A Voyage to the Moon

67

Talc, silicate of magnesia.

68

The "Philosopher's Stone," in form of powder, for chemical "projection" upon baser metals, to transmute them into gold.

69

The "Elixir of Life," or the "Philosopher's Stone" in liquid form.

70

Eulogy. Still so used at the end of the eighteenth century.

71

Consequence = conclusion, deduction. Cf. Matthew Prior:

"Can syllogisms set things right?
No, majors soon with minors fight.
Or both in friendly consort joined
The consequence limps false behind."

72

Officious = kindly, ready to serve, doing good offices. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost:

"Yet, not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious; but to thee, earth's habitant."

73

Cf. The Man in the Moone, of Francis Godwin: "Their Language is very difficult, since it hath no Affinity with any other I ever heard, and consists not so much of Words and Letters, as Tunes and strange Sounds which no Letters can express; for there are few Words but signify several Things, and are distinguished only by their Sounds, which are sung as it were in uttering; yea many Words consist of Tunes only, without Words."

74

Origin. Cf. pp. 137 (#p_137), 170 (#p_170), 174 (#pgepubid00032); and cf. Shakspere, Henry IV., Part II.:

75

"It hath its original from much grief."
"… On ne s'attendait guère
De voir [Charon] en cette affaire!"

In fact, our translator has made an amusing mistake, for which the printer of the 1661 edition is perhaps partly responsible; in that edition we read: "(Caron ne se sert pas d'autres chandelles)," which should of course be, as in the other editions, "Caron …;" "For they use no other candles."

76

"Your excellency's servant."

77

Domingo Gonzales, the hero of Bishop Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone (see p. 4, note (#cn_1)), who says of himself: "I must acknowledge my Stature is so little, as I think no Man living is less."

78

The engraving opposite, showing how he was carried up by his birds, is copied from an old edition of The Man in the Moone. The other winged figures about him are supposed to represent demons who attacked him when just above "the middle region."

79

With the pure element (Lat., merus); i. e., water alone unmixed with impurities or other elements.

80

Fr. gazouillent, babble.

81

Unfortunate creature ("ce malheureux").

82

The translator has here mistaken a Dative for an Accusative. The sense of the French is: "But we need a Prometheus to pluck out for us, from the bosom of Nature, and make tangible to us, that which I will call First Matter."

83

Ostrich.

84

Starlings.

85

Fr., "sornettes," nonsense.

86

Wrest the facts to fit his theories.

87

Ostrich.

88

Drumming, striking; cf. Nahum ii. 7: "And her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabouring upon their breasts."