. Fontenelle.
Despite his gentleness, his carefulness, his philosophy, all of
which should endear him to Mr. Voltaire, he is linked with the
enemies of this great man, and appears to share, if not in their
hate, at least in their preemptive censures. He was deeply hurt by
the role he played in this novel, and perhaps even more so due to
the justness, though severe, of the critique; the strong praise
given elsewhere in the novel only lends more weight to the
rebukes. The words that end this work do not soften the wounds,
and the good that is said of the secretary of the academy of Paris
does not console Mr. Fontenelle for the ridicule that is permitted
to befall the one at the academy of Saturn.

The notes without signature, and those indicated by letters, are
written by Voltaire.

The notes signed with a K have been written by the Kehl publishers,
Mr. Condorcet and Mr. Decroix. It is impossible to rigorously
distinguish between the additions made by these two.

The additions that I have given to the notes of Voltaire or to the
notes of the Kehl publishers, are separated from the others by a --,
and are, as they are mine, signed by the initial of my name.

BEUCHOT

October 4, 1829.

CONTENTS

I. Voyage of an inhabitant of the Sirius star to the planet Saturn.
II. Conversation between the inhabitant of Sirius and that of Saturn.
III. Voyage of the two inhabitants of Sirius and Saturn.
IV. What happened on planet Earth.
V. Experiments and reasonings of the two voyagers.
VI. What happened to them among men.
VII. Conversation with the men.

MICROMEGAS,

PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER I.

Voyage of an inhabitant of the Sirius star to the planet Saturn.

On one of the planets that orbits the star named Sirius there lived a
spirited young man, who I had the honor of meeting on the last voyage
he made to our little ant hill. He was called Micromegas[1], a
fitting name for anyone so great. He was eight leagues tall, or
24,000 geometric paces of five feet each.

[1] From _micros_, small, and from _megas_, large. B.

Certain geometers[2], always of use to the public, will immediately
take up their pens, and will find that since Mr. Micromegas,
inhabitant of the country of Sirius, is 24,000 paces tall, which is
equivalent to 20,000 feet, and since we citizens of the earth are
hardly five feet tall, and our sphere 9,00