by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XIX.
A MONSTER MEETING.
On the following day Barbicane, fearing that indiscreet questions mightbe put to Michel Ardan, was desirous of reducing the number of theaudience to a few of the initiated, his own colleagues for instance. Hemight as well have tried to check the Falls of Niagara! He was compelled,therefore, to give up the idea, and to let his new friend run the chancesof a public conference. The place chosen for this monster meeting was avast plain situated in the rear of the town. In a few hours, thanks to thehelp of the shipping in port, an immense roofing of canvas was stretchedover the parched prairie, and protected it from the burning rays of thesun. There 300,000 people braved for many hours the stifling heat whileawaiting the arrival of the Frenchman. Of this crowd of spectators a firstset could both see and hear; a second set saw badly and heard nothingat all; and as for the third, it could neither see nor hear anything atall. At three o'clock Michel Ardan made his appearance, accompanied bythe principal members of the Gun Club. He was supported on his right byPresident Barbicane, and on his left by J. T. Maston, more radiant thanthe midday sun and nearly as ruddy. Ardan mounted a platform, from thetop of which his view extended over a sea of black hats. He exhibited notthe slightest embarrassment; he was just as gay, familiar, and pleasantas if he were at home. To the hurrahs which greeted him he replied bya graceful bow; then, waving his hand to request silence, he spoke inperfectly correct English as follows:--
Illustration: THE MEETING.
"Gentlemen, despite the very hot weather I request your patience for ashort time while I offer some explanations regarding the projects whichseem to have so interested you. I am neither an orator nor a man ofscience, and I had no idea of addressing you in public; but my friendBarbicane has told me that you would like to hear me, and I am quite atyour service. Listen to me, therefore, with your 600,000 ears, and pleaseto excuse the faults of the speaker. Now pray do not forget that you seebefore you a perfect ignoramus whose ignorance goes so far that he cannoteven understand the difficulties! It seemed to him that it was a matterquite simple, natural, and easy to take one's place in a projectile andstart for the moon! That journey must be undertaken sooner or later;and, as for the mode of locomotion adopted, it follows simply the law ofprogress. Man began by walking on all-fours; then, one fine day, on twofeet; then in a carriage; then in a stage-coach; and lastly by railway.Well, the projectile is the vehicle of the future, and the planetsthemselves are nothing else! Now some of you, gentlemen, may imagine thatthe velocity we propose to impart to it is extravagant. It is nothingof the kind. All the stars exceed it in rapidity, and the earth herselfis at this moment carrying us round the sun at three times as rapid arate, and yet she is a mere lounger on the way compared with many othersof the planets! And her velocity is constantly _decreasing._ Is it notevident, then, I ask you, that there will some day appear velocities fargreater than these, of which light or electricity will probably be themechanical agent?
"Yes, gentlemen," continued the orator, "in spite of the opinions ofcertain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race uponthis globe, as within some magic circle which it must never outstep, weshall one day travel to the moon, the planets, and the stars, with thesame facility, rapidity, and certainty as we now make the voyage fromLiverpool to New York! Distance is but a relative expression, and mustend by being reduced to zero."
The assembly, strongly predisposed as they were in favour of the Frenchhero, were slightly staggered at this bold theory. Michel Ardan perceivedthe fact.
"Gentlemen," he continued with a pleasant smile, "you do not seem quiteconvinced. Very good! Let us reason the matter out. Do you know how longit would take for an _express train_ to reach the moon? Three hundreddays; no more! And what is that? The distance is no more than nine timesthe circumference of the earth; and there are no sailors or travellers,of even moderate activity, who have not made longer journeys than thatin their lifetime. And now consider that I shall be only ninety-sevenhours on my journey. Ah! I see you are reckoning that the moon is a longway off from the earth, and that one must think twice before making theexperiment. What would you say, then, if we were talking of going toNeptune, which revolves at a distance of more than two thousand sevenhundred and twenty millions of miles from the sun! And yet what is thatcompared with the distance of the fixed stars, some of which, such asArcturus, are at billions of miles distant from us? And then you talkof the _distance_ which separates the planets from the sun! And thereare people who affirm that such a thing as distance exists. Absurdity,folly, idiotic nonsense! Would you know what I think of our own solaruniverse? Shall I tell you my theory? It is very simple! In my opinionthe solar system is a solid, homogeneous body; the planets which composeit are in _actual contact_ with each other; and whatever space existsbetween them is nothing more than the space which separates the moleculesof the densest metal, such as silver, iron, or platinum! I have theright, therefore, to affirm, and I repeat, with the conviction which mustpenetrate all your minds, 'Distance is but an empty name; distance doesnot really exist!'"
"Hurrah!" cried one voice (need it be said it was that of J. T. Maston?)."Distance does not exist!" And overcome by the energy of his movements,he nearly fell from the platform to the ground. He just escaped a severefall, which would have proved to him that distance was by no means _anempty name._
Illustration: PROJECTILE TRAINS FOR THE MOON.
"Gentlemen," resumed the orator, "I repeat that the distance between theearth and her satellite is a mere trifle, and undeserving of seriousconsideration. I am convinced that before twenty years are over one halfof our earth will have paid a visit to the moon. Now, my worthy friends,if you have any question to put to me, you will, I fear, sadly embarrassa poor man like myself; still I will do my best to answer you."
