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128
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
11
began
to
know
something
more
of
the
forces
of
nature.
One
of
the
first
of
these
travellers
in
imagination
to
the
moon
in
modern
times
was
Godwin
(1638),
and
his
plan
was
more
ingenious
than
that
of
Lucian.
He
trained
a
great
number
of
the
wild
swans
of
St.
Helena
to
fly
constantly
upward
toward
a
white
object,
and,
having
succeeded
in
thus
training
them,
one
fine
night
he
threw
himself
off
the
Peak
of
Teneriffe,
poised
upon
a
piece
of
board,
which
was
borne
upward
to
the
white
moon
by
a
great
team
of
the
gigantic
swans.
At
the
end
of
twelve
days
he
arrived,
according
to
his
story,
at
his
destination.
A
little
later
another
writer
of
this
peculiar
kind
of
fiction,
Wilkins,
an
Englishman,
professed
to
have
made
the
same
ascent,
borne
up
by
an
eagle.
Alexandre
Dumas,
who
recently
wrote
a
short
romance
upon
the
same
subject,
only
made
a
translation
of
an
English
work
by
that
author.
Wilkins’
work
is
entitled,
“The
Discovery
of
a
New
World.”
One
chapter
of
the
book
bears
the
title,
“That
‘tis
possible
for
some
of
our
posterity
to
find
out
a
conveyance
to
this
other
world;
and,
if
there
be
inhabitants
there,
to
have
commerce
with
them.”
It
is
thus
that
the
right
reverend
philosopher
reasons:--
“If
it
be
here
inquired
what
means
there
may
be
conjectured
for
our
ascending
beyond
the
sphere
of
the
earth’s
mathematical
vigour,
I
answer.--1.
‘Tis
not
possible
that
a
man
may
be
able
to
fly
by
the
application
of
wings
to
his
own
body,
as
angels
are
pictured,
as
Mercury
and
Daedalus
are
feigned,
and
as
hath
been
attempted
by
divers,
particularly
by
a
Turk
in
Constantinople,
a
Busbequius
relates.
2.
If
there
be
such
a
great
duck
in
Madagascar
as
Marcus
Polus,
the
Venetian,
mentions,
the
feathers
of
whose
wings
are
twelve
feet
long,
which
can
scoop
up
a
horse
and
his
rider,
or
an
elephant,
as
our
kites
do
a
mouse;
why,
then,
‘Tis
but
teaching
one
of
these
to
carry
a
man,
and
he
may
ride
up
thither,
as
Ganymede
does
upon
an
eagle.
3.
Or
if
neither
of
these
ways
will
serve
yet
I
do
seriously,
and
upon
good
grounds,
affirm
it
is
possible
to
make
a
flying
chariot,
in
which
a
man
may
sit
and
give
such
a
motion
to
it
as
shall
convey
him
through
the
air.
And
this,
perhaps,
might
be
made
large
enough
to
carry
divers
men
at
the
same
time,
together
with
food
for
their
viaticum,
and
commodities
for
traffic.
It
is
not
the
bigness
of
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