CHAPTER 22

The Grand Lunar

The last message but one describes in detail the meeting between Cavor and the Grand Lunar, who is master of the moon. Cavor seems to have sent most of it without interference, but to have been interrupted in the last part. It runs thus:

"The crowd grew denser as we drew near the palace of the Grand Lunar—if I may call a series of caves a palace. I was carried in a litter, and a large crowd accompanied me.

"In front marched four trumpet-faced creatures making a fearful bray; and then came ushers, and on either side a company of learned heads who were, Phi-oo explained, to stand about the Grand Lunar to help him to understand what I said. Then came Phi-oo and Tsi-puff, each on a litter, and then myself on a litter more splendid than any other. Then came several Selenites with big brains, whose work was to observe and remember every detail of this important interview. The way was lined by officers, and beyond their lines, as far as the eye could see, the heads of that enormous crowd extended.

"We ascended the spiral of a vertical way for some time, and then passed through a series of huge, beautifully-decorated halls. Each cavern one entered seemed greater than the one before it.

"I must confess that all this crowd made me feel extremely shabby and unworthy. I was unshaven and untidy. On earth I have always been inclined to despise any attention to my personal appearance beyond a proper care for cleanliness. But here in the moon, representing, as I did, my planet and my kind, I could have given much for something a little more dignified than the worthless rags I wore. I was dressed in a flannel jacket, cycling trousers (torn at the knees), and a blanket, through a hole in which I thrust my head. I am fully aware of the injustice my appearance did humanity, but I could do nothing to improve it.

"Imagine the largest hall you have ever been in, dimly lit with blue light. Imagine this hall to lead to still larger and larger halls. At last, dimly seen, a flight of steps ascends almost out of sight. And high up on the top of these steps sat the Grand Lunar on his throne.

"He was seated in a blaze of blue light. His brain case must have measured many yards in diameter. A number of blue searchlights radiated from behind his throne, and immediately encircling him was a halo. A number of attendants supported him, and standing in a semicircle beneath him were his advisers. All down the countless steps of the throne were guards, and at the base, an enormous crowd of courtiers.

"As I entered the hall before the last, splendid music rose, and the shrieks of the news-bearers died away ... 

"I entered the last and greatest hall ... 

"My procession opened out like a fan. My ushers and guards went right and left, and the three litters bearing Phi-oo and Tsi-puff and myself marched to the foot of the giant stairs. The two Selenites dismounted, but I was ordered to remain seated in my litter. Ten thousand respectful heads were directed to the great master of the moon.

"At first this purest and most perfect brain looked very much like a bladder with dim twisting movements visible within. Then beneath it and just above the edge of the throne one saw very small eyes peering out of the glow. No face, but eyes, as if they peered through holes. Then, below these eyes, I distinguished the little dwarfed body and its shrunken limbs. The eyes stared down at me with a strange intensity ... 

"It was great; it was pitiful. One forgot the hall and the crowd.

"I ascended the staircase. The attendants were busy spraying that great brain with a cooling spray, and supporting it. For my own part, I sat gripping my litter and staring at the Grand Lunar, unable to turn my gaze aside. At last, as I reached a little landing that was separated only by ten steps or so from the throne, the music ceased, and I felt the Grand Lunar's eyes gazing at me: I was the first man he had ever seen ... An unreasonable horror seized me ... and passed.

"I was assisted from my litter, and stood awkwardly. The learned heads that had accompanied me to the entrance of the last hall appeared two steps above me and left and right of me. Phi-oo placed himself about half-way up to the throne, and Tsi-puff took up a position behind him.

"I became aware of a faint noise. The Grand Lunar was addressing me. It was like the rubbing of a finger upon a window-pane.

"I watched him attentively for a time, and then glanced at the alert Phi-oo. He meditated, consulted Tsi-puff, and then began piping in English:

"'The Grand Lunar wishes to say that you are a man from the planet earth. He welcomes you and wishes to learn the state of your world, and the reason why you came to this.'

"I was about to reply when he resumed. The Grand Lunar, Tsi-puff told me, knew from his astronomers that our air and sea were outside the globe, and he understood that we lived on the surface of the earth. He was very anxious to have more detailed information of this extraordinary state of affairs. He seemed to marvel that we did not find the sunlight too strong for our eyes, and was interested in my attempt to explain that the sky was softened to a bluish colour through the refraction of the air. I explained how the human eye can contract when the light is too strong, and was allowed to approach within a few feet of him in order that my eye might be examined.

