Then they chatted about all the phenomena that had astounded them one after another, especially about the neutralisation of the laws of weight.  Michel Ardan, always full of enthusiasm, wished to deduce consequences which were only pure imagination.

“Ah! my worthy friends,” he cried, “what progress we should make could we but get rid upon earth of this weight, this chain that rivets us to her!  It would be the prisoner restored to liberty!  There would be no more weariness either in arms or legs.  And if it is true that, in order to fly upon the surface of the earth, to sustain yourself in the air by a simple action of the muscles, it would take a force 150 times superior to that we possess, a simple act of will, a caprice, would transport us into space, and attraction would not exist.”

“In fact,” said Nicholl, laughing, “if they succeeded in suppressing gravitation, like pain is suppressed by anaesthesia, it would change the face of modern society!”

“Yes,” cried Michel, full of his subject, “let us destroy weight and have no more burdens!  No more cranes, screw-jacks, windlasses, cranks, or other machines will be wanted.”

“Well said,” replied Barbicane; “but if nothing had any weight nothing would keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel; nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight!  Not even ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence of weight.  Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held in equilibrium by terrestrial attraction.  Lastly, not even the atmosphere, the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperse into space!”

“That is a pity,” replied Michel.  “There is nothing like positive people for recalling you brutally to reality!”

“Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel,” resumed Barbicane, “for if no star could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are at least going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth.”

“The moon?”

“Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times less than upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy to demonstrate.”

“And shall we perceive it?” asked Michel.  “Evidently, for 400 lbs. only weigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon.”

“Will not our muscular strength be diminished?”

“Not at all.  Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six.”

“Then we shall be Hercules in the moon,” cried Michel.

“Yes,” replied Nicholl, “and the more so because if the height of the Selenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will be hardly a foot high.”

“Liliputians!” replied Michel.  “Then I am going to play the role of Gulliver!  We shall realise the fable of the giants!  That is the advantage of leaving one’s own planet to visit the solar world!”

“But if you want to play Gulliver,” answered Barbicane, “only visit the inferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is rather less than that of the earth.  But do not venture into the big planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the roles would be inverted, and you would become Liliputian.”