Un projet de roman de science-fiction d'Anders Celsius

[bormandg]

Info reçue en anglais sur une liste internationale:

(Posted this on another list, but it should be of interest here too. --AE)

A little effort in the eternal struggle to map the history of the glorious genre of science fiction!

Yesterday I mentioned a rather unknown sf piece by the scientist Anders
Celsius (inventor of the temperature scale that bears his name). With
the help of Bertil Falk, who contacted astronomy friends of his (Celsius
was an astronomer), the text was tracked to a collection of
science/philosophy essays called Gyllene Äpplen (published 1991,
Atlantis publisher, ed Gunnar Broberg) and my local library happened to
have it!
Below my English translation of the text, which in parts
must be considered an "interpretation". Some unusual words are used and
18th century Swedish had a standard of phrasing (odd word order, much
"passive" phrasing etc) that makes it difficult. Last I enclose the
Swedish original text, as transcribed by me. It should be noted that it
has parentheses explaining odd, Latin-inspired words, probably inserted
by the book's modern editor; those are not necessary in my English
interpretation.
Title "War of the Worlds?" ("Världarnas krig?"). No date, but before 1744 when Celsius died:

When
astronomy has reached so far that we are sure of the status of the
inhabitants of the planets; and physics so forward that we find ways to
travel from Earth to the planets, they none-the-less begin to make war
in the air and trade and navigate to the planets, and thus they want to
conquer each other. Later Earth will be considered as a united realm in
respect to e g the Kingdom of Mars. They will then find out to make
alliances with each other, e g Mercury, Venus and Tellus, on one side,
and on the other side Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. But as Jupiter and
Saturn has conquered so many small kingdoms on their satellites;
Mercury, Venus and Tellus would the oblige the inhabitants of the Sun to
be on their side to keep the balance in the Solar system, and instead
they now have Europa /illegible/. If science would become as advanced
that we could trade with other planetary systems, e g Sirus, our system
would be considered as one Kingdom, and then wars start between
different systems, and so on ad infinitum. But since you cannot travel
between systems in shorter time than a few hundred years, medicine
should be improved so that people could become as old as during the time
of the Patriarchs.
Who did originally think you could sail the
seas, as far as that you couldn't see land? Who thought you could start
to battle on water? Now we have little belief that people in due time
could sail and battle in the air. It could be possible that flesh and
skin would become transparent. If one in the future could imagine such
people and animals, it would become a possibility for a nice novel -
medicine would then make people long-lived.

AE: An approximate
translation, of course. And here the Swedish original, with original old
spelling (unless I mistyped things). Some comments by me, last.

När astronomien bliwit så wida brakt at de blifwa försäkrade om incolarum (invånarnas)
tillstånd i Planeterna; och pysiquen så wida at man hittar på maner at fara ifrån jorden
till planeterna, så begynna de at då jämwäl kriga i luften och föra commercien och
navigation på planeterne, och således at willa conquetera (erövra) hwarandra. Omsider
blifwer då hela jorden considererad (ansedd) som ett helt rike emot ex. gr. (t ex)
konungariket Mars. Då de sedan hitta på at giöra med hwarandra alliancer, till ex.
Mercurius Venus och Tellus, på ena sidan, och på den andra sidan Mars, Jupiter och
Saturnus. Men som Jupiter och Saturnus hafwa så många små konungariken
conqueterade i sina satellites; så lära Mercurius, Venus och Tellus obligera (förpliktiga)
incolas solen (solinnevånare) at stå på deras sida til at hålla balancen uti systemate
planetorio, i stellet man nu har Europa /oläsligt/. Om konsten skulle stiga så högt,
at man kunde få commerce med de andra systemata plantis ex. gr. i Sirio; så
considereras då åter wårt systeme för ett konungarike och då begynner at föra krig
emellan hwarjehanda systemata, och så widare in infinitum. Men som man knapt kan
fara emellan systemata på några hundra år, så bör medicine exceleras (förbättras),
at folket kunna blifwa nu så gamla som i Patriarchernas tid.
Hwem trodde i förstone man skulle kunna segla i hafwet, der man ej såg något
land? Hwem trodde man skulle begynna at slås i watnet? Så litet tro wi nu at folket
kunna och med tiden segla och slåss i luften. Det kunde wara möjligt at alt kiött och
hud wore genomskinelig. Skulle man ponera någonsteds i planeterne sådane
människior och diur, så skulle det gie tilfälle til en artig Roman - Medici kunde
då göra folket långlefwade.

What we see is a very brief synopsis of a possible space novel (Celsius uses the word "roman", which means novel - it is as yet unknown if he wrote anything of this novel) covering interplanetary and later interstellar war and trade. He makes an interesting observation that it would take hundreds of years to travel to the stars - but it could be possible if medicine evolves so we live longer. He makes an interesting speculation about invisibility (long before HG Wells and The Invisible Man!) and notes: Who thought earlier that we could sail and do battle on the high seas, so later we could perhaps do the same "in the air".
It's a science-fiction like piece of speculation and a loose framework for a possible story. From the early half of the 18th Century, by the man who was and invented Celsius, the scale - which makes it a bit interesting.

--Ahrvid

J'essayerai de traduire en français à partir du texte anglais; pour la version suédoise, s'adresser à JP Laigle....

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