The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon

by Daniel Defoe

There are yet another sort of Machine, which I never obtained a sight of, till the last Voyage I made to this Lunar Orb, and these are called Elevators: The Mechanick Operations of these are wonderful, and helpt by Fire; by which the Sences are raised to all the strange Extreames we can imagine, and whereby the Intelligent Soul is made to converse with its own Species, whether embody'd or not.

Those that are rais'd to a due pitch in this wondrous Frame, have a clear Prospect into the World of Spirits, and converse with Visions, Guardian-Angels, Spirits departed, and what not: And as this is a wonderful Knowledge, and not to be obtained, but by the help of this Fire; so those that have try'd the Experiment, give strange Accounts of Sympathy, Prexistence of Souls, Dreams, and the like.

I confess, I always believ'd a converse of Spirits, and have heard of some who have experienced so much of it, as they could obtain upon no Body else to believe.

I never saw any reason to doubt the Existent State of the Spirit before embody'd, any more than I did of its Immortality after it shall be uncas'd, and the Scriptures saying, the Spirit returns to God that gave it, implies a coming from, or how could it be call'd a return.

Nor can I see a reason why Embodying a Spirit should altogether Interrupt its Converse with the World of Spirits, from whence it was taken; and to what else shall we ascribe Guardian Angels, in which the Scripture is also plain; and from whence come Secret Notices, Impulse of Thought, pressing Urgencies of Inclination, to or from this or that altogether Involuntary; but from some waking kind Assistant wandring Spirit, which gives secret hints to its Fellow-Creature, of some approaching Evil or Good, which it was not able to foresee.

For Spirits without the helps of Voice converse.

I know we have supplied much of this with Enthusiasm and conceited Revelation; but the People of this World convince us, that it may be all Natural, by obtaining it in a Mechanick way, viz. by forming something suitable to the sublime Nature, which working by Art, shall only rectify the more vigorous Particles of the Soul, and work it up to a suitable Elevation. This Engine is wholly applied to the Head, and Works by Injection; the chief Influence being on what we call Fancy, or Imagination, which by the heat of strong Ideas, is fermented to a strange heighth, and is thus brought to see backward and forward every way, beyond it self: By this a Man fancies himself in the Moon, and realizes things there as distinctly, as if he was actually talking to my Old Phylosopher.

This indeed is an admirable Engine, 'tis compos'd of an Hundred Thousand rational Consequences, Five times the number of Conjectures, Supposes, and Probabilities, besides an innumerable Company of fluttering Suggestions, and Injections, which hover round the Imagination, and are all taken in as fast as they can be Concocted and Digested there: These are form'd into Ideas, and some of those so well put together, so exactly shap'd, so well drest and set out by the Additional Fire of Fancy, that it is no uncommon thing for the Person to be intirely deceived by himself, not knowing the brat of his own Begetting, nor be able to distinguish between Reality and Representation: From hence we have some People talking to Images of their own forming, and seeing more Devils and Spectres than ever appear'd: From hence we have weaker Heads not able to bear the Operation, seeing imperfect Visions, as of Horses and Men without Heads or Arms, Light without Fire, hearing Voices without Sound, and Noises without Shapes, as their own Fears or Fancies broke the Phænomena before the intire Formation.

But the more Genuine and perfect Use of these vast Elevations of the Fancy, which are perform'd, as I said, by the Mechanick Operation of Innate Fire, is to guide Mankind to as much Fore-sight of things, as either by Nature, or by the Aid of any thing Extranatural, may be obtain'd; and by this exceeding Knowledge, a Man shall forebode to himself approaching Evil or Good, so as to avoid this, or be in the way of that; and what if I should say, That the Notices of these things are not only frequent, but constant, and require nothing of us, but to make use of this Elevator, to keep our Eyes, our Ears, and our Fancies open to the hints; and observe them;

You may suppose me, if you please, come by this time into those Northern Kingdoms I mention'd before, where my Old Philosopher was a Native, and not to trouble you with any of the needful Observations, Learned Inscriptions, &c. on the way, according to the laudable practices of the Famous Mr. Br---mly, 'tis sufficient to tell you I found there an Opulent, Populous, Potent and Terrible People.