Francis Godwin

“ Now after it was known that Irdonozur the great Monarch had done me this Honour, it is strange how much all respected me more than before; my Guardians, who had been hitherto cautious in relating any thing of the Government of that World, grew now more open, so that from them and Pylonas together I understood many notable Particulars; as that in a thousand Years there is found neither Thief nor Whore-monger, for first there is no want of any thing necessary for the Use of Man, food growing every where without Labour, of all Sorts that can be desired. ”

“ You must understand, that of the true Lunars or Moon Men there are three Kinds, some a little taller than we, as perhaps ten or twelve foot high, these can endure the Day of the Moon, when the Earth shines but little, but not the Beams of both, and so then must be laid asleep: Others are twenty foot high or above, who can suffer all the Light both of the Earth and Sun. ”

“ I could now wish that Philosophers and Mathematicians would confess their own Blindness, who have hitherto made the World believe that the Earth hath no Motion, and to confirm it, are forced to attribute to every one of the celestial Bodies two Motions directly contrary to each other, one from the East to the West, to be performed in twenty-four Hours with an impetuous rapid Motion ”

“ I then perceived also that this World was the greatest Part covered with a huge mighty Sea, those Parts only being dry Land which, are to us somewhat darker than the rest of her Body, I mean, what the Country People call, The Man in the Moon, and that Part which shines so bright is another Ocean besprinkled with Islands, which for their Smallness we cannot discern so far off; so that the Splendor which appears to us in the Night, is nothing but the Reflection of the Sun-beams returned to us out of the Water as from a Lookin'glass. ”

“ During the Sun's Absence, there is a twofold Light, one of the Sun, which I could not endure to behold, and another of the Earth: Now that of the Earth was at the Height, for when the Moon is at the Change, then is the Earth a full Moon to them, and as the Moon increaseth with us, so the Light of the Earth decreaseth with them. ”

“ And as little Want is there of Physicians, they never surfeit themselves; the Air is always pure and temperate, neither is there any Cause of Sickness, I could never hear of any that were distempered. ”

“ I found then by Experience, what no Philosopher ever dreamt of, namely, that those Things we call heavy do not fall towards the Center of the Earth as their natural Place, but are drawn by a secret Property of the Globe of the Earth, or rather something within it, as the Load-stone draweth Iron, which is within the Compass of its attractive Beams. ”

“ It was now the Season that these Birds take their Flight away, as our Cuckows and Swallows do in Spain towards Autumn, and as I afterwards found, being mindful of their usual Voyage, just when I began to settle myself to take them in, they with one Consent rose up, and having no other higher Place to make toward, to my unspeakable Fear and Amazement, struck bolt upright, and never left towring upward, still higher and higher, for the Space, as I guest, of an Hour, after which I thought they laboured less than before, till at length, ah wonderful! ”

“ In the Ascent of one Mile, some of our Company grew very saint and sick, disordered by fluxes, Vomitings, and agueish Distempers, our Horses Hair standing up like Bristles, and calling for some of our Wine carried in small Barrels on an Horse, we found it so wonderfully cold, that we could not drink it till we had made a fire to warm it, notwithstanding the Air was very calm and moderate, but when the Sun was set, it began to blow with such Violence, and grew so cold, that taking up our Lodging among the hollow Rocks, we were necessitated to keep fires in the Mouths of them all Night. ”

“ You shall then see Men flying in the Air, from one Place to another, you shall then be able to send Messages many hundred Miles in an Instant, and receive Answers immediately, without the Help of any Creature upon Earth; you shall then presently impart your Mind to your Friend, though in the most remote and obscure Place of a populous City, and a Multitude of other notable Experiments; but what exceeds all, you shall then have the Discovery of a New World, and Abundance of rare and incredible Secrets of Nature, which the Philosophers of former Ages never so much as dreamt of ”

