. J. T. Maston thought the architectural arrangement superb. It reminded him of the monuments at Washington.

He thought there was nothing finer in the world, not even in Greece, where he acknowledged never to have been.

It will be remembered that at their third meeting the committee decided to use cast-iron for the Columbiad, and in particular the grey description.

Twelve o’clock struck. The cannon was suddenly fired, and shot its flame into the air.

Twelve hundred tapping-holes were opened simultaneously, and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept along twelve hundred troughs towards the central well, rolling in rings of fire.

There they plunged with terrific noise down a depth of 900 feet. It was an exciting and magnificent spectacle.

At last, on the 22nd of September, less than a year after the Barbicane communication, the enormous weapon, raised by means of delicate instruments, and quite vertical, was ready for use.

There was nothing but the moon to wait for, but they were sure she would not fail.

J. T. Maston’s joy knew no bounds, and he nearly had a frightful fall whilst looking down the tube of 900 feet.

Thus Tampa, thanks to these marvels of industry due to the idea born one fine day in the brain of one man, could take as its right the airs of a large town.

They surnamed it “Moon-City,” and the capital of Florida suffered an eclipse visible from all points of the globe.

Everyone will now understand why the rivalry was so great between Texas and Florida, and the irritation of the Texicans when they saw their pretensions set aside by the Gun Club.

It was already easy to foresee that the day of the experiment the concourse of spectators would be counted by millions, for they came already from all points of the earth to the narrow peninsula.

Europe was emigrating to America.

But until then, it must be acknowledged, the curiosity of the numerous arrivals had only been moderately satisfied. Many counted upon seeing the casting who only saw the smoke from it.

“Time will inform us,” answered the president coldly.

“Time has no right to keep a whole country in suspense,” answered the orator.

“Have you altered your plans for the projectile as the telegram demanded?”

On the deck of the steamer, amongst the crowd, he bustled about, never still for a moment, “dragging his anchors,” in nautical speech, gesticulating, making friends with everybody, and biting his nails nervously.

He was one of those original beings whom the Creator invents in a moment of fantasy, and of whom He immediately breaks the cast.

In fact, the character of Michel Ardan offered a large field for physiological analysis. This astonishing man lived in a perpetual disposition to hyperbole, and had not yet passed the age of superlatives; objects depicted themselves on the retina of his eye with exaggerated dimensions;

Amongst other peculiarities he gave himself out as “sublimely ignorant,” like Shakespeare, and professed supreme contempt for all savants, “people,” said he, “who only score our points.”

He was, in short, a Bohemian of the country of brains, adventurous but not an adventurer, a harebrained fellow, a Phaeton running away with the horses of the sun, a kind of Icarus with relays of wings.

He had a wonderful facility for getting into scrapes, and an equally wonderful facility for getting out of them again, falling on his feet like a cat.

He was, in short, a Bohemian of the country of brains, adventurous but not an adventurer, a harebrained fellow, a Phaeton running away with the horses of the sun, a kind of Icarus with relays of wings.

He had a wonderful facility for getting into scrapes, and an equally wonderful facility for getting out of them again, falling on his feet like a cat.

In short, his motto was, “Whatever it may cost!” and the love of the impossible his “ruling passion,” according to Pope’s fine expression.

“I waited till you came. But,” asked Barbicane, insisting once more, “you have quite reflected?”

“Reflected! have I any time to lose? I find the occasion to go for a trip to the moon, I profit by it, and that is all. It seems to me that does not want so much reflection.”

Barbicane looked eagerly at the man who spoke of his project of journey with so much carelessness, and with such absence of anxiety.

Soon an immense sky of cloth was spread over the calcined plain, and defended it against the heat of the day. There 300,000 persons stood and braved a stifling temperature for several hours whilst awaiting the Frenchman’s arrival.

Of that crowd of spectators one-third alone could see and hear; a second third saw badly, and did not hear. As to the remaining third, it neither heard nor saw, though it was not the least eager to applaud.

At three o’clock Michel Ardan made his appearance, accompanied by the principal members of the Gun Club. He gave his right arm to President Barbicane, and his left to J. T. Maston, more radiant than the midday sun, and nearly as ruddy.

Man began by travelling on all fours, then one fine day he went on two feet, then in a cart, then in a coach, then on a railway.

Well, the projectile is the carriage of the future, and, to speak the truth, planets are only projectiles, simple cannonballs hurled by the hand of the Creator.

