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I - Detailed summary.
Chapter I. We learn that this character is from the distant star Sirius, which has " twenty-one million six hundred thousand times the circumference of our little earth ," he went on a trip on the latter, he is young, as " eight miles high ( is about 32,000 meters ) and it expresses " great wit." It's that spirit that will banish from the court for " eight hundred years" by the religious leader of his country ( the "mufti " ), which saw heresy in a work of Micromegas where it addressed the "substantial form " of " chips Sirius" and " snails " typical passage of irony anticlerical Voltaire , who benefits, in passing, to scratch Blaise Pascal . Not affected by this stigma, Micromegas decides to engage in interstellar travel " to complete the form mind and heart . With its immense size and its broad knowledge of physics, taking advantage of comets and solar energy ( already! ), it moves by jumping from planet to planet "like a bird aerobatics from branch to branch . At the end of his wanderings, he arrived at Saturn, expressed surprise at the smallness of the inhabitants of this planet " is little more than nine hundred times more [big] the earth," that term includes of mind they can " not be ridiculous [s] " and became friends with the secretary of the Academy of Saturates, caricature of the scientist and philosopher Fontenelle .
Chapter II. The narrator recounts a conversation in which both characters are questioning and teach each other knowledge and abilities of their species. Voltaire, again, use fully the mechanism of the exaggeration and the reader learns that the Saturnian own 72 sense, live fifteen thousand years, three hundred known properties of matter, some thirty substances and that the light of the Sun contains seven colors, but all that pales in comparison to the inhabitants of Sirius, which have thousand meanings, live " seven hundred times longer ", etc.., Micromegas and claims to have met " beings much more perfect "Him on these trips. The point of this conversation is twofold implication Voltaire mocks anthropocentrism and invites man to be more modest, at the same time, he questions the universe and the nature of thinking beings: despite their more or less meaning and knowledge, people encountered by Micromegas have at least one thing in common: they all complain of the limits of their capacity, the brevity of their existence, " we always complain little. It has to be a universal law of nature "says Micromegas Voltaire also benefits the conversation to make a profession of faith Deist, being referred to " Creator" and intelligence " views, as evidenced by the perfection of Nature" I admire in all its wisdom, I see differences everywhere, but everywhere proportions. Your world is small, so are your people, you have some feelings, your material has some properties: this is the work of providence "said the sage to his companion giant Saturn. Following this dialogue, the two friends decide to undertake together a " little philosophical journey. "
Chapter III. The narrator recounts their journey from Saturn to Earth. Departure time results in a brief parody of contention in love, in the genre of romance lover, between Saturn and his lover, outraged to learn that he leaves " to go travel with a giant from another world "but, the narrator informs us, consoled himself quickly" with a minor master of the country . E obviously. The quarrel and tears past, travelers set off, stop One year on Jupiter, draw a work "which would now in print without the inquisitors gentlemen, spend a moment on Mars, then join the Earth by an aurora July 5, 1737. The narrator, a critic of anthropocentrism requires, does not fail to note that the Earth " had pity on people who came from Jupiter .
Chapter IV. The two companions quickly perform around the Earth ( in 36 hours), the largest ocean not representing for them that " a small pond." They perceive no first life form, the Saturnian deduces that the planet is not populated, the giant criticizes its lack of rigor " you do not see with your little eyes out [...] I see very distinctly; you conclude from this that these stars exist not? . This remark allows Voltaire a review of the testimony of the senses as a criterion of truth, it also marks the starting point of a quarrel between two companions. Quarrel practice since it provides an additional opportunity to devalue our planet, "this globe it is so poorly constructed, if it is illegal and a form that seems so ridiculous! "According to the Saturnian, but mainly provides the necessary event to the rest of the story: in a fit of anger, Micromegas lost several large diamonds, and by picking them up, they noticed his friend Saturn are very good microscopes to scan the Earth's surface. These tools enable adventurers to identify " something imperceptible stir midwater " it is a whale. This encourages them to continue their investigation, and locate " something bigger " means a ship, one of the expedition led by physicist and philosopher Pierre Louis Maupertuis, who, in 1736-1737, went to the North Pole to check on the validity of certain assumptions about the shape of the Newtonian world. The narrator closed the chapter by saying: "I'll tell ingenuously as the thing passed without anything to mine, which is no small effort for a historian. "remark makes her smile when you know the Century of Louis the Great , historical work of Voltaire the seventeenth century, proceeds from the eulogy.
