The moon says, "Come see how beautiful I am, shimmering on the waves of the sea where thousands of luminous fish are playing." And the man says, "Just a little longer. I found a way to smelt iron and make all sorts of interesting things, and they keep their edge so much better than bronze used to do. I want to try making just a couple of swords and I'll be right out."
The sun says, "I'm rising, look, look, look! The sky is salmon now, and now pink, and lavender, and blue, it changes moment by moment, and in another moment it will be over." And the man says, "I can't get away just now. Did you know steam could be used to work a piston, and the piston can be used to turn a wheel? Just think if there was a paddle on the wheel! Maybe I can take a look tomorrow."
A shooting star says, "I'm going across the sky. Here I go. I'm gone." The man says, "What was that? Did you say something? There's something new I wanted to try with petrol, and then I'll stop."
The earth says, "Come and see me. I am not as lovely as I once was perhaps; my body is marked all over with the scars of your highways and my sky is cut to slices by your telephone wires. Bee hives fall silent one by one. I do not know what it means, but it troubles me. But they say the flower is loveliest just before it dies, and the berry sweetest. If that is true, perhaps this day my beauty is at its height. See me now before it is over." The man says, "I have a thing here. It is made of nothing but ones and zeroes in endless configurations. I am going to see what those ones and zeroes will do if I stack them high enough. Now leave me alone."