But to return to our vehicle. Some of you, gentlemen, may think that the speed it will travel at is excessive—nothing of the kind.

We are going to the moon, we shall go to the planets, we shall go to the stars as we now go from Liverpool to New York, easily, rapidly, surely, and the atmospheric ocean will be as soon crossed as the oceans of the earth!

Distance is only a relative term, and will end by being reduced to zero.

”

Paul, seems applicable not only to the earth but to all the celestial bodies. But I am neither a theologian, chemist, naturalist, nor natural philosopher. So, in my perfect ignorance of the great laws that rule the universe, I can only answer, ‘

I do not know if the heavenly bodies are inhabited, and, as I do not know, I am going to see!

’ ”

But that which now renders the earth an uncomfortable place of abode is the inclination of its axis upon its orbit. Hence the inequality of day and night; hence the unfortunate diversity of seasons.

Upon our miserable spheroid it is always either too warm or too cold; we are frozen in winter and roasted in summer; it is the planet of colds, rheumatism, and consumption

, whilst on the surface of Jupiter, for instance, where the axis has only a very slight inclination, the inhabitants can enjoy invariable temperature. There is the perpetual spring, summer, autumn, and winter zone;

Alas! what is wanting to our spheroid to reach this perfection is very little!—an axis of rotation less inclined on the plane of its orbit.”

“Well!” cried an impetuous voice, “let us unite our efforts, invent machines, and rectify the earth’s axis!”

Thunders of applause greeted this proposition, the author of which could be no other than J. T. Maston. It is probable that the fiery secretary had been carried away by his instincts as engineer to venture such a proposition;

“Ah! there is no air in the moon! And who says so, pray?”

“Sir,” resumed Michel, “joking apart, I have a profound respect for savants who know, but a profound contempt for savants who do not know.”

“Do you know any who belong to the latter category?”

“Then why do you meddle with scientific questions which you have never studied?” asked the unknown brutally.

“Why?” answered Ardan; “because the man who does not suspect danger is always brave! I know nothing, it is true, but it is precisely my weakness that makes my strength.”

“Your weakness goes as far as madness,” exclaimed the unknown in a bad-tempered tone.

“Your weakness goes as far as madness,” exclaimed the unknown in a bad-tempered tone.

“So much the better,” replied the Frenchman, “if my madness takes me to the moon!”

Barbicane and his colleagues stared at the intruder who had come so boldly to stand in the way of their enterprise.

“Anyway you will do well to take your precautions, for the air will be terribly rarefied.”

“Oh, there will always be enough for one man. Besides, once delivered up there, I shall do my best to economise it and only to breathe it on great occasions.”

A formidable burst of laughter saluted the mysterious interlocutor, who looked round the assembly daring it proudly.

However, the unknown did not take advantage of the tumult to leave the place. He kept in the front row, his arms folded, still staring at President Barbicane.

The president did not lose sight of him either, and the eyes of these two men met like flaming swords.

The cries of the immense crowds kept at their maximum of intensity during this triumphant march. Michel Ardan allowed himself to be carried with evident pleasure.

Whilst the duel was being discussed between the president and the captain—a terrible and savage duel in which each adversary became a man-hunter—Michel Ardan was resting after the fatigues of his triumph.

Resting is evidently not the right expression, for American beds rival in hardness tables of marble or granite.

Ardan slept badly, turning over and over between the serviettes that served him for sheets, and he was thinking of installing a more comfortable bed in his projectile when a violent noise startled him from his slumbers. Thundering blows shook his door.

The secretary of the Gun Club bounded into the room.

A bomb would not have entered with less ceremony.

“Yesterday evening,” exclaimed J. T. Maston ex abrupto, “our president was publicly insulted during the meeting! He has challenged his adversary, who is no other than Captain Nicholl! They are going to fight this morning in Skersnaw Wood! I learnt it all from Barbicane himself!

“Have you heard any firing?” asked Michel Ardan.

“Not one. That sportsman does not seem to bag much game!”

“What shall we do?” said Maston.

“Faith,” said he, “it is fortunate that brave fellows like you did not meet sooner. We should now have to mourn for one or other of you; but, thanks to God, who has prevented it, there is nothing more to fear.

When one forgets his hatred to plunge into mechanical problems and the other to play tricks on spiders, their hatred cannot be dangerous to anybody.

”

It is well known how enthusiastic the Yankees will get about an individual.

