by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XI
FANCY AND REALITY
"Have you ever seen the moon?" asked a professor, ironically,of one of his pupils.
"No, sir!" replied the pupil, still more ironically, "but I mustsay I have heard it spoken of."
In one sense, the pupil's witty answer might be given by a largemajority of sublunary beings. How many people have heard speakof the moon who have never seen it-- at least through a glass ora telescope! How many have never examined the map of their satellite!
In looking at a selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us.Contrary to the arrangement followed for that of the Earth andMars, the continents occupy more particularly the southernhemisphere of the lunar globe. These continents do not showsuch decided, clear, and regular boundary lines as SouthAmerica, Africa, and the Indian peninsula. Their angular,capricious, and deeply indented coasts are rich in gulfsand peninsulas. They remind one of the confusion in theislands of the Sound, where the land is excessively indented.If navigation ever existed on the surface of the moon, it musthave been wonderfully difficult and dangerous; and we may wellpity the Selenite sailors and hydrographers; the former, whenthey came upon these perilous coasts, the latter when theytook the soundings of its stormy banks.
We may also notice that, on the lunar sphere, the south pole ismuch more continental than the north pole. On the latter, thereis but one slight strip of land separated from other continentsby vast seas. Toward the south, continents clothe almost thewhole of the hemisphere. It is even possible that the Seleniteshave already planted the flag on one of their poles, whileFranklin, Ross, Kane, Dumont, d'Urville, and Lambert have neveryet been able to attain that unknown point of the terrestrial globe.
As to islands, they are numerous on the surface of the moon.Nearly all oblong or circular, and as if traced with thecompass, they seem to form one vast archipelago, equal to thatcharming group lying between Greece and Asia Minor, and whichmythology in ancient times adorned with most graceful legends.Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, and Carpathos, risebefore the mind, and we seek vainly for Ulysses' vessel or the"clipper" of the Argonauts. So at least it was in MichelArdan's eyes. To him it was a Grecian archipelago that he sawon the map. To the eyes of his matter-of-fact companions, theaspect of these coasts recalled rather the parceled-out land ofNew Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and where the Frenchmandiscovered traces of the heroes of fable, these Americanswere marking the most favorable points for the establishmentof stores in the interests of lunar commerce and industry.
After wandering over these vast continents, the eye is attractedby the still greater seas. Not only their formation, but theirsituation and aspect remind one of the terrestrial oceans; butagain, as on earth, these seas occupy the greater portion ofthe globe. But in point of fact, these are not liquid spaces,but plains, the nature of which the travelers hoped soonto determine. Astronomers, we must allow, have graced thesepretended seas with at least odd names, which science hasrespected up to the present time. Michel Ardan was right whenhe compared this map to a "Tendre card," got up by a Scudary ora Cyrano de Bergerac. "Only," said he, "it is no longer thesentimental card of the seventeenth century, it is the card oflife, very neatly divided into two parts, one feminine, theother masculine; the right hemisphere for woman, the left for man."
In speaking thus, Michel made his prosaic companions shrugtheir shoulders. Barbicane and Nicholl looked upon the lunarmap from a very different point of view to that of theirfantastic friend. Nevertheless, their fantastic friend was alittle in the right. Judge for yourselves.
In the left hemisphere stretches the "Sea of Clouds," wherehuman reason is so often shipwrecked. Not far off lies the "Seaof Rains," fed by all the fever of existence. Near this is the"Sea of Storms," where man is ever fighting against hispassions, which too often gain the victory. Then, worn out bydeceit, treasons, infidelity, and the whole body of terrestrialmisery, what does he find at the end of his career? that vast"Sea of Humors," barely softened by some drops of the watersfrom the "Gulf of Dew!" Clouds, rain, storms, and humors-- doesthe life of man contain aught but these? and is it not summed upin these four words?
The right hemisphere, "dedicated to the ladies," enclosessmaller seas, whose significant names contain every incident ofa feminine existence. There is the "Sea of Serenity," overwhich the young girl bends; "The Lake of Dreams," reflecting ajoyous future; "The Sea of Nectar," with its waves of tendernessand breezes of love; "The Sea of Fruitfulness;" "The Sea ofCrises;" then the "Sea of Vapors," whose dimensions are perhapsa little too confined; and lastly, that vast "Sea ofTranquillity," in which every false passion, every uselessdream, every unsatisfied desire is at length absorbed, and whosewaves emerge peacefully into the "Lake of Death!"
What a strange succession of names! What a singular division ofthe moon's two hemispheres, joined to one another like man andwoman, and forming that sphere of life carried into space!And was not the fantastic Michel right in thus interpreting thefancies of the ancient astronomers? But while his imaginationthus roved over "the seas," his grave companions were consideringthings more geographically. They were learning this new worldby heart. They were measuring angles and diameters.
