The Moon

Cum anno 1608. ferverent dissidia inter fratres Imp. Rudolphum et Matthiam Archiducem; eorumque actiones vulgo ad exempla referrent, ex historia Bohemica petita; ego publica vulgi curiositate excitus, ad Bohemica legenda animum appuli. Cumque incidissem in historiam Libussæ Viraginis, arte Magica celebratissimæ: factum quadam nocte, ut post contemplationem siderum et Lunæ, lecto compositus, altius obdormiscerem: atque mihi per somnum visus sum librum ex Nundinis allatum perlegere, cuius hic erat tenor.

In the year 1608 a quarrel was raging between two brothers, the emperor Rudolf and the archduke Matthias. People commonly compared their actions to examples from Bohemian history. Caught up in the public curiosity, I set my mind to reading Bohemian tales. I came upon the story of the heroine Libussa, who was famous for her magic art. One night, after watching the stars and the Moon, I went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. In my sleep I seemed to be reading a book brought from the fair. This is what it said.

Mirum in modum mihi arridebant Astronomica exercitia; quippè Studiosi et Braheus, mirabilibus machinis totis noctibus intendebant Lunæ sideribusque, quæ me res admonebat matris, quippè et ipsa assiduè cum Luna solita erat colloqui.

The work of astronomy pleased me wonderfully. Brahe and his students spent whole nights watching the Moon and the stars with wonderful instruments. This reminded me of my mother, for she, too, used to talk with the Moon all the time.

Imprimis ejus, de qua toties mihi dixit, regionis, te velim spectatorem fieri, me comite: valdè enim mira sunt, quæ de ea narrat. Levaniam indigitavit.

Above all, I would like you to come with me and see the region he has told me about so often, for the things he tells of it are truly wonderful.” The region is called Levania.

Quinquaginta millibus miliarium Germanicorum in ætheris profundo sita est LEVANIA insula: iter ad eam hinc, vel ex eâ in has terras rarissimè patet: et cùm patet nostræ quidem genti facilè est; hominibus verò transportandis planè difficilimum, et cum summo vitæ periculo conjunctum: Nulli à nobis sedentarij adsciscuntur in hunc comitatum, nulli corpulenti, nulli delicati; sed legimus eos, qui ætatem veredorum assiduo usu consumunt, aut qui navibus frequenter Indias adeunt, pane biscocto, allio, piscibus duratis, et cibis abhorrentibus victitare sueti. Inprimis nobis aptæ sunt vetulæ exsuccæ, quibus indè à pueritia trita est ratio, hircos nocturnos, aut furcas, aut trita pallia inequitandi, trajiciendique per immania terrarum spacia. Nulli è Germania viri apti sunt: Hispanorum sicca corpora non respuimus.

Fifty thousand German miles up in the depths of the ether lies the island of Levania. The road to it from here, or from there to these lands, is very rarely open. When it is open, the trip is easy for our kind. But for carrying humans it is extremely hard, and it puts their lives in the greatest danger. We take no one into our company who sits still all day, and no one fat or soft. We choose people who spend their lives riding post-horses, or who often sail to the Indies, living on ship’s biscuit, garlic, dried fish, and other unpleasant food. Dried-up old women suit us best. Since childhood they have practiced riding by night on goats, pitchforks, or worn-out cloaks, and crossing huge stretches of land. No men from Germany are fit for it, but we do not turn down the dry bodies of Spaniards.

