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22 - Sunday Below Ground - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two, Sunday below Ground. I awoke on Sunday
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  Speaker 1: morning without any sense of hurry and bustle attendant on
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  Speaker 1: an immediate departure. Though the day to be devoted to
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  Speaker 1: repose and reflection was spent under such strange circumstances and
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  Speaker 1: in so wonderful a place, the idea was a pleasant one. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: we all began to get use to this kind of existence.
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  Speaker 1: I had almost ceased to think of the sun, of
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  Speaker 1: the moon, of the stars, of the trees, houses and towns,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, about any terrestrial necessities. In our peculiar position,
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  Speaker 1: we were far above such reflections. The grotto was a
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  Speaker 1: vast and magnificent hall. Alone on its granitic soil, the
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  Speaker 1: stream flowed placidly and pleasantly. So great a distance was
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  Speaker 1: it now from its fiery source, that its water was
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  Speaker 1: scarcely lukewarm, and could be drunk without delay or difficulty.
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  Speaker 1: After a frugal breakfast, the professor made up his mind
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  Speaker 1: to devote some hours to putting his notes and calculations
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  Speaker 1: in order. In the first place, he said, I have
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  Speaker 1: a good many to verify and prove, in order that
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  Speaker 1: we may know our exact position. I wish to be able,
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  Speaker 1: on our return to the upper regions, to make a
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  Speaker 1: map of our journey, a kind of vertical section of
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  Speaker 1: the globe, which will be, as it were, the profile
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  Speaker 1: of the expedition. That would indeed be a curious work, Uncle,
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  Speaker 1: But can you make your observations with anything like certainty
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  Speaker 1: and precision? I can. I have never, on any occasion
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  Speaker 1: failed to note with great care the angles and slopes.
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  Speaker 1: I am certain as to have made no mistake. Take
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  Speaker 1: the compass and examine how she points. I looked at
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  Speaker 1: the instrument with care east one quarter southeast. Very good,
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  Speaker 1: resumed the professor, noting the observation, and going through some
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  Speaker 1: rapid calculations, I make out that we have journeyed two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty miles from the point of our departure.
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  Speaker 1: Then the mighty waves of the Atlantic are rolling over
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  Speaker 1: our heads. Certainly, and at this very moment, it is
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  Speaker 1: possible that tempests are raging above, and that men and
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  Speaker 1: ships are battling against the angry blast just over our heads.
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  Speaker 1: It is quite within the range of possibility, rejoined my uncle, smiling,
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  Speaker 1: and that whales are playing in shoals, thrashing the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the sea. The roof of our adamantine prison be
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  Speaker 1: quite at rest. At that point there is no danger
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  Speaker 1: of their breaking through. But to return to our calculations,
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  Speaker 1: we are to the southeast two hundred and fifty miles
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  Speaker 1: from the base of Sneffels, and according to my preceding notes,
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  Speaker 1: I think we have gone sixteen leagues in a downward direction.
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  Speaker 1: Sixteen leagues fifty miles, I cried, I am sure of it.
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  Speaker 1: But that is the extreme limit allowed by science for
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  Speaker 1: the thickness of the Earth's crust, I have replied, referring
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  Speaker 1: to my geological studies, I do not contravene that assertion
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  Speaker 1: was his quiet answer. And at this stage of our journey,
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  Speaker 1: according to all known laws on the increase of heat,
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  Speaker 1: there should be here a temperature of fifteen hundred degrees
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  Speaker 1: of raheumor there should be, you say, my boy, in
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  Speaker 1: which case this granite would not exist but in a
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  Speaker 1: state of fusion. But you perceive, my boy, that it
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  Speaker 1: is not so, and that facts, as usual are very
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  Speaker 1: stubborn things over rule all theories. I am forced to
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  Speaker 1: yield to the evidence of my senses. But I am
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  Speaker 1: nevertheless very much surprised. What heat does the thermometer really indicate,
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  Speaker 1: continued the philosopher twenty seven six tenths, so that science
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  Speaker 1: is wrong by fourteen hundred and seventy four degrees in fourteenths,
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  Speaker 1: according to which it is demonstrated that the proportional increase
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  Speaker 1: in temperature is an exploded error. Humphrey Davy here shines
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  Speaker 1: forth in all his glory. He is right, and I
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  Speaker 1: have acted wisely to believe him. Have you any answer
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  Speaker 1: to make to this statement? Had I chosen to have spoken,
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  Speaker 1: I might have said a great deal. I in no
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  Speaker 1: way admitted the theory of Humphrey Davy. I still held
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  Speaker 1: out for the theory of proportional increase of heat, though
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  Speaker 1: I did not feel it. I was far more willing
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  Speaker 1: to allow that this chimney of an extinct volcano was
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  Speaker 1: covered by lava of a kind refractatory to heat, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: a bad conductor, which did not allow the great increase
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  Speaker 1: of temperature to percolate through its sides. The hot water
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  Speaker 1: jet supported my view of the matter. But without entering
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  Speaker 1: on a long and useless discussion or seeking for new
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  Speaker 1: arguments to contravert my uncle, I contented myself with taking
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  Speaker 1: up facts as they were well sir, I take for
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  Speaker 1: granted that all your calculations are correct, but allow me
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  Speaker 1: to draw from them a rigorous and definite conclusion. Gone,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, have you say, cried my uncle good humoredly.