In a country where grave magistrates harness themselves to a dancer’s carriage and draw it in triumph, it may be judged how the bold Frenchman was treated.

If they did not take out his horses it was probably because he had none, but all other marks of enthusiasm were showered upon him.

It is well known how enthusiastic the Yankees will get about an individual. In a country where grave magistrates harness themselves to a dancer’s carriage and draw it in triumph, it may be judged how the bold Frenchman was treated.

If they did not take out his horses it was probably because he had none, but all other marks of enthusiasm were showered upon him.

There was no citizen who did not join him heart and mind:—E pluribus unum, according to the motto of the United States.

“Why?” answered Ardan. “Why, the only thing I can tell you is what Arago repeated nineteen centuries after Plutarch.

Perhaps it is because it is not true.

”

To tell the truth, this popularity did not displease him. On the contrary, he put himself at the disposition of the public, and corresponded with the entire universe.

They repeated his witticisms, especially those he did not perpetrate.

Not only had he all the men for him, but the women too. What an infinite number of good marriages he might have made if he had taken a fancy to “settle!” Old maids especially dreamt before his portraits day and night.

Not only had he all the men for him, but the women too. What an infinite number of good marriages he might have made if he had taken a fancy to “settle!”

Old maids especially dreamt before his portraits day and night.

It is certain that he would have found female companions by hundreds, even if he had imposed the condition of following him up into the air. Women are intrepid when they are not afraid of everything.

It is certain that he would have found female companions by hundreds, even if he had imposed the condition of following him up into the air.

Women are intrepid when they are not afraid of everything.

But he had no intention of transplanting a race of Franco-Americans upon the lunar continent, so he refused.

He owed it that. Besides, he was getting very learned in ballistics since he had lived with Barbicane, J. T. Maston, and tutti quanti.

His greatest pleasure consisted in repeating to these brave artillerymen that they were only amiable and learned murderers.

He was always joking about it. The day he visited the Columbiad he greatly admired it, and went down to the bore of the gigantic mortar that was soon to hurl him towards the Queen of Night.

The bomb was hardly opened before the cat sprang out, rather bruised but quite lively, and not looking as if it had just returned from an aerial expedition. But nothing, was seen of the squirrel. The truth was then discovered.

The cat had eaten its travelling companion.

J. T. Maston was very grieved at the loss of his poor squirrel, and proposed to inscribe it in the martyrology of science.

But nothing, was seen of the squirrel. The truth was then discovered. The cat had eaten its travelling companion.

J. T. Maston was very grieved at the loss of his poor squirrel, and proposed to inscribe it in the martyrology of science.

However that may be, after this experiment all hesitation and fear were at an end; besides, Barbicane’s plans were destined further to perfect the projectile, and destroy almost entirely the effect of the shock. There was nothing more to do but to start.

“Well, my friend,

I think we ought always to put a little art in all we do.

Do you know an Indian play called The Child’s Chariot?”

“

Well, I should have acquitted him, friend Barbicane. That is why you could never understand me.

”

… him with a cigar in his mouth whilst he drove out the intruders to whom he was giving this unfortunate example, the president of the Gun Club saw that he could not depend upon this intrepid smoker, and was obliged to have him specially watched.

At last, there being a Providence even for artillerymen, nothing blew up, and the loading was happily terminated.

The third bet of Captain Nicholl was therefore much imperilled. There still remained the work of introducing the projectile into the Columbiad and placing it on the thick bed of guncotton.

As to provisions, it would have been insane to believe that the inhabitants of the earth would not find food up there.

Michel Ardan had no doubt about it. If he had he would not have gone.

“Besides,” said he one day to his friends, “we shall not be completely abandoned by our friends on earth, and they will take care not to forget us.”

“

It is that you may lose your other two wagers. By that means we shall be sure not to be stopped on the road.

”

The moment for saying farewell had come. The scene was touching; in spite of his gaiety Michel Ardan felt touched.

J. T. Maston had found under his dry eyelids an ancient tear that he had, doubtless, kept for the occasion.

He shed it upon the forehead of his dear president.

Murchison watched the needle of his chronometer.

Hardly forty seconds had to elapse before the moment of departure struck, and each one lasted a century!

At the twentieth there was a universal shudder, and the thought occurred to all the crowd that the audacious travellers shut up in the vehicle were likewise counting these terrible seconds! Some isolated cries were heard.