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The Consolidator

Daniel Defoe

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Section 1 of 22
The Consolidator: or,
Memoirs of Sundry Transactions
From the World in the Moon.

Translated from the Lunar Language,
By the Author of The True-born English Man.


It cannot be unknown to any that have travell'd into the Dominions of
the Czar of Muscovy, that this famous rising Monarch, having studied
all Methods for the Encrease of his Power, and the Enriching as well
as Polishing his Subjects, has travell'd through most part of Europe,
and visited the Courts of the greatest Princes; from whence, by his
own Observation, as well as by carrying with him Artists in most
useful Knowledge, he has transmitted most of our General Practice,
especially in War and Trade, to his own Unpolite People; and the
Effects of this Curiosity of his are exceeding visible in his present
Proceedings; for by the Improvements he obtained in his European
Travels, he has Modell'd his Armies, form'd new Fleets, settled
Foreign Negoce in several remote Parts of the World; and we now see
his Forces besieging strong Towns, with regular Approaches; and his
Engineers raising Batteries, throwing Bombs, &c. like other Nations;
whereas before, they had nothing of Order among them, but carried all
by Ouslaught and Scalado, wherein they either prevailed by the Force
of Irresistible Multitude, or were Slaughter'd by heaps, and left the
Ditches of their Enemies fill'd with their Dead Bodies.

We see their Armies now form'd into regular Battalions; and their
Strelitz Musqueteers, a People equivalent to the Turks Janizaries,
cloath'd like our Guards, firing in Platoons, and behaving themselves
with extraordinary Bravery and Order.

We see their Ships now compleatly fitted, built and furnish'd, by
the English and Dutch Artists, and their Men of War Cruize in the
Baltick. Their New City of Petersburgh built by the present Czar,
begins now to look like our Portsmouth, fitted with Wet and Dry
Docks, Storehouses, and Magazines of Naval Preparations, vast and
Incredible; which may serve to remind us, how we once taught the
French to build Ships, till they are grown able to teach us how to
use them.

As to Trade, our large Fleets to Arch-Angel may speak for it, where
we now send 100 Sail yearly, instead of 8 or 9, which were the
greatest number we ever sent before; and the Importation of Tobaccoes
from England into his Dominions, would still increase the Trade
thither, was not the Covetousness of our own Merchants the
Obstruction of their Advantages. But all this by the by.

As this great Monarch has Improved his Country, by introducing the
Manners and Customs of the Politer Nations of Europe; so, with
Indefatigable Industry, he has settled a new, but constant Trade,
between his Country and China, by Land; where his Carravans go twice
or thrice a Year, as Numerous almost, and as strong, as those from
Egypt to Persia: Nor is the Way shorter, or the Desarts they pass
over less wild and uninhabitable, only that they are not so subject
to Flouds of Sand, if that Term be proper, or to Troops of Arabs,
to destroy them by the way; for this powerful Prince, to make this
terrible Journey feazible to his Subjects, has built Forts, planted
Collonies and Garisons at proper Distances; where, though they are
seated in Countries intirely Barren, and among uninhabited Rocks and
Sands; yet, by his continual furnishing them from his own Stores, the
Merchants travelling are reliev'd on good Terms, and meet both with
Convoy and Refreshment.

More might be said of the admirable Decorations of this Journey, and
how so prodigious an Attempt is made easy; so that now they have an
exact Correspondence, and drive a prodigious Trade between Muscow and
Tonquin; but having a longer Voyage in Hand, I shall not detain the
Reader, nor keep him till he grows too big with Expectation.

Now, as all Men know the Chineses are an Ancient, Wise, Polite, and
most Ingenious People; so the Muscovites begun to reap the Benefit of
this open Trade; and not only to grow exceeding Rich by the bartering
for all the Wealth of those Eastern Countries; but to polish and
refine their Customs and Manners, as much on that side as they have
from their European Improvements on this.