"The Grand Lunar asked how we sheltered ourselves from heat and storms, and I explained to him the arts of building and furnishing. For a long time I had great difficulty in making him understand the nature of a house. It must have seemed odd to him that men should build houses when they might descend into caves, and he inquired what we did with the interior of our globe.

"A tide of twittering and piping swept into the great hall when it was at last made clear that we men know absolutely nothing of the interior of the world upon which we live. Three times had I to repeat that of all the 4,000 miles of substance between the earth and its centre men knew only to the depth of a mile, and that very vaguely. I understood the Grand Lunar to ask why I had come to the moon, seeing we had scarcely touched our own planet yet.

"Then he inquired about the weather on the earth, and asked if our atmosphere froze at night; I told him it was never cold enough for that, because our nights were so short. From that the Grand Lunar went on to speak with me of sleep. On the moon they rest only at rare intervals, and after exceptionally hard work. Then I described to him the soft beauty of a summer night, and from that I passed to a description of those animals that prowl by night and sleep by day. He could not understand this, for on the moon there are no wild creatures.

"He talked with his attendants, as I suppose, upon the foolishness of man, who lives on the mere surface of a world exposed to waves and winds and all the chances of space, who cannot even unite to overcome the beasts that prey upon his kind, and yet who dares to invade another planet.

"Then, at his desire, I told him of the different sorts of men. Here he asked me many questions. 'And for all sorts of work you have the same sort of men. But who thinks? Who governs?'

"I gave him an outline of the democratic method.

"When I had done he ordered cooling sprays upon his brow, and then requested me to repeat my explanation, lest he should have misunderstood me.

"I told him that some were thinkers and some officials; some were hunters, some were mechanics, some artists, some labourers. 'But all rule,' I said.

"'And have they not different shapes to fit them to their different duties?'

"'None that you can see,' I said, 'except, perhaps, for clothes. Their minds, perhaps, differ a little.'

"'Their minds must differ a great deal,' said the Grand Lunar, 'or they would all want to do the same things.'

"I said that he was quite right, and that the minds and souls of men were as varied and unequal as the Selenites.

"He interrupted me to recall me to what I had said before. 'But you said all men rule?' he pressed.

'"To a certain extent,' I said.

"'Do you mean,' he asked, 'that there is no Grand Earthly?'

"I assured him there was none. I explained that such emperors as we had tried upon earth had usually ended in drink, or vice, or violence, and that we did not mean to try that sort of thing again. At which the Grand Lunar was even more amazed.

"'But how do you keep even such wisdom as you have?' he asked; and I explained to him the way we helped our limited brains with libraries of books, and how our science was growing by the united efforts of learned men. He said that it was evident we had mastered much in spite of our social savagery, or we could not have come to the moon.

"He then caused me to describe how we went about this earth of ours, and I described to him our railways and ships. He was amazed to hear that we had had the use of steam only one hundred years. But his astonishment was even greater when he learnt that we were still not united under one government. He was greatly impressed by the folly of men in clinging to the inconvenience of different languages. Then for a long time he questioned me closely concerning war.

"He was at first puzzled and unable to believe what I told him. 'You mean to say,' he asked, that you run about over the surface of your world—this world whose riches you have scarcely begun to scrape—killing one another for beasts to eat?'

"I told him that was perfectly correct.

"He asked for particulars to assist his imagination. 'But do not ships and your poor little cities get injured?' he asked, and I found the waste of property and conveniences seemed to impress him almost as much as the killing. 'Tell me more,' said the Grand Lunar: 'make me see pictures. I cannot imagine these things.'

"And so, for a space, I told him the story of earthly War. I told him of battles and sieges, of starvation and hardship in trenches and of all the sufferings of war. The Grand Lunar could hardly believe what he heard, and when I spoke of men cheering and rejoicing as they went into battle he said: 'But surely they do not like it!'

"I assured him that men considered battle the most glorious experience of life, at which the whole assembly was amazed.

"'But what good is this war?' asked the Grand Lunar.

"'Oh! As for good!' said I; 'it thins the population!'"

"'But why should there be a need—?'"

(At this point the message is interrupted by a series of vibrations which suggest that someone in the moon was intentionally trying to make Cavor's message unreadable. Then quite suddenly the interruption ceases, leaves a few words clear, and then is resumed and continues for all the rest of the message. This last extract from his description of the Grand Lunar begins in the middle of a sentence.)

"Questioned me very closely upon my secret. I was able in a little while to understand how it is they themselves have never discovered Cavorite. I find they know of it in theory, but they have always regarded it as a practical impossibility, because there is no helium in the moon, and helium—"

(Here the message is interrupted once more, and the rest of it is impossible to read.)