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  Speaker 1: At the place where we now are, under the latitude
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  Speaker 1: of Iceland, the terrestrial depth is about fifteen hundred and
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  Speaker 1: eighty three leagues. Fifteen hundred eighty three and a quarter. Well,
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  Speaker 1: suppose we say sixteen hundred in round numbers. Now, out
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  Speaker 1: of a voyage of sixteen hundred leagues, we have completed sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: As you say, what then, at the expense of a
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  Speaker 1: diagonal journey of no less than eighty five leagues exactly,
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  Speaker 1: we have been twenty days about it, exactly twenty Now
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  Speaker 1: sixteen is the hundredth part of our contemplated expedition. If
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  Speaker 1: we go on in this way, we shall be two
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  Speaker 1: thousand days, that is about five years and a half
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  Speaker 1: going down. The professor folded his arms, listened, but did
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  Speaker 1: not speak, without counting that if a vertical descent of
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  Speaker 1: sixteen leagues cost us a horizontal of eighty five, we
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  Speaker 1: shall have to go about eight thousand leagues to the southeast,
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  Speaker 1: and we must therefore come out somewhere in the circumference,
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  Speaker 1: long before we can hope to reach the center. Bother,
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  Speaker 1: your calculations, cried my uncle, and one of his old rages.
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  Speaker 1: On what basis do they rest? How do you know
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  Speaker 1: that this passage does not take us direct to the
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  Speaker 1: end we require? Moreover, I have in my favor, fortunately
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  Speaker 1: a precedent. What I have undertaken to do, another has done,
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  Speaker 1: and he having succeeded. Why should I not be equally successful?
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  Speaker 1: I hope indeed you will be still. I suppose I
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  Speaker 1: may be allowed to You are allowed to hold your tongue,
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  Speaker 1: cried Professor Hardwick, when you talk so unreasonably as this,
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  Speaker 1: I saw at once that the old doctoral professor was
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  Speaker 1: still alive in my uncle, and fearful to rouse his
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  Speaker 1: angry passions. I drop the unpleasant subject now, then, he explained,
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  Speaker 1: consult the manner met, What does that indicate a considerable
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  Speaker 1: amount of pressure? Very good? You see then, that by
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  Speaker 1: descending slowly, and by gradually accustoming ourselves to the density
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  Speaker 1: of this lower atmosphere, we shall not suffer well, I
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  Speaker 1: suppose not, except it may be a certain amount of
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  Speaker 1: pain in the ears. Was my rather grim reply. That
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  Speaker 1: my dear boy, is nothing, and you will easily get
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  Speaker 1: rid of that source of discomfort by bringing the exterior
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  Speaker 1: air to communication with the air contained in your lungs.
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  Speaker 1: Perfectly said I, For I had quite made up my
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  Speaker 1: mind in no wise to contradict my uncle. I should
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  Speaker 1: fancy almost that I should experience a certain amount of
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  Speaker 1: satusy faction in making a plunge into this dense atmosphere.
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  Speaker 1: Have you taken note of how wonderfully sound is propagated?
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  Speaker 1: Of course I have. There can be no doubt that
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  Speaker 1: a journey into the interior of the earth would be
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  Speaker 1: an excellent cure for deftness. But then, Uncle, I ventured
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  Speaker 1: mildly to observe, this density will continue to increase. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: according to a law, which however, is scarcely defined, it
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  Speaker 1: is true that the intensity of weight will diminish, just
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  Speaker 1: in proportion to the depth to which we go. You
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  Speaker 1: know very well that it is on the surface of
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  Speaker 1: the earth that its action is most powerfully felt, while
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  Speaker 1: on the contrary, in the very center of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: bodies ceased to have any weight at all. I know
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  Speaker 1: that is the case. But as we progress, will not
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  Speaker 1: the atmosphere. Finally, assume the density of water. I know
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  Speaker 1: it when placed under the pressure of seven hundred and
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  Speaker 1: ten atmospheres, cried my uncle, with imperturbable gravity. And when
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  Speaker 1: we are still lowered down, I ask, with natural anxiety. Well,
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  Speaker 1: lower down the density will become even greater. Then how
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  Speaker 1: shall we be able to make our way through this
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  Speaker 1: atmospheric FuG Well, my worthy nephew, we must balance ourselves
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  Speaker 1: by filling our pockets with stones, said Professor Hardwig. Faith Uncle,
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  Speaker 1: you have an answer for everything, was my only reply.
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  Speaker 1: I began to feel that it was unwise of me
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  Speaker 1: to go any farther into the wide field of hypotheses,
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  Speaker 1: for I should certainly have reviewed some difficulty or rather
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  Speaker 1: impossibility that would have enraged the professor. It was evident, nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: that the air under a pressure which might be multiplied
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  Speaker 1: by thousands of atmospheres, would end by becoming perfectly solid,
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  Speaker 1: And that, then, admitting our bodies resisted the pressure, we
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  Speaker 1: should have to stop. In spite of all the reasonings
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  Speaker 1: in the world, facts overcome all arguments. But I thought
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  Speaker 1: it best not to urge this argument. My uncle would
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  Speaker 1: simply have quoted the example of sack Neussom, supposing the
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  Speaker 1: learned Icelander's journey ever really to have taken place. There
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  Speaker 1: was one simple answer to be made. In the sixteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: neither the barometer nor the manometer had been invented. How
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  Speaker 1: then could Sacknussom have been able to discover when he
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  Speaker 1: did reach the center of the earth. This unanswerable and
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  Speaker 1: learned objection. I, however, kept to myself, embracing up my courage,
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  Speaker 1: awaited the course of events, little aware of how adventurous
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  Speaker 1: yet were to be the incidents of our remarkable journey.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of this day of leisure and repose was
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  Speaker 1: spent in calculation and conversation. I made it a point
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  Speaker 1: to agree with the Professor in everything, But I envied
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  Speaker 1: the perfect indifference of Hans, who, without taking any such
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  Speaker 1: trouble about the cause and effect, went blindly onwards wherever
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  Speaker 1: Destiny chose to lead him. End of Chapter twenty two.