The Little Prince (64)

The Little Prince (64)

  " Here at last is a man who has a real profession ! "

  And he cast a look around his 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 ptince 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 this desk.
But he receives the explorers in his study. He ask 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 charactor. "

  " Why is that ? "

(64)