“ I tended my Gansas daily with much Care, which yet had signified little, if other Men had not done more than I could: for now the Time came when of Necessity all People of our Stature, and myself like wise, must needs sleep thirteen or fourteen whole Days together; for by a Secret and irresistible Decree of Nature, when the Day begins to appear, and the Moon to be enlightened by the Sun Beams, which is in the first Quarter of the Moon, all People of our Stature inhabiting these Parts fall into a dead Sleep, and are not possibly to be awakened till the Sun set, and is withdrawn ”

“ Now though my Gansas were entangled in my Lines, yet they easily seized upon divers Kinds of Flies and Birds, especially Swallows and Cuckows, whereof there were Multitudes, even like Motes in the Sun, though I never saw them eat any Thing at all. I was much obliged to those, whether Men or Devils I know not, who among divers Discourses told me, "If I would follow their Directions, I should not only be carried, safe Home, but be assured to command at all, Times all the Pleasures of that Place." ”

“ The Machrus is yet more precious, in Colour like a Topaz, so clear and resplendent, as though not above the Bigness of a Bean, yet being placed in the Night in the midst of a large Church, it makes all as light as if an hundred Lamps were hanged round; can any Man wish for more useful Properties in a Stone than these? ”

“ On the Cliff-Islands, on the South, are thousands of grey and black Mews, or Sea-Pies, and white and coloured Birds, some, with long, others with short Necks, who lay their Eggs on the Rocks, and suffer themselves to be taken with the Hand, gazing at their Surprizers, till they are knocked on the Head with Sticks.
From the Salt-water beating against the Cliffs, a Froth or Scum remains in some Places, which the Heat of the Sun so purifies, that it becomes white and good Salt; some of the Mountains yield. Bole Armoniac, and a fat Earth like Terra Lemnia. ”

“ The manner of our Travel to the Palace of Pylonas was more strange and incredible than any thing we have related, for at our first setting forth there were delivered to each of us two Feather Fans, like those our Ladies in Spain cool themselves with in Summer: You must understand, that the Globe of the Moon has likewise an attractive Power, yet so much weaker than the Earth, that if a Man do but spring upward with all his Strength, as Dancers do in shewing their Tricks, he will be able to mount fifty or sixty Foot high ”

“ At length with much Solliciting I prevailed, having first acquainted the great Irdonozur with my Intentions, and perceiving by the often baying of my Birds a great Longing in them to be gone, I trimmed up my Engine, and took my Leave of Pylonas, and March 29, three Days after my waking from, the last Moon's Light, I fastened myself to my Engine, not forgetting to take the Jewels Irdonozur had given me, with the Virtues and Use whereof Pylonas had acquainted me at large, with a small Quantity of Victuals, whereof afterward I had great Occasion. ”

“ Though it is true likewise that some are of a better Disposition than others, which they discern immediately at their Birth; and because it is an inviolable Law amongst them that none shall be put to Death; therefore perceiving by their Stature or some other Signs, who are like to be of a wicked and debauched Humour, they send them, I know not by what Means, into the Earth, and change them for other Children, before they have either Opportunity or Ability to do amiss among them ”

“ China is a Country so populous, that I think there is scarce a Piece of Ground thrice a Man's Length which is not carefully manured: I being yet in the Air, some of the Country People spying me came running by Troops, and seized me, would needs carry me before a Magistrate, and seeing no other Remedy I yielded to them. But when I tried to go I found myself so light, that one foot being on the Ground I had much ado to set down the other, which was by reason my Ebelus took all Weight away from my Body, therefore I pretended a Desire of performing the Necessities of Nature ”

“ On this happy Island did they set me ashore with a Negro to attend me, where. I recovered my Health, and continued a whole Year, solacing myself for want of human Society with Birds and brute Beasts; Diego my Black moor was forced to live in a Cave at the West End of the Isle, for had we dwelt together, Victuals would not have been so plenty with us; but now, if one succeeded well in hunting or fowling, the other would find Means to treat him, and if both missed, we were fain to look out sharply ”

