'And towns, and rivers, and deserts?'
'I couldn't tell you that, either.'
'But you are a geographer!'
'Exactly,' the geographer said. 'But I am not an explorer. I haven't a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts. The geographer is much too important to go loafing about. He does not leave his desk. But he receives the explorers in his study. He asks them questions, and he notes down what they recall of their travels. And if the recollections of any one among them seem interesting to him, the geographer orders an inquiry into that explorer's moral character.'
'Why is that?'
'Because an explorer who told lies would bring disaster on the books of the geographer. So would an explorer who drank too much.'
'Why is that?' asked the little prince.
'Because intoxicated men see double. Then the geographer would note down two mountains in a place where there was only one.'
'I know some one,' said the little prince, 'who would make a bad explorer.'
'That is possible. Then, when the moral character of the explorer is shown to be good, an inquiry is ordered into his discovery.'
'One goes to see it?'
'No. That would be too complicated. But one requires the explorer to furnish proofs. For example, if the discovery in question is that of a large mountain, one requires that large stones be brought back from it.'
The geographer was suddenly stirred to excitement.
'But you — you come from far away! You are an explorer! You shall describe your planet to me!'
And, having opened his big register, the geographer sharpened his pencil. The recitals of explorers are put down first in pencil. One waits until the explorer has furnished proofs, before putting them down in ink.
'Well?' said the geographer expectantly.
'Oh, where I live,' said the little prince, 'it is not very interesting. It is all so small. I have three volcanoes. Two volcanoes are active and the other is extinct. But one never knows.'
'One never knows,' said the geographer.
'I have also a flower.'
'We do not record flowers,' said the geographer.
'Why is that? The flower is the most beautiful thing on my planet!'
'We do not record them,' said the geographer, 'because they are ephemeral.'
'What does that mean — 'ephemeral'?'
'Geographies,' said the geographer, 'are the books which, of all books, are most concerned with matters of consequence. They never become old-fashioned. It is very rarely that a mountain changes its position. It is very rarely that an ocean empties itself of its waters. We write of eternal things.'
'But extinct volcanoes may come to life again,' the little prince interrupted. 'What does that mean — 'ephemeral'?'
'Whether volcanoes are extinct or alive, it comes to the same thing for us,' said the geographer. 'The thing that matters to us is the mountain. It does not change.'
'But what does that mean — 'ephemeral'?' repeated the little prince, who never in his life had let go of a question, once he had asked it.
'It means, 'which is in danger of speedy disappearance.''
'Is my flower in danger of speedy disappearance?'
'Certainly it is.'
'My flower is ephemeral,' the little prince said to himself, 'and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!'
That was his first moment of regret. But he took courage once more.
'What place would you advise me to visit now?' he asked.
'The planet Earth,' replied the geographer. 'It has a good reputation.'
And the little prince went away, thinking of his flower.
XVI
So then the seventh planet was the Earth.
The Earth is not just an ordinary planet! One can count, there, 111 kings (not forgetting, to be sure, the Negro kings among them), 7000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7,500,000 tipplers, 311,000,000 conceited men — that is to say, about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups. To give you an idea of the size of the Earth, I will tell you that before the invention of electricity it was necessary to maintain, over the whole of the six continents, a veritable army of 462,511 lamplighters for the street lamps.
Seen from a slight distance, that would make a splendid spectacle. The movements of this army would be regulated like those of the ballet in the opera. First would come the turn of the lamplighters of New Zealand and Australia. Having set their lamps alight, these would go off to sleep. Next, the lamplighters of China and Siberia would enter for their steps in the dance, and then they too would be waved back into the wings. After that would come the turn of the lamplighters of Russia and the Indies; then those of Africa and Europe; then those of South America; then those of South America; then those of North America. And never would they make a mistake in the order of their entry upon the stage. It would be magnificent.
Only the man who was in charge of the single lamp at the North Pole, and his colleague who was responsible for the single lamp at the South Pole — only these two would live free from toil and care: they would be busy twice a year.
ХVII
When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wanders a little from the truth. I have not been altogether honest in what I have told you about the lamplighters. And I realize that I run the risk of giving a false idea of our planet to those who do not know it. Men occupy a very small place upon the Earth. If the two billion inhabitants who people its surface were all to stand upright and somewhat crowded together, as they do for some big public assembly, they could easily be put into one public square twenty miles long and twenty miles wide. All humanity could be piled up on a small Pacific islet.
The grown-ups, to be sure, will not believe you when you tell them that. They imagine that they fill a great deal of space. They fancy themselves as important as the baobabs. You should advise them, then, to make their own calculations. They adore figures, and that will please them. But do not waste your time on this extra task. It is unnecessary. You have, I know, confidence in me.
When the little prince arrived on the Earth, he was very much surprised not to see any people. He was beginning to be afraid he had come to the wrong planet, when a coil of gold, the color of the moonlight, flashed across the sand.
'Good evening,' said the little prince courteously.
'Good evening,' said the snake.
'What planet is this on which I have come down?' asked the little prince.
'This is the Earth; this is Africa,' the snake answered.
'Ah! Then there are no people on the Earth?'
'This is the desert. There are no people in the desert. The Earth is large,' said the snake.
