In this
state of mind, wishing to live, yet wearied with life, the treatise at
the stall of the bookseller opened a resource to my imagination. I
then finally made up my mind. I determined to depart, yet live- to
leave the world, yet continue to exist- in short, to drop enigmas, I
resolved, let what would ensue, to force a passage, if I could, to the
moon. Now, lest I should be supposed more of a madman than I
actually am, I will detail, as well as I am able, the considerations
which led me to believe that an achievement of this nature, although
without doubt difficult, and incontestably full of danger, was not
absolutely, to a bold spirit, beyond the confines of the possible.
The moon's actual distance from the earth was the first thing to
be attended to. Now, the mean or average interval between the
centres of the two planets is 59.9643 of the earth's equatorial radii,
or only about 237,000 miles. I say the mean or average interval. But
it must be borne in mind that the form of the moon's orbit being an
ellipse of eccentricity amounting to no less than 0.
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