Page:A Voyage in Space (1913).djvu/24

4 Mr. Wells relates how a car, covered with this strange material, can rise quite smoothly from the Earth without the fearful explosion: and the occupants of the car are thus able to reach the Moon, where they find that the inhabitants are like insects rather than like us men and women: and though they are smaller and weaker than we are, their cattle—their "moon-calves"—are immensely greater than ours. There are plenty of exciting adventures in this book too, and Mr. Wells has tried to keep as nearly as he can to what is possible, according to such information as our telescopes give us about the Moon. Of course, his "Cavorite" material is as yet quite unknown—we have not even an inkling of an idea how to screen off gravity; but if we agree to make him a present of this rather startling notion, he uses it very skilfully to pilot his readers through varied experiences. Such books as those of Verne and Wells are worth reading, not only by a "juvenile audience" such as this, but by astronomers too: it is a most useful lesson to them to try and specify exactly where the author is keeping within the possibilities, and where he is making a real mistake. Let me mention one more of such books which I have read with keen pleasure—A Honeymoon in Space, by Mr. George Griffith. I think you can buy it for sixpence, and it teaches us a lot of astronomy in very pleasant fashion, because we have not the idea of lessons in our minds when reading it; and it is much nicer to avoid lessons if we can. I am afraid I shall not be able to avoid the appearance of giving lessons so skilfully as Mr. Griffith or Mr. Wells, because for one thing I am not going to attempt to tell