"Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant?"
"I have no doubt of it."
"Savants like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal, and Newton?"
"I could swear it."
"Clowns like Arnal, and photographers like—Nadar?"
"I am certain of it."
"Then, friend Barbicane, if these Selenites are as learned as we, and even more so, why have they not hurled a lunar projectile as far as the terrestrial regions?"
"Who says they have not done it?" answered Barbicane seriously.
"In fact," added Nicholl, "it would have been easier to them than to us, and that for two reasons—the first because the attraction is six times less on the surface of the moon than on the surface of the earth, which would allow a projectile to go up more easily; secondly the projectile would only have 8,000 leagues to travel instead of 80,000, which would require a force of propulsion ten times less."
"Then," resumed Michel, "I repeat—why have they not done it?"