, "a beautiful
young ... of 120,000 feet." B.

So Micromegas delivered these words: "I see more than ever that one
must not judge anything by its apparent size. Oh God! you who have
given intelligence to substance that appears contemptible. The
infinitely small costs you as little as the infinitely large; and if
it is possible that there are such small beings as these, there may
just as well be a spirit bigger than those of the superb animals that
I have seen in the heavens, whose feet alone would cover this
planet."

One of the philosophers responded that he could certainly imagine
that there are intelligent beings much smaller than man. He
recounted, not every fabulous thing Virgil says about bees, but what
Swammerdam discovered, and what Reaumur has anatomized. He explained
finally that there are animals that are to bees what bees are to man,
what the Sirian himself was for the vast animals he had spoken of,
and what these large animals are to other substances before which
they looked like atoms. Little by little the conversation became
interesting, and Micromegas spoke thusly:

CHAPTER VII.

Conversation with the men.

"Oh intelligent atoms, in which the Eternal Being desired to make
manifest his skill and his power, you must, no doubt, taste pure joys
on your planet; for having so little matter, and appearing to be
entirely spirit, you must live out your life thinking and loving, the
veritable life of the mind. Nowhere have I seen true bliss, but it is
here, without a doubt."

At this all the philosophers shook their heads, and one of them, more
frank than the others, avowed that if one excepts a small number of
inhabitants held in poor regard, all the rest are an assembly of mad,
vicious, and wretched people. "We have more substance than is
necessary," he said, "to do evil, if evil comes from substance; and
too much spirit, if evil comes from spirit. Did you know, for
example, that as I am speaking with you[1], there are 100,000 madmen
of our species wearing hats, killing 100,000 other animals wearing
turbans, or being massacred by them, and that we have used almost
surface of the Earth for this purpose since time immemorial?"

[1] We saw, at the end of chapter III, that the story occurs in
1737. Voltaire is referring to the war between the Turks and the
Russians, from 1736 to 1739. B.

The Sirian shuddered, and asked the reason for these horrible
quarrels between such puny animals.