Lessons on Men from “The Little Prince”: The Geographer

Friday, November 7th 2008 by Shanel Yang

The Little Prince is the classic children’s book that has many lessons to teach all of us, including adults, about the wonders of being alive, love, and friendship—and about the folly of most adults who fail to appreciate all these things. It was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and first published in 1943.

As the story goes, the little prince was a boy who was the only human inhabitant of a tiny island. His life was simple there, filled with various chores and simple pleasures, such as watching sunsets after his work was done. Until one day, a beautiful rose appeared and he fell in love with her. But, the rose was rather moody and difficult to get along with—what we would call today, “high-maintenance.” And, so, he decided to leave her and see what he could find in the rest of the universe, as he had never before left his tiny planet.

On his adventure, he first encountered a series of men, one on each of their own tiny planets. (But, scientists would call them “asteroids.”) There were six such tiny planets/asteroids in all. Here is what the little prince found on the sixth one:

THE GEOGRAPHER FROM THE LITTLE PRINCE

The sixth planet was ten times bigger than the last. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote enormous books.

“Ah, here comes an explorer,” he exclaimed when he caught sight of the little prince, who was feeling a little winded and sat down on the desk. He had already traveled so much and so far!

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

“What’s that big book?” asked the little prince. “What do you do with it?”

“I’m a geographer,” the old gentleman answered.

“And what’s a geographer?”

“A scholar who knows where the seas are, and the rivers, the cities, the mountains and the deserts.”

“That is very interesting,” the little prince said. “Here at last is someone who has a real profession!” And he gazed around him at the geographer’s planet. He had never seen a planet so majestic. “Your planet is very beautiful,” he said. “Does it have any oceans?”

“I couldn’t say,” said the geographer.

“Oh!” The little prince was disappointed. “And mountains?”

“I couldn’t say,” said the geographer.

“And cities and rivers and deserts?”

“I couldn’t tell you that, either,” the geographer said.

“But you’re a geographer!”

“That’s right,” said the geographer, “but I’m not an explorer. There’s not one explorer on my planet. A geographer doesn’t go out to describe cities, rivers, mountains, seas, oceans, and deserts. A geographer is too important to go wandering about. He never leaves his study. But he receives the explorers there. He questions them, and he writes down what they remember. And if the memories of one of the explorers seem interesting to him, then the geographer conducts an inquiry into that explorer’s moral character.”

“Why is that?”

“Because an explorer who told lies would cause disasters in the geography books. As would an explorer who drank too much.”

“Why is that?” the little prince asked again.

“Because drunkards see double. And the geographer would write down two mountains where there was only one.”

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

“Possibly. Well, when the explorer’s moral character seems to be a good one, an investigation is made into his discovery.”

“By going to see it?”

“No, that would be too complicated. But the explorer is required to furnish proofs. For instance, if he claims to have discovered a large mountain, he is required to bring back large stones from it.” The geographer suddenly grew excited. “But you come from far away! You’re an explorer! You must describe your planet for me!”

And the geographer, having opened his logbook, sharpened his pencil. Explorers’ reports are first recorded in pencil; ink is used only after proofs have been furnished.

“Well?” said the geographer expectantly.

“Oh, where I live,” said the little prince, “is not very interesting. It’s so small. I have three volcanoes, two active and one extinct. But you never know.”

“You never know,” said the geographer.

“I also have a flower.”

“We don’t record flowers,” the geographer said.

“Why not? It’s the prettiest thing!”

“Because flowers are ephemeral.”

“What does ephemeral mean?”

“Geographies,” said the geographer, “are the finest books of all. They never go out of fashion. It is extremely rare for an ocean to be drained of its water. We write eternal things.”

“But extinct volcanoes can come back to life,” the little prince interrupted. “What does ephemeral mean?”

“Whether volcanoes are extinct or active comes down to the same thing for us,” said the geographer. “For us what counts is the mountain. That doesn’t change.”

“But what does ephemeral mean?” repeated the little prince, who had never in all his life let go of a question once he had asked it.

“It means, ‘which is threatened by imminent disappearance.’”

“Is my flower threatened by imminent disappearance?”

“Of course.”

My flower is ephemeral, the little prince said to himself, and she has only four thorns with with to defend herself against the world! And I’ve left her all alone where I live!

That was his first impulse of regret. But he plucked up his courage again. “Where would you advise me to visit?” he asked.

“The planet Earth,” the geographer answered. “It has a good reputation.”

And the little prince went on his way, thinking about his flower.

CONCLUSION

The geographer is a man who considers himself too important to ever experience the world through his own five senses. Could it be he represents those of us who think it is enough to learn about life, other people, and all there is to experiences in the world simply by reading books or watching moves about them? (I assume we all care about people—however ephemeral!) Do we merely test the validity of our thus-acquired and so-called understanding of them by questioning the internal consistency of the stories in the books and of the plots and themes in the movies? And, in doing so, do we fail to study our own beautiful surroundings and the people in them? How sad if we only experience life second-hand, like the geographer!

If you want a copy of The Little Prince for your own personal library, click here.

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The King,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Very Vain Man,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Drunkard,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Businessman,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: The Lamplighter,” click here.]

[For “Lessons on Men from ‘The Little Prince’: Here on Earth,” click here.]

[For all the “Lessons from ‘The Little Prince,’” click here.]

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[For “Love Letter from ‘Griffin & Sabine,’” click here.]

[For “Lessons from the ‘Sunscreen Speech,’” click here.]

[For entire “Lessons On” series, click here.]