Chapter V. Micromegas gently manipulates the ship, he takes for an animal on board, the men panicked and left the building. The two giants can not be seen because of their small size, hence a digression Voltaire on the smallness of man and the relativity of his actions: although this may be significant for some, one would think be like Micromegas " these battles we have won two villages that had to make ? Incidentally, without departing from its subject, Voltaire ironically on Frederick " I have no doubt that if any captain of grenadiers great ever reads this book, it does up two big feet at least the cup of his troop, but I warn that it will be beautiful, and he and his family will never be as infinitely small . Mariners finally press in a " alpenstock " in the index of Micromegas: it tickles him and allowed him to discover the existence of men. This discovery is a source of great joy for the two companions, and the chapter ends with a new pic of irony the narrator against the Saturn- Fontenelle, who, always too quick to judge, pass " of excess confidence to an excess of credulity .
Chapter VI. travelers observe men as they can not hear, the Saturn inferred too hastily once again, that men do not have the power of speech; Micromegas it supports the contrary includes the Saturnian Finally, the lesson: " I dare not believe or deny [...] I have no opinion. We must try to examine these insects, so we will post . Micromegas makes a device to listen to men: they speak! Very quickly, the two travelers gain understanding and mastery of French. They are fascinated that " mites [speak] pretty good sense of ": they want to contact. Micromegas makes another tool to mitigate his voice because he fears " his voice of thunder [...] n'assourdît moths without being heard " and addressed to men, surprised and unable to " guess where [these words] went . The dwarf (the Saturnian, called and because of the size difference between him and his companion) explained to them who they are and where they come from, then ask them pell-mell all sorts of questions about their condition, their souls, whales ... One man, a physicist and mathematician, succeeded in measuring the dwarf ... and Micromegas, which amazes them. Voltaire the opportunity to slip into the mouth of the giant, one who feels his tirade Deism " O God, who gave intelligence to substances which appear so contemptible the infinitesimal cost you as little as infinitely large .
Chapter VII. Micromegas believes men perfectly happy as they show great spirit and consist of little matter. Philosophers deny, one of them spoke and argued by referring to the wars and massacres perpetrated by men since time immemorial until the present; Micromegas ask him the cause; " It is only whether [a mud pile as big as your heel] belong to a certain man called Sultan or another called [...] Caesar. Neither one has ever seen or will never see the little patch of land in question, and almost none of these animals who slay each other has never seen the animal for which they slay. "Micromegas and disillusioned indignant, philosopher persists and signs on " these barbarians who settled [...] [...] ordered the massacre of a million men, and then make solemnly thank God. . The interstellar traveler then looks more specifically to the philosophers, who seem to be " the small number of Wise ": he asks questions of astronomy and physics, he and Dwarf surprised at the relevance of their answers, he questions them on matters of metaphysics; " philosophers talked all at once [...] but were different opinions " and Voltaire irony of the Aristotelian , Cartesian, Malebranche and Leibnitz, summarizing their doctrines complex formulas incoherent and grotesque; the next supporter Locke thinker whose Voltaire appreciates the ideas: his agent says that he has " never thought that at [his] senses , that thought may be a attribute of matter, and concludes that " affirms nothing but" [be] happy to believe that there are more things possible we think "Obviously, this is the one that seems the wisest of the giants. At that time, a theologian takes over the floor, claims to have the truth, affirms that the universe was created by God for Rights and, to prove this, invoking the authority of the Sum of Thomas Aquinas . Laughter of the giants. They resumed, and Micromegas, although " sorry in my heart to see that the infinitely small would have an almost infinitely great pride ," promised the men a book of philosophy " strong writing menu "in which" they would see the end of things . It gives them the book and then share. When opened, it " saw nothing that any white book "Sign of the impossibility of any absolute knowledge" Ah! I would actually doubted. , "cried the secretary of the Academy of Sciences.
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