Voltaire Writes Micromegas

Date: 1752 A.D.
Author: Voltaire, French Writer and Philosopher

Dear Journal,
     Micromegas is going to be published soon. It is a story that uses the unknown of space to present a certain philosophical lesson.
     We humans know very little, compared to Micromegas, a intelligent being who is from the planet Sirius and has nearly a thousand senses and nearly a lifespan of about a hundred millenniums. He and a companion from Saturn travel about the galaxy riding on comets, observing different varieties of life.

     Micromegas arrives on Earth and with the aid of a diamond microscope, communicates with a group of philosophers. He asks them the eternal question, "Tell me what your soul is, and how you form your ideas."
     One man quotes Aristotle, although he doesn't understand the Greek. Another quotes Descartes, but when asked what he means by spirit, he says, "I haven't the slightest idea." Finally a follower of Locke says, "I do not know how I think, but I do know that I have never thought except with the aid of my senses. That there are immaterial and intelligent substances is something I do not doubt…I affirm nothing and I am content to believe that more things are possible than people think." With this answer, Micromegas is satisfied.
     Scientific reasoning is something Micromegas knows. Through our limited five senses, we can learn about the universe through it.