Hevelius, however, respected them, even Riccioli did
not disturb them, and so they have come down to us. Ardan laughed
heartily at the fancies which they called up, and said the whole thing
reminded him of one of those "maps of matrimony" that he had once seen
or read of in the works of Scudery or Cyrano de Bergerac.
"However," he added, "I must say that this map has much more reality in
it than could be found in the sentimental maps of the 17th century. In
fact, I have no difficulty whatever in calling it the _Map of Life!_
very neatly divided into two parts, the east and the west, the masculine
and the feminine. The women on the right, and the men on the left!"
At such observations, Ardan's companions only shrugged their shoulders.
A map of the Moon in their eyes was a map of the Moon, no more, no less;
their romantic friend might view it as he pleased. Nevertheless, their
romantic friend was not altogether wrong. Judge a little for yourselves.
What is the first "sea" you find in the hemisphere on the left? The
_Mare Imbrium_ or the Rainy Sea, a fit emblem of our human life, beaten
by many a pitiless storm. In a corresponding part of the southern
hemisphere you see _Mare Nubium_, the Cloudy Sea, in which our poor
human reason so often gets befogged.
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