15

The sixth planet was ten times larger than the last one. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books.

“Oh, look! Here is an explorer!” he exclaimed to himself when he saw the little prince. The little prince sat down on the table. He traveled so much and so far!

“Where do you come from?” the old gentleman said to him.

“What is that big book?” said the little prince. “What are you doing?”

“I am a geographer,” said the old gentleman.

“What is a geographer?” asked the little prince.

“A geographer is a scholar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts.”

“That is very interesting,” said the little prince. “Here at last is a man who has a real profession!” And he cast a look around him at the planet of the geographer. It was the most magnificent planet.

“Your planet is very beautiful,” he said. “Has it any oceans?”

“I can’t tell you,” said the geographer.

“Ah!” The little prince was disappointed. “Has it any mountains?”

“I can’t tell you,” said the geographer.

“And towns, and rivers, and deserts?”

“I can’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 a very important person to loaf 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 say. And anyone among them seems interesting to him, the geographer inquires into that explorer’s character.”

“Why is that?”

“Because an explorer who lies will bring disaster on the books of the geographer. So will an explorer who drinks too much.”

“Why is that?” asked the little prince.

“Because intoxicated men see double. Then the geographer will note down two mountains in a place where there is only one.”

“I know someone,” said the little prince, “who will be a bad explorer.”

“That is possible. Then, when the character is good, one inquiries into his discovery.”

“One goes to see it?”

“No. That is too complicated. But one requires proofs. For example, if the discovery is a large mountain, one requires large stones from it.”

The geographer was suddenly excited.

“But you—you come from far away! You are an explorer! You will describe your planet to me!”

The geographer opened his big register, and sharpened his pencil.

“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 is 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.

“It means, ‘that, which will disappear fast.’”

“Will my flower disappear fast?”

“Certainly.”

“My flower is ephemeral,” the little prince said to himself, “and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I left her on my planet, all alone!”

That was his first moment of regret.

“What place will 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.

16

So then the seventh planet was the Earth.

The Earth is not an ordinary planet! One can count, there, 111 kings, 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.

That made a splendid spectacle. First came the lamplighters of New Zealand and Australia. Next, the lamplighters of China and Siberia entered for their steps in the dance. After that came the lamplighters of Russia and India; then those of Africa and Europe; then those of South America; then those of North America. And they never made a mistake in the order of their entry upon the stage. It was magnificent.

Only the man who lighted the lamp at the North Pole, and his colleague who lighted the lamp at the South Pole—only these two were free from toil and care: they were busy twice a year.

17

When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes lies. I was not honest in what I told you about the lamplighters. And I realize that I can give a false idea of our planet to those who do not know it. Men occupy a very small place upon the Earth. All humanity can be piled up on a small Pacific islet.

The grown-ups, of course, will not believe you when you tell them that. They imagine that they are very important. They fancy themselves as important as the baobabs. You can 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 afraid that he came to the wrong planet, when a coil of gold, the colour of the moonlight, flashed across the sand.

“Good evening,” said the little prince courteously.

“Good evening,” said the snake.

“What planet is this?” 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.

The little prince sat down on a stone, and raised his eyes toward the sky.

“Look at my planet,” he said, “It is right there above us. But how far away it is!”

“It is beautiful,” the snake said. “What brought you here?”

“I had some trouble with a flower,” said the little prince.

“Ah!” said the snake.

And they were both silent.

“Where are the men?” the little prince at last asked. “It is a little lonely in the desert.”

“It is also lonely among men,” the snake said.

The little prince gazed at him for a long time.

“You are a funny animal,” he said at last. “You are no thicker than a finger.”

“But I am more powerful than the finger of a king,” said the snake.

The little prince smiled.

“You are not very powerful. You haven’t even any feet. You cannot travel.”

“I can carry you farther than any ship can take you,” said the snake.

He twined himself around the little prince’s ankle, like a golden bracelet.

“Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came,” the snake spoke again. “But you are innocent and true, and you come from a star.”

The little prince made no reply.

“You are so weak on this Earth made of granite,” the snake said. “I can help you, some day, if you are homesick for your own planet. I can—”

“Oh! I understand you very well,” said the little prince. “But why do you always speak in riddles?”

“I solve them all,” said the snake.

And then they were both silent.

18

The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower. It was a flower with three petals.

“Good morning,” said the little prince.

“Good morning,” said the flower.

“Where are the men?” the little prince asked, politely.

“Men?” she echoed. “I think there are six or seven of them. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.”

“Goodbye,” said the little prince.

“Goodbye,” said the flower.

19

After that, the little prince climbed a high mountain. The only mountains he knew were the three volcanoes, which came up to his knees. And he used the extinct volcano as a stool. “From a mountain as high as this one,” he said to himself, “I shall see the whole planet, and all the people.”

But he saw nothing, save peaks of rock, like needles.

“Good morning,” he said courteously.

“Good morning—Good morning—Good morning,” answered the echo.

“Who are you?” said the little prince.

“Who are you—Who are you—Who are you?” answered the echo.

“Be my friends. I am all alone,” he said.

“I am all alone—all alone—all alone,” answered the echo.

“What a queer planet!” he thought. “It is dry, and pointed, and harsh and forbidding. And the people have no imagination. They repeat whatever one says to them. On my planet I had a flower; she always spoke first.”