Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-10-10
VOL. XVII.

1 l.
where people want for nothing; but Vi
to the present time have not seen an,
one who could tell me exactly where
| is situated. Let us revert from fancies t
facts. How, long do men live in thi
planet ?"
"Oh, but very little while," said tn
little Saturnian; "only five hundred reyo
lutions round the sun" (about fifteel
thousand years of our reckoning). Yo'
see it gives US no time at all. Our life i
hut point, our years are but moment
our globe is but an atom. One ha
scarce begun to live-experience is i'm
possible-When death comes and cast u
down."
Micromega answered: "Were you no
philosopher should fear to affiict 20,
by telling you that our life is seven hun
| dred times as long. But when the mo
ment arrives for us to give up our bodie:
to the elements to be terminated into new
] forms (the process we call DEATH, it mat
| ters little to have lived an eternity or te
have lived but day-iti is the same thing
With us, we are always complaining Of
the shortness of life; and have been il
the distant planets, where folks live 6
| thousand times longer. 1t is the same
there. Only now and then does one meet
| a wise man who accepts his lot and gives
| humble thanks to the Great Author of his
being. But tell me how many essentia
properties of matter you distinguish"
off you speak of essential properties,
without which our globe could not exist,
replied the Saturnian, 1--WE reckon three
hundred-such as expansion, impenetra
bility, mobility, gravitation, dlyislblllty
and so on"
"Doubtless this small number suff1ces
for the purposes the Creator had in view
in making so small planet" said Micro
mega. 81 reverence His wisdom in it all.
A little globe-little inhabitants with few
sensations-matter with meagre proper
test is all-wise and proportionate
What color is your sum-"
"a yellowish white" said the Saturn
ian; 'tand when we divide one of its rays
we find it composed of seven colors.
"Our sum-" said Micromega, sis of a
metallic red tone, and we have thirty nine
primitive colors. No sun have evel
seen is like it."
After some more conversation of sim
lar nature, the two philosophers determ
ined to travel together and explore Other
planets. So, packing up their mathemat
ical instruments, they left Saturn, and
soon alighted upon the ring. Thence
they iourEeyed from moon to moon, and
availing themselves of passing comet
they mounted it, and were swiftly carried
through space. After long time, see
ing little shining ball beneath them
they resolved to rest there, and so de
scended the tail of the comet An aurora
bcrealis brought them safely to our earth
where they landed on the southern shore
of the Baltic Sea, July 5th, 1887. Firsi
they walked from north to south; then
thew walked all around the world, accom-
plishing the latter journey in thirty-si
hours; but they could not see single in
habitant, nor discern the least sign to leae
them to suspect that beings SO distin
guished as ourselves had the honor of eX
isting.
The Saturnian academician, who some
times jumped rather rashly at conclu
sions, decided, without hesitation, tina
the earth was uninhabited. The frs
reason he gave was that he had not seer
any inhabitants.
stAllow me to remind you that YOU
reasoning is bad," said Micromega; fol
by the same argument you might contene
that many stars of the fiftieth magnitude
which are distinctly visible to me, do no
exist simply because your little eyes can
not perceive them"
"But," returned his dwarfish com
panion, 81 have examined carefully"
"But," said the other, "you hav,
badly weighed the results of your exami
nation" -
"But," urged the dwarf, "this littl'
globe is SO badly constructed, it is SO il
regular and so ridiculous in shape. 1t i
ali chaos Look at those little crooked
streams, no bigger than thread, AM
those shapeless ponds, neither round no
square, nor any other shape, and thes
little peaks that prick ones feet so il
walking" (He was speaking of rivers
and oceans, and mountains "Observ
the form of the globe, how flat 1t is at tn
polls. Then see how absurdly it turn
round the sun in such a way that it i
nearly always dark at the poles. Wha
makes me think it is uninhabited, is be
cause no person well supplied wit
senses could possibly reconcile himself t
dwell here"
Every good" said Micromega; " bu
even that would not exclude people in
differently supplied with senses from Ii,
ing here. 1t seems to me all this was nc
made for nothing. 1t may appear irregr
lar enough compared with Jupiter G
Saturn; but the fact that we cannot pc
ceive its order should not make US SUI
pose it is necessarily in confusion. Hav
| not told you that my travels have lie
me to remark the variety of Nature
ways?"
The Saturnian replied somewhat warn
ly, and the dispute would not have 500
finished, had not Micromega by accidel
broken the thread of dian 'cT-l necklat
lhe wore, The diamonds LII upon Il
ground. They were nice sstie gems Il
largest might weight four hundred weigh
the smaller perhaps fifty pounds. tt
| dwarf began to pick them up, and as
/ did so discovered that the fashion of the
| cutting rendered them splendid micr
scopes. He took one little microsco]
, which magnifed hundred and six
, times, and applied it to his eye. Micr
r mega chose one of a magnifying pow
t of two thousand five hundred. The di
: monds were excellent lenses, but at fiji
| they could perceive nothing by their al
? Presently, beginning to learn the focus
the instrument, the inhabitant of Satur
? saw something very small and black up
e the Baltic Sea, it was whale. He rails
}. it gently from the water, and setting it
: his thumb-nail, showed it to his felle
: traveller, who could not help smiling
b the exceeding littleness Of the inhabitaI
l. of our globe.
# The Saturnian, now convinced that
It earth was inhabited, concluded at or
e that it must be peopled with whales, a
y began to speculate on their origin, and
wonder if they had ideas and free W
!" Micromega examined the atom with gr
care, but was unable to pronour
a. whether it had a soul or no. They w
both inclined to think that no living thi
le endowed with spirit existed upon |
earth, when, by the aid of their mic
j. crope, they observed another object abb
c. the size of the whale floating on
waters of the Baltic. The fact was
L. shipload of philosophers were return
e, from grand Intellectual and internati
~ al congress, where they had distinguish
themselves by making great many
e. servations, which neither they nor a
one else understood. The newspap
H. said their vessel ran aground in the G
I'll of Bothnia, and that passengers and CT
ur were saved with great difficulty; but
saldom knows in this world the exact
49,, ON ur