“Laughter, the most precious of the gifts of Nature, is no less familiar on Mercury than among us, and everyone carries at birth a certain dose of gaiety and good humor. But the inhabitants of that Planet have one great advantage in that regard over all the other peoples in the Universe, for they can buy laughter, joy, expansion and cheerfulness. There are Merchants in every City who sell that inestimable commodity by the grain. When one wants to take some, one allows it to dissolve in a spoonful of a clear liquid which is known as complaisance water, and which falls every evening like the dew on that fortunate planet. It is ordinarily on awakening that one takes the first dose of that elixir, instead of tea; one takes another when one sits down at table, if one is not eating alone; one never fails to equip oneself with a supply before going out into Company.”

Chevalier de Béthune, 1750