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d the wrongs of any enterprise; all men knew that what Brannan decided about it was well…nigh the eternal truth; and therefore all men of sense were accustomed to place great confidence in his prophecies。 But; more than this; and better; Brannan was an unconscious dog; who believed in the people。 So; when he knew what was the right and what was the wrong; he could stand up before two or three thousand people and tell them what was right and what was wrong; and tell them with the same simplicity and freshness with which he would talk to little Horace on his knee。 Of the thousands who heard him there would not be one in a hundred who knew that this was eloquence。 They were fain to say; as they sat in their shops; talking; that Brannan was not eloquent。 Nay; they went so far as to regret that Brannan was not eloquent! If he were only as eloquent as Carker was or as Barker was; how excellent he would be! But when; a month after; it was necessary for them to do anything about the thing he had been speaking of; they did what Brannan had told them to do; forgetting; most likely; that he had ever told them; and fancying that these were their own ideas; which; in fact; had; from his liquid; ponderous; transparent; and invisible common sense; distilled unconsciously into their being。 I wonder whether Brannan ever knew that he was eloquent。 What I knew; and what dear George knew; was; that he was one of the leaders of men!
Courage; my friends; we are steadily advancing to the Brick Moon!
For George had stopped; and seen Brannan; and Brannan had not forgotten。 Seventeen years Brannan had remembered; and not a ship had been lost on a lee…shore because her longitude was wrong;not a baby had wailed its last as it was ground between wrecked spar and cruel rock;not a swollen corpse unknown had been flung up upon the sand and been buried with a nameless epitaph; but Brannan had recollected the Brick Moon; and had; in the memory…chamber which rejected nothing; stored away the story of the horror。 And now George was ready to consecrate a round hundred thousand to the building of the Moon; and Brannan was ready; in the thousand ways in which wise men move the people to and fro; to persuade them to give to us a hundred thousand more; and George had come to ask me if I were not ready to undertake with them the final great effort; of which our old calculations were the embryo。 For this I was now to contribute the mathematical certainty and the lore borrowed from naval science; which should blossom and bear fruit when the Brick Moon was snapped like a cherry from the ways on which it was built; was launched into the air by power gathered from a thousand freshets; and; poised at last in its own pre…calculated region of the ether; should begin its course of eternal blessings in one unchanging meridian!
Vision of Beneficence and Wonder! Of course I consented。
Oh that you were not so eager for the end! Oh that I might tell you; what now you will never know;of the great campaign which we then and there inaugurated! How the horrible loss of the Royal Martyr; whose longitude was three degrees awry; startled the whole world; and gave us a point to start from。 How I explained to George that he must not subscribe the one hundred thousand dollars in a moment。 It must come in bits; when 〃the cause〃 needed a stimulus; or the public needed encouragement。 How we caught neophyte editors; and explained to them enough to make them think the Moon was well…nigh their own invention and their own thunder。 How; beginning in Boston; we sent round to all the men of science; all those of philanthropy; and all those of commerce; three thousand circulars; inviting them to a private meeting at George's parlors at the Revere。 How; besides ourselves; and some nice; respectable…looking old gentlemen Brannan had brought over from Podunk with him; paying their fares both ways; there were present only three men;all adventurers whose projects had failed; besides the representatives of the press。 How; of these representatives; some understood the whole; and some understood nothing。 How; the next day; all gave us 〃first…rate notices。〃 How; a few days after; in the lower Horticultural Hall; we had our first public meeting。 How Haliburton brought us fifty people who loved him;his Bible class; most of them;to help fill up; how; besides these; there were not three persons whom we had not asked personally; or one who could invent an excuse to stay away。 How we had hung the walls with intelligible and unintelligible diagrams。 How I opened the meeting。 Of that meeting; indeed; I must tell something。
First; I spoke。 I did not pretend to unfold the scheme。 I did not attempt any rhetoric。 But I did not make any apologies。 I told them simply of the dangers of lee…shores。 I told them when they were most dangerous; when seamen came upon them unawares。 I explained to them that; though the costly chronometer; frequently adjusted; made a delusive guide to the voyager who often made a harbor; still the adjustment was treacherous; the instrument beyond the use of the poor; and that; once astray; its error increased forever。 I said that we believed we had a method which; if the means were supplied for the experiment; would give the humblest fisherman the very certainty of sunrise and of sunset in his calculations of his place upon the world。 And I said that whenever a man knew his place in this world; it was always likely all would go well。 Then I sat down。
Then dear George spoke;simply; but very briefly。 He said he was a stranger to the Boston people; and that those who knew him at all knew he was not a talking man。 He was a civil engineer; and his business was to calculate and to build; and not to talk。 But he had come here to say that he had studied this new plan for the longitude from the Top to the Bottom; and that he believed in it through and through。 There was his opinion; if that was worth anything to anybody。 If that meeting resolved to go forward with the enterprise; or if anybody proposed to; he should offer his services in any capacity; and without any pay; for its success。 If he might only work as a bricklayer; he would work as a bricklayer。 For he believed; on his soul; that the success of this enterprise promised more for mankind than any enterprise which was ever likely to call for the devotion of his life。 〃And to the good of mankind;〃 he said; very simply; 〃my life is devoted。〃 Then he sat down。
Then Brannan got up。 Up to this time; excepting that George had dropped this hint about bricklaying; nobody had said a word about the Moon; far less hinted what it was to be made of。 So Ben had the whole to open。 He did it as if he had been talking to a bright boy of ten years old。 He made those people think that he respected them as his equals。 But; in fact; he chose every word; as if not one of them knew anything。 He explained; as if it were rather more simple to explain than to take for granted。 But he explained as if; were they talking; they might be explaining to him。 He led them from point to point;oh! so much more clearly than I have been leading you;till; as their mouths dropped a little open in their eager interest; and th