“ Low Life, or one half of the World knows not how the other half live, being a critical Account of what is transacted by People of almost all Religions, Nations, Circumstances, and Sizes of Understanding, in the twenty-four Hours, between Saturday Night and Monday Morning ”

“ Many of them live wonderful long, even beyond Belief, affirming to me, that some survived thirty thousand Moons, which is above a thousand Years, so that the Ages of three or four Men might easily reach to the Time of the first Irdonozur, and this is generally noted, that the taller People are of Stature, the more excellent are their Endowments of Mind, and the longer Time they live; for their Stature is very different, great Numbers not much exceeding ours, who seldom live above a thousand Moons, which is fourscore of our Years ”

“ Their ordinary Vent for them is a certain high Hill in the North of America, whose People, I am apt to believe, are wholly descended from them, both in regard of their Colour, and their continual use of Tobacco, which the Lunars or Moon Men smoak exceedingly, the Place abounding much with Moisture, together with the Pleasure they take therein, and some other Respects too long to rehearse: Sometimes, though but seldom, they mistake their Aim, and fall upon Europe, Asia, or Africa. ”

“ O incredible Supposition! that those huge Bodies of the fixed Stairs in the highest Orb, whereof they confess divers, are above an hundred Times bigger than the whole Earth, should like so many Nails in a Cart-wheel be whirled about in so short a Time; whereas it is many thousand Years, no less (say they) than thirty thousand, before that Orb finishes his Course from West to East, which they call his natural Motion; now whereas they allow their natural Course from West to East to every one of them, therein they do well ”

“ And likewise such Birds as my Gansas, all which, as I now perceived, spend their Time in their Absence from us, in that World, neither do they differ in any Thing from ours, but are the very same kind. ”

“ Those whom they account true Natural Lunars or Moon Men, exceed ours generally thirty Times, both in Quantity of Body, and Length of Life, proportionable to the Quality of the Day in both Worlds, theirs containing almost thirty of our Days. ”

“ It is the Opinion of some ingenious Persons who have lived twenty Years upon the Place, that the whole Island being a Soil mightily impregnated with Brimstone, did in former Times take Fire, and blow up all or near all at the same Time; and that many Mountains of huge Stones calcined and burnt, which appear all over this Island, especially in the South-West Part of it, were cast up and raised out of the Bowels of the Earth at the Time of that general Conflagration ”

“ I puzzled my Wits extremely with this Thought, and upon Trial found, that if many were put to the bearing of one great Burthen, by reason it was impossible all of them, should rise together just at one Instant, the first that rise finding himself stayed by a Weight heavier than he could stir, would soon give over, and so the second, third, and all the rest. ”

“ He that reads the Discourses of learned Men concerning them, as John Leo of Africa, and others who relate that they are seen in the Air several Days before they fall on the Earth, and adds thereto this Experience of mine, will easily conclude, that they can come from no other Place than the Globe of the Moon. ”

“ But the Sun was not far ascended when the Clouds began to rise so fast, as intercepted our Prospect both of the Sea and the whole Island, except the Tops only of the subjacent Mountains, which seemed to pierce them through; whether these Clouds do ever surmount the Pico we cannot say, but to such as are far below they seem sometimes to hang above it, or rather wrap themselves about it, constantly when the Weft Winds blow ”

“ If you enquire how Justice is executed, alas, what need is there of exemplary Punishment where no Offences are committed, neither need they any Lawyers, for there is no Contention, the Seeds whereof, when they begin to sprout, are by the Wisdom of the next Superior pluckt up by the Roots. ”

“ There are in a certain Island (the Mysteries whereof are carefully concealed) Men whose Stature is at least twenty-seven foot high: If any other come to land there in the Moon's Day time, they instantly fall asleep: This is called Insula Martini, and hath a particular Governor, who as they report is sixty-five thousand Moons old, which makes five thousand of our Years ”