An Animal in the Moon

An Animal in the Moon by Jean de La Fontaine

The poem argues that the senses both deceive and instruct: they mislead when accepted without judgment, but yield knowledge when reason corrects for distance, circumstance, and other causes of illusion. The speaker cites the sun’s apparent smallness, the earth’s motion, and a stick seeming bent in water as examples of reason overcoming false appearances. The supposed woman’s face in the moon is likewise an illusion produced by its varied light, shade, hills, and valleys, which can make observers imagine many shapes. In England, telescope users believe they have discovered an entirely new animal on the moon. The news spreads quickly, and people speculate that the strange sight foretells changes and wars on earth. Even the king sees the lunar monster clearly. The marvel proves to be a mouse caught between the telescope’s lenses. The English laugh at the mistake, while the speaker turns to the wars affecting France and praises Louis’s victories. He contrasts this with Charles of England, who knows how to preserve repose but might also lead his island nation into the conflict. The poem ultimately wishes that Charles could end the quarrel and bring peace, allowing all people to turn from bloody weapons toward gentler arts.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 1,491 words

First lines

While one philosopher[1] affirms / That by our senses we're deceived, / Another[2] swears, in plainest terms, / The senses are to be believed. / The twain are right. Philosophy / Correctly calls us dupes whene'er / Upon mere senses we rely. / But when we wisely rectify / The raw report of eye or ear, / By distance, medium, circumstance, / In real knowledge we advance. / These things hath nature wisely plann'd -- / Whereof the proof shall be at hand. / I see the sun: its dazzling glow / Seems but a hand-breadth here below; / But should I see it in its home, / That azure, star-besprinkled dome, / Of all the universe the eye, / Its blaze would fill one half the sky. / The powers of trigonometry / Have set my mind from blunder free. / The ignorant believe it flat; / I make it round, instead of that. / I fasten, fix, on nothing ground it, / And send the earth to travel round it. / In short, I contradict my eyes, / And sift the truth from constant lies. / The mind, not hasty at conclusion, / Resists the onset of illusion, / Forbids the sense to get the better, / And ne'er believes it to the letter. / Between my eyes, perhaps too ready, / And ears as much or more too slow, / A judge with balance true and steady, / I come, at last, some things to know. / Thus when the water crooks a stick,[3] / My reason straightens it as quick -- / Kind Mistress Reason -- foe of error, / And best of shields from needless terror! / The creed is common with our race, / The moon contains a woman's face. / True? No. Whence, then, the notion, / From mountain top to ocean? / The roughness of that satellite, / Its hills and dales, of every grade, / Effect a change of light and shade / Deceptive to our feeble sight; / So that, besides the human face, / All sorts of creatures one might trace. / Indeed, a living beast, I ween, / Has lately been by England seen. / All duly placed the telescope, / And keen observers full of hope, / An animal entirely new, / In that fair planet, came to view. / Abroad and fast the wonder flew; -- / Some change had taken place on high, / Presaging earthly changes nigh; / Perhaps, indeed, it might betoken / The wars[4] that had already broken / Out wildly o'er the Continent. / The king to see the wonder went: / (As patron of the sciences, / No right to go more plain than his.) / To him, in turn, distinct and clear, / This lunar monster did appear. -- / A mouse, between the lenses caged, / Had caused these wars, so fiercely waged! / No doubt the happy English folks / Laugh'd at it as the best of jokes. / How soon will Mars afford the chance / For like amusements here in France! / He makes us reap broad fields of glory. / Our foes may fear the battle-ground; / For us, it is no sooner found, / Than Louis, with fresh laurels crown'd, / Bears higher up our country's story. / The daughters, too, of Memory, -- / The Pleasures and the Graces, -- / Still show their cheering faces: / We wish for peace, but do not sigh. / The English Charles the secret knows / To make the most of his repose. / And more than this, he'll know the way, / By valour, working sword in hand, / To bring his sea-encircled land / To share the fight it only sees to-day. / Yet, could he but this quarrel quell, / What incense-clouds would grateful swell! / What deed more worthy of his fame! / Augustus, Julius[5] -- pray, which Caesar's name / Shines now on story's page with purest flame? / O people happy in your sturdy hearts! / Say, when shall Peace pack up these bloody darts, / And send us all, like you, to softer arts? [6]

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

French fable · verse narrative · seventeenth-century France · Age of Reason · senses and perception · reason versus illusion · optical illusion · scientific inquiry · astronomy · the moon · telescopes · lunar imagery

What this Textopian page supports

An Animal in the Moon is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

More by Jean de La Fontaine