And as the Chineses have many sorts of Learning which these Parts of
the World never heard of, so all those useful Inventions which we
admire ourselves so much for, are vulgar and common with them, and
were in use long before our Parts of the World were Inhabited. Thus
Gun-powder, Printing, and the use of the Magnet and Compass, which we
call Modern Inventions, are not only far from being Inventions, but
fall so far short of the Perfection of Art they have attained to,
that it is hardly Credible, what wonderful things we are told of
from thence, and all the Voyages the Author has made thither being
imploy'd another way, have not yet furnish'd him with the Particulars
fully enough to transmit them to view; not but that he is preparing a
Scheme of all those excellent Arts those Nations are Masters of, for
publick View, by way of Detection of the monstrous Ignorance and
Deficiencies of European Science; which may serve as a Lexicon
Technicum for this present Age, with useful Diagrams for that
purpose; wherein I shall not fail to acqaint the World, 1. With the
Art of Gunnery, as Practis'd in China long before the War of the
Giants, and by which those Presumptuous Animals fired Red-hot Bullets
right up into Heaven, and made a Breach sufficient to encourage them
to a General Storm; but being Repulsed with great Slaughter, they
gave over the Siege for that time. This memorable part of History
shall be a faithful Abridgement of Ibra chizra-le-peglizar,
Historiagrapher-Royal to the Emperor of China, who wrote Anno Mundi
114. his Volumes extant, in the Publick Library at Tonquin, Printed
in Leaves of Vitrify'd Diamond, by an admirable Dexterity, struck all
at an oblique Motion, the Engine remaining intire, and still fit for
use, in the Chamber of the Emperor's Rarities.

And here I shall give you a Draft of the Engine it self, and a Plan
of its Operation, and the wonderful Dexterity of its Performance.

If these Labours of mine shall prove successful, I may in my next
Journey that way, take an Abstract of their most admirable Tracts
in Navigation, and the Mysteries of Chinese Mathematicks; which
out-do all Modern Invention at that Rate, that 'tis Inconceivable:
In this Elaborate Work I must run thro' the 365 Volumes of
Augro-machi-lanquaro-zi, the most ancient Mathematician in all China:
From thence I shall give a Description of a Fleet of Ships of 100000
Sail, built at the Expence of the Emperor Tangro the 15th; who having
Notice of the General Deluge, prepar'd these Vessels, to every City
and Town in his Dominions One, and in Bulk proportion'd to the number
of its Inhabitants; into which Vessel all the People, with such
Moveables as they thought fit to save, and with 120 Days Provisions,
were receiv'd at the time of the Floud; and the rest of their Goods
being put into great Vessels made of China Ware, and fast luted down
on the top, were preserv'd unhurt by the Water: These Ships they
furnish'd with 600 Fathom of Chain instead of Cables; which being
fastned by wonderful Arts to the Earth, every Vessel rid out the
Deluge just at the Town's end; so that when the Waters abated,
the People had nothing to do, but to open the Doors made in the
Ship-sides, and come out, repair their Houses, open the great China
Pots their Goods were in, and so put themselves in Statu Quo.

The Draft of one of these Ships I may perhaps obtain by my Interest
in the present Emperor's Court, as it has been preserv'd ever since,
and constantly repair'd, riding at Anchor in a great Lake, about
100 Miles from Tonquin; in which all the People of that City were
preferv'd, amounting by their Computation to about a Million and half.

And as these things must be very useful in these Parts, to abate the
Pride and Arrogance of our Modern Undertakers of great Enterprizes,
Authors of strange Foreign Accounts, Philosophical Transactions, and
the like; if Time and Opportunity permit, I may let them know, how
Infinitely we are out-done by those refined Nations, in all manner of
Mechanick Improvements and Arts; and in discoursing of this, it will
necessarily come in my way to speak of a most Noble Invention, being
an Engine I would recommend to all People to whom 'tis necessary to
have a good Memory; and which I design, if possible, to obtain a
Draft of, that it may be Erected in our Royal Societies Laboratory:
It has the wonderfullest Operations in the World: One part of it
furnishes a Man of Business to dispatch his Affairs strangely; for if
he be a Merchant, he shall write his Letters with one Hand, and Copy
them with the other; if he is posting his Books, he shall post the
Debtor side with one Hand, and the Creditor with the other; if he be
a Lawyer, he draws his Drafts with one Hand, and Ingrosses them with
the other.

