A VOYAGE TO THE MOON

BY MONSIEUR

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY and McCLURE Co

M. DCCC. XCIX.

CONTENTS

Cyrano de Bergerac.

Note on the Translation.

The Translator to the Reader.

Title-page of Lovell's Translation of The Comical History of the States and Empires of the World of the Moon: London, 1687.

I.—Of how the Voyage was Conceived.

II.—Of how the Author set out, and where he first arrived.

III.—Of his Conversation with the Vice-Roy of New France; and of the system of this Universe.

IV.—Of how at last he set out again for the Moon, tho without his own Will.

V.—Of his Arrival there, and of the Beauty of that Country in which he fell.

VI.—Of a Youth whom he met there, and of their Conversation: what that country was, and the Inhabitants of it.

VII.—Being cast out from that Country, of the new Adventures which Befell him; and of the Demon of Socrates.

VIII.—Of the Languages of the People in the Moon; of the Manner of Feeding there, and Paying the Scot; and of how the Author was taken to Court.

IX.—Of the little Spaniard whom he met there, and of his quaint Wit; of Vacuum, Specific Weights, and sundry other Philosophical Matters.

X.—Where the Author comes in doubt, whether he be a Man, an Ape, or an Estridge; and of the Opinion of the Lunar Philosophers concerning Aristotle.

XI.—Of the Manner of making War in the Moon; and of how the Moon is not the Moon, nor the Earth the Earth.

XII.—Of a Philosophical Entertainment.

XIII.—Of the little Animals that make up our Life, and likewise cause our Diseases; and of the Disposition of the Towns in the Moon.

XIV.—Of the Original of All Things; of Atomes; and of the Operation of the Senses.

XV.—Of the Books in the Moon, and their Fashion; of Death, Burial, and Burning; of the Manner of telling the Time; and of Noses.

XVI.—Of Miracles; and of Curing by the Imagination.

XVII.—Of the Author's Return to the Earth.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC, Frontispiece
CYRANO IN HIS STUDY
CYRANO EN ROUTE FOR THE MOON
THE "LITTLE SPANIARD'S" TRIP TO THE MOON
THE AUTHOR'S FLYING MACHINE

Cyrano de Bergerac.

La terre me fut importune
Le pris mon essort vers les Cieux.
l'y vis le soleil, et la lune.
Et maintenant J'y vois les Dieux

("All weary with the earth too soon,
I took my flight into the skies,
Beholding there the sun and moon
Where now the Gods confront my eyes.")

From a 17th Century Engraving of the original portrait
by Zacharie Heince.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC.

Savinien Hercule de Cyrano Bergerac, swashbuckler, hero, poet, and philosopher, came of an old and noble family, richer in titles than in estates. His grandfather still kept most of the titles, and was called Savinien de Cyrano Mauvières Bergerac Saint-Laurent. He was secretary to the King in 1571, and held other important offices. Since there was no absolute right of primo-geniture in those matters, the names, as well as