Chapter 14 ]
　　　　 - the little prince visits the lamplighter
　　The fifth planet was very strange. It was the smallest of all. There was just
enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter. The little prince was not
able to reach any explanation of the use of a street lamp and a lamplighter, somewhere
in the heavens, on a planet which had no people, and not one house. But he said
to himself, nevertheless:
　　"It may well be that this man is absurd. But he is not so absurd as the king,
the conceited man, the businessman, and the tippler. For at least his work ha
some meaning. When he lights his street lamp, it is as if he brought one more star
to life, or one flower. When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower, or the star,
to sleep. That is a beautiful occupation. And since it is beautiful, it is truly useful."
　　When he arrived on the planet he respectfully saluted the lamplighter.
　　"Good morning. Why have you just put out your lamp?"
　　"Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter. "Good morning."
　　"What are the orders?"
　　"The orders are that I put out my lamp. Good evening."
　　And he lighted his lamp again.
　　"But why have you just lighted it again?"
　　"Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter.
　　"I do not understand," said the little prince.
　　"There is nothing to understand," said the lamplighter. "Orders are orders. Good morning."
　　And he put out his lamp.
　　Then he mopped his forehead with a handkerchief decorated with red squares.
　　"I follow a terrible profession. In the old days it was reasonable. I put the lamp
out in the morning, and in the evening I lighted it again. I had the rest of the day
for relaxation and the rest of the night for sleep."
　　"And the orders have been changed since that time?"
　　"The orders have not been changed," said the lamplighter. "That is the tragedy!
From year to year the planet has turned more rapidly and the orders have not been changed!"
　　"Then what?" asked the little prince.
　　"Then-- the planet now makes a complete turn every minute, and I no longer have a
single second for repose. Once every minute I have to light my lamp and put it out!"
　　"That is very funny! A day lasts only one minute, here where you live!"
　　"It is not funny at all!" said the lamplighter. "While we have been talking
together a month has gone by."
　　"A month?"
　　"Yes, a month. Thirty minutes. Thirty days. Good evening."
　　And he lighted his lamp again.
　　As the little prince watched him, he felt that he loved this lamplighter who
was so faithful to his orders. He remembered the sunsets which he himself had gone
to seek, in other days, merely by pulling up his chair; and he wanted to help his friend.
　　"You know," he said, "I can tell you a way you can rest whenever you want to..."
　　"I always want to rest," said the lamplighter.
　　For it is possible for a man to be faithful and lazy at the same time.
　　The little prince went on with his explanation:
　　"Your planet is so small that three strides will take you all the way around
it. To be always in the sunshine, you need only walk along rather slowly. When you want to rest,
you will walk-- and the day will last as long as you like."
　　"That doesn‘t do me much good," said the lamplighter. "The one thing I love in life is to sleep."
　　"Then you‘re unlucky," said the little prince.
　　"I am unlucky," said the lamplighter. "Good morning."
　　And he put out his lamp.
　　"That man," said the little prince to himself, as he continued farther on his journey,
"that man would be scorned by all the others: by the king, by the conceited man, by the
tippler, by the businessman. Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to
me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself."
　　He breathed a sigh of regret, and said to himself, again:
　　"That man is the only one of them all whom I could have made my friend. But his planet
is indeed too small. There is no room on it for two people..."
　　What the little prince did not dare confess was that he was sorry most of all to leave
this planet, because it was blest every day with 1440 sunsets!
[ Chapter 15 ]
　　　　 - the little prince visits the geographer
　　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 coming.
　　The little prince sat down on the table and panted a little. He had already 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," the old gentleman said to him.
　　"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 and stately planet that he had ever seen.
　　"Your planet is very beautiful," he said. "Has it any oceans?"
　　"I couldn‘t tell you," said the geographer.
　　"Ah!" The little prince was disappointed. "Has it any mountains?"
　　"I couldn‘t tell you," said the geographer.
　　"And towns, and rivers, and deserts?"
　　"I couldn‘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
much too important to go loafing 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 recall
of their travels. And if the recollections of any one among them seem interesting to him,
the geographer orders an inquiry into that explorer‘s moral character."
　　"Why is that?"
　　"Because an explorer who told lies would bring disaster on the books of the geographer.
So would an explorer who drank too much."
　　"Why is that?" asked the little prince.
　　"Because intoxicated men see double. Then the geographer would note down two mountains in
a place where there was only one."
　　"I know some one," said the little prince, "who would make a bad explorer."
　　"That is possible. Then, when the moral character of the explorer is shown to be good, an
inquiry is ordered into his discovery."
　　"One goes to see it?"
　　"No. That would be too complicated. But one requires the explorer to furnish proofs.
For example, if the discovery in question is that of a large mountain, one requires that
large stones be brought back from it."
　　The geographer was suddenly stirred to excitement.
　　"But you-- you come from far away! You are an explorer! You shall describe your planet to me!"
　And, having opened his big register, the geographer sharpened his pencil. The recitals
of explorers are put down first in pencil. One waits until the explorer has furnished
proofs, before putting them down in ink.
　　"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 comes to 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, who
never in his life had let go of a question, once he had asked it.
　　"It means, ‘which is in danger of speedy disappearance.‘"
　　"Is my flower in danger of speedy disappearance?"
　　"Certainly it is."
　　"My flower is ephemeral," the little prince said to himself, "and she has only
four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!"
　　That was his first moment of regret. But he took courage once more.
　　"What place would 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, thinking of his flower.
[ Chapter 16 ]
　　　　 - the narrator discusses the Earth‘s lamplighters
　　So then the seventh planet was the Earth.