Another part of it furnishes him with such an Expeditious way of
Writing, or Transcribing, that a Man cannot speak so fast, but he
that hears shall have it down in Writing before 'tis spoken; and a
Preacher shall deliver himself to his Auditory, and having this
Engine before him, shall put down every thing he says in Writing at
the same time; and so exactly is this Engine squar'd by Lines and
Rules, that it does not require him that Writes to keep his Eye
upon it.

I am told, in some Parts of China, they had arriv'd to such a
Perfection of Knowledge, as to understand one anothers Thoughts; and
that it was found to be an excellent Preservative to humane Society,
against all sorts of Frauds, Cheats, Sharping, and many Thousand
European Inventions of that Nature, at which only we can be said
to out-do those Nations.

I confess, I have not yet had leisure to travel those Parts, having
been diverted by an accidental Opportunity of a new Voyage I had
occasion to make for farther Discoveries, and which the Pleasure and
Usefulness thereof having been very great, I have omitted the other
for the present, but shall not fail to make a Visit to those Parts
the first Opportunity, and shall give my Country-men the best Account
I can of those things; for I doubt not in Time to bring our Nation,
so fam'd for improving other People's Discoveries, to be as wise as
any of those Heathen Nations; I wish I had the same Prospect of
making them half so honest.

I had spent but a few Months in this Country, but my search after
the Prodigy of humane Knowledge the People abounds with, led me into
Acquaintance with some of their principal Artists, Engineers, and Men
of Letters; and I was astonish'd at every Day's Discovery of new and
of unheard-of Worlds of Learning; but I Improv'd in the Superficial
Knowledge of their General, by no body so much as by my Conversation
with the Library-keeper of Tonquin, by whom I had Admission into the
vast Collection of Books, which the Emperors of that Country have
treasur'd up.

It would be endless to give you a Catalogue, and they admit of no
Strangers to write any thing down, but what the Memory can retain,
you are welcome to carry away with you; and amongst the wonderful
Volumes of Antient and Modern Learning, I could not but take Notice
of a few; which, besides those I mentioned before, I saw, when I
lookt over this vast Collection; and a larger Account may be given
in our next.

It would be needless to Transcribe the Chinese Character, or to put
their Alphabet into our Letters, because the Words would be both
Unintelligible, and very hard to Pronounce; and therefore, to avoid
hard Words, and Hyroglyphicks, I'll translate them as well as I can.

The first Class I came to of Books, was the Constitutions of the
Empire; these are vast great Volumes, and have a sort of Engine like
our Magna Charta, to remove 'em, and with placing them in a Frame,
by turning a Screw, open'd the Leaves, and folded them this way,
or that, as the Reader desires. It was present Death for the
Library-keeper to refuse the meanest Chinese Subject to come in and
read them; for 'tis their Maxim, That all People ought to know the
Laws by which they are to be govern'd; and as above all People, we
find no Fools in this Country, so the Emperors, though they seem to
be Arbitrary, enjoy the greatest Authority in the World, by always
observing, with the greatest Exactness, the Pacta Conventa of their
Government: From these Principles it is impossible we should ever
hear, either of the Tyranny of Princes, or Rebellion of Subjects,
in all their Histories.

