H.G. Wells on the Moon

(Cavor is a character in the Wells’ novel ‘First Men in the Moon,’ a scientist who decides to stay there) After the joy of jumping and seeing the floating blue marble, Mr. Wells studies the mountains, the barren craters, white, in sharp shadow, sifting flour dust, grey, through his fingers, where it falls like rainsheets in the windless black. “There are no ant men here.” he says, mouth moving, no sound made. “A world gone dead, filled once, by me.” He scans the horizon and stands upright, brushing the last dust, fine, ancient, from his palms. “I think,” he calls to the ghost of Cavor, “I will go take a look at Mars.”