Totum iter quantum est, quatuor ad summum horarum spacio absolvitur. Neque enim nobis semper occupatissimis, anteà constat de tempore eundi, quàm Luna ab orientis partibus ceperit deficere: quæ ubi tota luxerit, nobis adhuc in itinere hærentibus: irrita redditur nostra profectio. Tàm præceps occasio efficit, ut paucos ex humana gente, nec alios, nisi nostri observantissimos comites habeamus. Ergò hominem aliquem hujus modi agminatim invadimus, omnesque subtus nitentes, in altum eum tollimus. Prima quæque molitio durissima ipsi accidit. Nec enim aliter torquetur ac si pulvere Bombardico excussus, montes et maria tranaret. Proptereà Narcoticis et Opiatis, statim in principio sopiendus est, et membratim explicandus, ne corpus à podice, caput à corpore gestetur, sed ut violentia in singula membra dividatur. Tunc excipit nova difficultas, ingens frigus, et prohibita respiratio, quorum illi, ingenita nobis vi, huic verò, spongijs humectis ad nares admotis, obviam imus. Confectâ primâ parte itineris, facilior redditur vectio. Tunc libero aëri exponimus corpora, manusque subtrahimus. Atque illa in sese conglobantur ut aranei: quæ nos solo ferè nutu transportamus, adeò ut denique moles corporea sponte suâ vergat in locum propositum. Sed parum nobis est utilis hæc ῥοπὴ, quia nimis tarda: itaque nutu ut dixi acceleramus; et præcedimus jam corpus, ne durissimo impactu in Lunam, damni quid patiatur.

The whole journey, long as it is, takes four hours at most. We are always very busy, so the time to leave is not settled until the Moon has begun to be eclipsed on its eastern side. If it shines out whole again while we are still on the way, our trip is ruined. The chance comes and goes so quickly that we take few humans as companions, and only those who show us great respect. We fall on such a man as a troop, and all of us push from below and lift him up high. The first heave is the hardest for him. He is wrenched just as if he had been blasted by gunpowder over mountains and seas. So he must be put to sleep with narcotics and opiates right at the start. His limbs must be arranged so that his body is not torn from his buttocks or his head from his body, but the force is spread among all his limbs. Then a new difficulty comes: terrible cold, and breathing cut off. We fight the cold with a power that is born in us, and the breathing with damp sponges held to the nostrils. When the first part of the journey is done, the carrying gets easier. Then we leave the bodies out in the open air and take our hands away. They roll themselves up into balls, like spiders, and we carry them almost by our will alone. In the end the mass of the body moves of its own accord toward the place we intend. But this pull, this rhopē, is too slow to be much use to us. So, as I said, we speed it up by our will, and we go on ahead of the body, so that it is not harmed by striking the Moon too hard.

Multæ prætereà occurrunt difficultates, quas longum esset recensere. Nobis nihil admodum evenit mali. Tenebras enim Telluris quam longæ illæ sunt, confertim inhabitamus; quæ ubi LEVANIAM attigerint, præstò sumus, quasi ex navi in terram exscendentes: et ibi nos properè in speluncas et loca tenebrosa recipimus, ne nos Sol in aperto paulò pòst obruturus, optato diversorio ejiciat, umbramque discedentem insequi cogat. Dantur ibi nobis induciæ exercendorum ingeniorum ex animi sententia; conferimus cum ejus provinciæ dæmonibus, initaque societate, ubi primùm locus Sole carere ceperit, junctis agminibus in umbram exspaciamur, et si illa mucrone suo, quod plerumque fit, Tellurem feriat, Terris et nos, socijs exercitibus incumbimus: quod non aliàs nobis licet, quàm cum Solem homines viderint deficere. Hinc evenit, ut defectus Solis adeò metuantur.

Many other difficulties come up, which would take too long to list. Nothing bad at all happens to us. We live crowded together in the darkness of the earth’s shadow, all along its length. When it reaches Levania, we are there at once, as if stepping off a ship onto land. There we hurry into caves and dark places. Otherwise the Sun would soon catch us in the open, drive us out of the lodging we have chosen, and force us to follow the departing shadow. There we have a break, and we can use our minds as we please. We talk with the daemons of that land and make an alliance with them. As soon as a place begins to lose the Sun, we join our troops and march out into the shadow. If its point strikes the earth, as usually happens, we too fall on the earth with our allied armies. We are allowed to do this only when people see the Sun eclipsed. That is why eclipses of the Sun are so feared.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.