Up to this point the President of the Gun Club had been satisfied with theturn which the discussion had assumed. It became now, however, desirableto divert Ardan from questions of a practical nature, with which he wasdoubtless far less conversant. Barbicane, therefore, hastened to get ina word, and began by asking his new friend whether he thought that themoon and the planets were inhabited.
"You put before me a great problem, my worthy President," replied theorator, smiling. "Still, men of great intelligence, such as Plutarch,Swedenborg, Bernardin de St. Pierre, and others have, if I mistake not,pronounced in the affirmative. Looking at the question from the naturalphilosopher's point of view, I should say that _nothing useless_ existedin the world; and, replying to your question by another, I should ventureto assert, that if these worlds are _habitable_, they either are, havebeen, or will be inhabited."
"No one could answer more logically or fairly," replied the president."The question then reverts to this: _Are_ these worlds habitable? For myown part I believe they are."
"For myself, I feel certain of it," said Michel Ardan.
"Nevertheless," retorted one of the audience, "there are many arguments_against_ the habitability of the worlds. The conditions of life mustevidently be greatly modified upon the majority of them. To mentiononly the planets, we should be either broiled alive in some, or frozento death in others, according as they are more or less removed from thesun."
"I regret," replied Michel Ardan, "that I have not the honour of personallyknowing my contradictor, for I would have attempted to answer him. Hisobjection has its merits, I admit; but I think we may successfully combatit, as well as all others which affect the habitability of the otherworlds. If I were a _natural philosopher,_ I would tell him that if lessof caloric were _set in motion_ upon the planets which are nearest tothe sun, and more, on the contrary, upon those which are farthest removedfrom it, this simple fact would alone suffice to equalize the heat, andto render the temperature of those worlds supportable by beings organizedlike ourselves. If I were a _naturalist_, I would tell him that, accordingto some illustrious men of science, nature has furnished us with instancesupon the earth of animals existing under very varying conditions of life;that
fish respire in a medium fatal to other animals; that amphibiouscreatures possess a double existence very difficult of explanation; thatcertain denizens of the seas maintain life at enormous depths, and theresupport a pressure equal to that of fifty or sixty atmospheres withoutbeing crushed; that several aquatic insects, insensible to temperature,are met with equally among boiling springs and in the frozen plainsof the Polar Sea; in fine, that we cannot help recognizing in nature adiversity of means of operation oftentimes incomprehensible, but not theless real. If I were a _chemist_, I would tell him that the aerolites,bodies evidently formed exteriorly of our terrestrial globe, have, uponanalysis, revealed indisputable traces of carbon, a substance whichowes its origin solely to organized beings, and which, according to theexperiments of Reichenbach, must necessarily itself have been _enduedwith animation._ And lastly, were I a theologian, I would tell him thatthe scheme of the Divine Redemption, according to St. Paul, seems to beapplicable, not merely to the earth, but to all the celestial worlds.But, unfortunately I am neither theologian, nor chemist, nor naturalist,nor philosopher; therefore, in my absolute ignorance of the great lawswhich govern the universe, I confine myself to saying in reply, 'I do notknow whether the worlds are inhabited or not; and since I do not know,_I am going to see!_"
Whether Michel Ardan's antagonist hazarded any further arguments ornot it is impossible to say, for the uproarious shouts of the crowdwould not allow any expression of opinion to gain a hearing. On silencebeing restored, the triumphant orator contented himself with adding thefollowing remarks:--
"Gentlemen, you will observe that I have but slightly touched uponthis great question. There is another altogether different line ofarguments in favour of the habitability of the stars, which I omit forthe present. I only desire to call attention to one point. To those whomaintain that the planets are _not_ inhabited one may reply:--You mightbe perfectly in the right, if you could only show that the earth is the_best possible world,_ spite of what Voltaire has said. She has but _one_satellite, while Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune have each several,an advantage by no means to be despised. But that which renders our ownglobe so uncomfortable is the inclination of its axis to the plane of itsorbit. Hence the inequality of days and nights; hence the disagreeablediversity of the seasons. On the surface of our unhappy spheroid weare always either too hot or too cold; we are frozen in winter, broiledin summer; it is the planet of rheumatism, coughs, bronchitis; whileon the surface of Jupiter, for example, where the axis is but slightlyinclined, the inhabitants may enjoy uniform temperatures. It possesseszones of perpetual springs, summers, autumns, and winters; every Jovianmay choose for himself what climate he likes, and there spend the wholeof his life in security from all variations of temperature. You will, Iam sure, readily admit this superiority of Jupiter over our own planet,to say nothing of his years, which each equal twelve of ours! Undersuch auspices, and such marvellous conditions of existence, it appearsto me that the inhabitants of so fortunate a world must be in everyrespect superior to ourselves. All we require, in order to attain tosuch perfection, is the mere trifle of having an axis of rotation lessinclined to the plane of its orbit!"
"Hurrah!" roared an energetic voice, "let us unite our efforts, inventthe necessary machines, and rectify the earth's axis!"
A thunder of applause followed this proposal, the author of which was, ofcourse, no other than J. T. Maston. And, in all probability, if the truthmust be told, if the Yankees could only have found a point of applicationfor it, they would have constructed a lever capable of raising the earthand rectifying its axis. It was just this deficiency which baffled thesedaring mechanicians.
