in themselves.
Fancy has depicted men without reflection, others without shadow.
But here reality, by the neutralizations of attractive forces,
produced men in whom nothing had any weight, and who weighed
nothing themselves.
Suddenly Michel, taking a spring, left the floor and remained
suspended in the air, like Murillo’s monk of the _Cusine des Anges_.
The two friends joined him instantly, and all three formed a
miraculous “Ascension” in the center of the projectile.
“Is it to be believed? is it probable? is it possible?”
exclaimed Michel; “and yet it is so. Ah! if Raphael had seen us
thus, what an `Assumption’ he would have thrown upon canvas!”
“The `Assumption’ cannot last,” replied Barbicane. “If the
projectile passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will
draw us to the moon.”
“Then our feet will be upon the roof,” replied Michel.
“No,” said Barbicane, “because the projectile’s center of
gravity is very low; it will only turn by degrees.”
“Then all our portables will be upset from top to bottom, that
is a fact.”
“Calm yourself, Michel,” replied Nicholl; “no upset is to be
feared; not a thing will move, for the projectile’s evolution
will be imperceptible.”
“Just so,” continued Barbicane; “and when it has passed the
point of equal attraction, its base, being the heavier, will
draw it perpendicularly to the moon; but, in order that this
phenomenon should take place, we must have passed the neutral line.”
“Pass the neutral line,” cried Michel; “then let us do as the
sailors do when they cross the equator.”
A slight side movement brought Michel back toward the padded
side; thence he took a bottle and glasses, placed them “in
space” before his companions, and, drinking merrily, they
saluted the line with a triple hurrah. The influence of these
attractions scarcely lasted an hour; the travelers felt
themselves insensibly drawn toward the floor, and Barbicane
fancied that the conical end of the projectile was varying a
little from its normal direction toward the moon. By an inverse
motion the base was approaching first; the lunar attraction was
prevailing over the terrestrial; the fall toward the moon was
beginning, almost imperceptibly as yet, but by degrees the
attractive force would become stronger, the fall would be more
decided, the projectile, drawn by its base, would turn its cone
to the earth, and fall with ever-increasing speed on to the
surface of the Selenite continent; their destination would then
be attained. Now nothing could prevent the success of their
enterprise, and Nicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane’s joy.
Then they chatted of all the phenomena which had astonished them
one after the other, particularly the neutralization of the laws
of weight. Michel Ardan, always enthusiastic, drew conclusions
which were purely fanciful.
“Ah, my worthy friends,” he exclaimed, “what progress we should
make if on earth we could throw off some of that weight, some of
that chain which binds us to her; it would be the prisoner set
at liberty; no more fatigue of either arms or legs. Or, if it
is true that in order to fly on the earth’s surface, to keep
oneself suspended in the air merely by the play of the muscles,
there requires a strength a hundred and fifty times greater than
that which we possess, a simple act of volition, a caprice,
would bear us into space, if attraction did not exist.”
“Just so,” said Nicholl, smiling; “if we could succeed in
suppressing weight as they suppress pain by anaesthesia,
that would change the face of modern society!”
“Yes,” cried Michel, full of his subject, “destroy weight, and
no more burdens!”
“Well said,” replied Barbicane; “but if nothing had any weight,
nothing would keep in its place, not even your hat on your head,
worthy Michel; nor your house, whose stones only adhere by
weight; nor a boat, whose stability on the waves is only caused
by weight; not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be
equalized by terrestrial attraction; and lastly, not even the
atmosphere, whose atoms, being no longer held in their places,
would disperse in space!”
“That is tiresome,” retorted Michel; “nothing like these
matter-of-fact people for bringing one back to the bare reality.”