A Columbus of Space by Garrett P. Serviss, Science Fiction, Adventure, Space Opera 12+

📖 Edmund answered with uncommon warmth: "If men had not been fools for so many ages they might have done this and more than this long ago. It's enough to make one ashamed of his race! For countless centuries, instead of grasping the power that nature had placed at the disposal of their intelligence, they have idled away their time gabbling about nothing. And even since, at last, they have begun to do something, look at the time that they have wasted upon such petty forces as steam and 'electricity,' burning whole mines of coal and whole lakes of oil and childishly calling upon winds and tides and waterfalls to help them, when they had under their thumbs the limitless energy of the atoms and no more understood it than a baby understands what makes its whistle scream! It's inter-atomic force that has brought us out here and that is going to carry us a great deal farther." We simply listened in silence; for what could we say? The facts were more eloquent than any words and called for no commentary. Seeing us speechless, Edmund resumed in a different tone: "We made a fairly good run during the night. . . ."