　　The Earth is not just an ordinary planet! One can count, there 111 kings (not forgetting,
to be sure, the Negro kings among them), 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.
　　Seen from a slight distance, that would make a splendid spectacle. The movements of this
army would be regulated like those of the ballet in the opera. First would come the turn of the
lamplighters of New Zealand and Australia. Having set their lamps alight, these would go off
to sleep. Next, the lamplighters of China and Siberia would enter for their steps in the dance,
and then they too would be waved back into the wings. After that would come the turn of the
lamplighters of Russia and the Indies; then those of Africa and Europe, then those of South America;
then those of South America; then those of North America. And never would they make a mistake
in the
order of their entry upon the stage. It would be magnificent.
　　Only the man who was in charge of the single lamp at the North Pole, and his colleague who
was responsible for the single lamp at the South Pole-- only these two would live free from toil
and care: they would be busy twice a year.
[ Chapter 17 ]
　　　　 - the little prince makes the acquaintance of the snake
　　When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wanders a little from the truth.
I have not been altogether honest in what I have told you about the lamplighters.
And I realize that I run the risk of giving a false idea of our planet to those
who do not k now it. Men occupy a very small place upon the Earth. If the two
billion inhabitants who people its surface were all to stand upright and somewhat
crowded together, as they do for some big public assembly, they could easily be put
into one public square twenty miles long and twenty miles wide. All humanity could
be piled up on a small Pacific islet.
　　The grown-ups, to be sure, will not believe you when you tell them that. They
imagine that they fill a great deal of space. They fancy themselves as important
as the baobabs. You should advise them, then, to make their own calculations. They adore
fig ures, 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 beginning to be afraid he had come to the wrong planet, when a
coil of gold, the color of the moonlight, flashed across the sand.
　　"Good evening," said the little prince courteously.
　　"Good evening," said the snake.
　　"What planet is this on which I have come down?" 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.
　　"I wonder," he said, "whether the stars are set alight in heaven so that one day
each one of us may find his own again... Look at my planet. It is right there above us
. But how far away it is!"
　　"It is beautiful," the snake said. "What has brought you here?"
　　"I have been having 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 took up the conversation again.
"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 even travel..."
　　"I can carry you farther than any ship could 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 move me to pity-- you are so weak on this Earth made of granite," the snake said.
"I can help you, some day, if you grow too 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 they were both silent.
[ Chapter 18 ]
　　　　 - the little prince goes looking for men and meets a flower
　　The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower.
It was a flower with three petals, a flower of no account at all.
　　"Good morning," said the little prince.
　　"Good morning," said the flower.
　　"Where are the men?" the little prince asked, politely.
　　The flower had once seen a caravan passing.
　　"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence.
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.
[ Chapter 19 ]
　　　　 - the little prince climbs a mountain range
　　After that, the little prince climbed a high mountain. The only mountains
he had ever known were the three volcanoes, which came up to his knees. And
he used the extinct volcano as a footstool. "From a mountain as high as this
one," he said to himself, "I shall be able to see the whole planet at one glance,
and all the people..."
　　But he saw nothing, save peaks of rock that were sharpened 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 altogether dry, and altogether pointed,
and altogether 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 was the first to speak..."
Chapter 20 ]
　　　　 - the little prince discovers a garden of roses
　　But it happened that after walking for a long time through sand, and rocks,
and snow, the little prince at last came upon a road. And all roads lead to the abodes of men.
　　"Good morning," he said.
　　He was standing before a garden, all a-bloom with roses.
　　"Good morning," said the roses.
　　The little prince gazed at them. They all looked like his flower.
　　"Who are you?" he demanded, thunderstruck.
　　"We are roses," the roses said.
　　And he was overcome with sadness. His flower had told him that she was the only
one of her kind in all the universe. And here were five thousand of them, all alike,
in one single garden!
　　"She would be very much annoyed," he said to himself, "if she should see that...
she would cough most dreadfully, and she would pretend that she was dying, to avoid
being laughed at. And I should be obliged to pretend that I was nursing her back to
life-- for if I did not do that, to humble myself also, she would really allow herself to die..."
　　Then he went on with his reflections: "I thought that I was rich, with a flower
that was unique in all the world; and all I had was a common rose. A common rose,
and three volcanoes that come up to my knees-- and one of them perhaps extinct forever...
that doesn‘t make me a very great prince..."
　　And he lay down in the grass and cried.[ Chapter 21 ]
　　　　 - the little prince befriends the fox
　　It was then that the fox appeared.
　　"Good morning," said the fox.
　　"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he
turned around he saw nothing.
　　"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."
　　"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."
　　"I am a fox," said the fox.
　　"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."
　　"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."
　　"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
　　But, after some thought, he added: "What does that mean-- ‘tame‘?"
　　"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"
　　"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean-- ‘tame‘?"
　　"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing.
They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"
　　"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean-- ‘tame‘?"
　　"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."
　　"‘To establish ties‘?"
　　"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little
boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need
of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a
fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need
each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique
in all the world..."
　　"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower...
I think that she has tamed me..."
　　"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things."
　　"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little prince.
　　The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.
　　"On another planet?"
　　"Yes."
　　"Are there hunters on this planet?"
　　"No."
　　"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"
　　"No."
　　"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.
　　But he came back to his idea.
　　"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me.
All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And,
in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the
sun came to shine on my life . I shall know the sound of a step that will be
different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath
the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look:
you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not ea t bread. Wheat is of no use
to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have
hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have
t