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Times are so changed since Voltaire, Diderot and the rest sang and shouted in the Café Procope jested, reasoned and made themselves immortal there there are so many people who have the means to frequent cafés, and there is such an immense floating population, eager, curious and bent on sightseeing, that no clique can live.
Meanwhile the Café Procope, though no longer the resort of great wits and famous philosophers, received within its hospitable doors, and nourished with its indifferent refreshments, many a now celebrated author, painter, barrister, and statesman.
The boat was lowered and manned by the four sailors; Servadac, Timascheff and Procope were quickly rowed ashore, and lost no time in commencing their ascent of the steep acclivity.
If Müller had not a sou, I, at all events, had now only one Napoleon; so the Café Procope carried the day. The Rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Près and the Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie are one and the same.
"Only let us escape Jupiter," said Lieutenant Procope, repeatedly, "and we are free from anxiety." "But would not Saturn lie ahead?" asked Servadac and the count in one breath. "No!" said Procope; "the orbit of Saturn is remote, and does not come athwart our path. Jupiter is our sole hindrance. Of Jupiter we must say, as William Tell said, 'Once through the ominous pass and all is well."
"Although the orbit of the earth was unaltered," continued the professor, "the result of the collision was the projection of the comet into a new orbit altogether." "And may I ask," said Procope, deferentially, "whether you have got the elements of the fresh orbit?" "Yes." "Then perhaps you know "
Speculations of this kind became more and more frequent, and Lieutenant Procope pointed out that the danger incurred might be of a fourfold character: first, that the comet, being irresistibly attracted, might be drawn on to the very surface of the planet, and there annihilated; secondly, that as the result of being brought under that attraction, it might be transformed into a satellite, or even a sub-satellite, of that mighty world; thirdly, that it might be diverted into a new orbit, which would never be coincident with the ecliptic; or, lastly, its course might be so retarded that it would only reach the ecliptic too late to permit any junction with the earth.
No one who has read many of the ancient gravestones but remembers the bitter words that are often found on them, words of indignation against the gods, of weariness of life, of despair and unconsoled melancholy. Here is one out of many: I, Procope, who lived twenty years, lift up my hands against God, who took me away innocent. Proclus set up this.
For my part, I was so wearied with the first, that I could not hold out to the end; and the moment I left the theatre, I went into the Cafe de Procope, where I found Boissi, and others of my acquaintance, who had probably been as much fatigued as myself. I there humbly or haughtily avowed myself the author of the piece, judging it as everybody else had done.
If our world has become so insignificant a spheroid, not only has its gravity diminished, but its rotary speed has been accelerated; and this affords an adequate explanation of our days and nights being thus curtailed. But how about the new orbit in which we are moving?" He paused and pondered, and then looked at Procope as though awaiting from him some further elucidation of the difficulty.
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