At the Entrance into this Class, you find some Ancient Comments,
upon the Constitution of the Empire, written many Ages before we
pretend the World began; but above all, One I took particular notice
of, which might bear this Title, Natural Right prov'd Superior to
Temporal Power; wherein the old Author proves, the Chinese Emperors
were Originally made so, by Nature's directing the People, to place
the Power of Government in the most worthy Person they could find;
and the Author giving a most exact History of 2000 Emperors, brings
them into about 35 or 36 Periods of Lines when the Race ended; and
when a Collective Assembly of the Nobles, Cities, and People,
Nominated a new Family to the Goverment.

This being an heretical Book as to European Politicks, and our
Learned Authors having long since exploded this Doctrine, and prov'd
that Kings and Emperors came down from Heaven with Crowns on their
Heads, and all their Subjects were born with Saddles on their Backs;
I thought fit to leave it where I found it, least our excellent
Tracts of Sir Robert Filmer, Dr. Hammond L...y, S....l, and Others,
who have so learnedly treated of the more useful Doctrine of Passive
Obedience, Divine Right, &c. should be blasphem'd by the Mob, grow
into Contempt of the People; and they should take upon them to
question their Superiors for the Blood of Algernon Sidney, and Argyle.

For I take the Doctrines of Passive Obedience, &c. among the
States-men, to be like the Copernican System of the Earths Motion
among Philosophers; which, though it be contrary to all antient
Knowledge, and not capable of Demonstration, yet is adher'd to in
general, because by this they can better solve, and give a more
rational Account of several dark Phanomena in Nature, than they could
before.

Thus our Modern States-men approve of this Scheme of Government; not
that it admits of any rational Defence, much less of Demonstration,
but because by this Method they can the better explain, as well as
defend, all Coertion in Cases invasive of Natural Right, than they
could before.

Here I found two famous Volumes in Chyrurgery, being an exact
Description of the Circulation of the Blood, discovered long before
King Solomon's Allegory of the Bucket's going to the Well; with
several curious Methods by which the Demonstration was to be made so
plain, as would make even the worthy Doctor B------ himself become a
Convert to his own Eye-sight, make him damn his own Elaborate Book,
and think it worse Nonsence than ever the Town had the Freedom to
imagine.

All our Philosophers are Fools, and their Transactions a parcel
of empty Stuff, to the Experiments of the Royal Societies in this
Country. Here I came to a Learned Tract of Winds, which outdoes even
the Sacred Text, and would make us believe it was not wrote to those
People; for they tell Folks whence it comes, and whither it goes.
There you have an Account how to make Glasses of Hogs Eyes, that can
see the Wind; and they give strange Accounts both of its regular and
irregular Motions, its Compositions and Quantities; from whence, by a
sort of Algebra, they can cast up its Duration, Violence, and Extent:
In these Calculations, some say, those Authors have been so exact,
that they can, as our Philosophers say of Comets, state their
Revolutions, and tell us how many Storms there shall happen to any
Period of time, and when; and perhaps this may be with much about the
same Truth.

It was a certain Sign Aristotle had never been at China; for, had he
seen the 216th Volume of the Chinese Navigation, in the Library I
am speaking of, a large Book in Double Folio, wrote by the Famous
Mira-cho-cho-lasmo, Vice-Admiral of China, and said to be printed
there about 2000 Years before the Deluge, in the Chapter of Tides he
would have seen the Reason of all the certain and uncertain Fluxes
and Refluxes of that Element, how the exact Pace is kept between the
Moon and the Tides, with a most elaborate Discourse there, of the
Power of Sympathy, and the manner how the heavenly Bodies Influence
the Earthly: Had he seen this, the Stagyrite would never have Drowned
himself, because he could not comprehend this Mystery.

'Tis farther related of this Famous Author, that he was no Native
of this World, but was Born in the Moon, and coming hither to make
Discoveries, by a strange Invention arrived to by the Virtuosoes of
that habitable World, the Emperor of China prevailed with him to stay
and improve his Subjects, in the most exquisite Accomplishments of
those Lunar Regions; and no wonder the Chinese are such exquisite
Artists, and Masters of such sublime Knowledge, when this Famous
Author has blest them with such unaccountable Methods of Improvement.
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