on these precautions and many others, he
began his speech like so:

"Invisible insects, that the hand of the Creator has caused to spring
up in the abyss of the infinitely small, I thank him for allowing me
to uncover these seemingly impenetrable secrets. Perhaps those at my
court would not deign to give you audience, but I mistrust no one,
and I offer you my protection."

If anyone has ever been surprised, it was the people who heard these
words. They could not figure out where they were coming from. The
chaplain of the vessel recited the exorcism prayers, the sailors
swore, and the philosophers of the vessel constructed systems; but no
matter what systems they came up with, they could not figure out who
was talking. The dwarf from Saturn, who had a softer voice than
Micromegas, told them in a few words what species they were dealing
with. He told them about the voyage from Saturn, brought them up to
speed on what Mr. Micromegas was, and after lamenting how small they
were, asked them if they had always been in this miserable state so
near nothingness, what they were doing on a globe that appeared to
belong to whales, whether they were happy, if they reproduced, if
they had a soul, and a hundred other questions of this nature.

A reasoner among the troop, more daring than the others, and shocked
that someone might doubt his soul, observed the interlocutor with
sight-vanes pointed at a quarter circle from two different stations,
and at the third spoke thusly: "You believe then, Sir, that because
you are a thousand fathoms tall from head to toe, that you are a--"

"A thousand fathoms!" cried the dwarf. "Good heavens! How could he
know my height? A thousand fathoms! You cannot mistake him for a
flea. This atom just measured me! He is a surveyor, he knows my size;
and I, who can only see him through a microscope, I still do not know
his!"

"Yes, I measured you," said the physician, "and I will measure your
large companion as well." The proposition was accepted, his
excellency laid down flat; for were he to stay upright his head would
have been among the clouds. Our philosophers planted a great shaft on
him, in a place that doctor Swift would have named, but that I will
restrain myself from calling by its name, out of respect for the
ladies. Next, by a series of triangles linked together, they
concluded that what they saw was in effect a young man of 120,000
feet[1].

[1]The edition I believe to be original reads