He came one
day to amuse himself in his usual manner, and found the master busy in
building a sailing chariot: he saw that the design was practicable upon
a level surface, and, with expressions of great esteem, solicited its
completion. The workman was pleased to find himself so much regarded by
the prince, and resolved to gain yet higher honours. "Sir," said he,
"you have seen but a small part of what the mechanick sciences can
perform. I have been long of opinion, that instead of the tardy
conveyance of ships and chariots, man might use the swifter migration of
wings; that the fields of air are open to knowledge, and that only
ignorance and idleness need crawl upon the ground."
This hint rekindled the prince's desire of passing the mountains: having
seen what the mechanist had already performed, he was willing to fancy
that he could do more; yet resolved to inquire further, before he
suffered hope to afflict him by disappointment. "I am afraid," said he
to the artist, "that your imagination prevails over your skill, and that
you now tell me rather what you wish, than what you know. Every animal
has his element assigned him: the birds have the air, and man and beasts
the earth."--"So," replied the mechanist, "fishes have the water, in
which, yet, beasts can swim by nature, and men by art. He that can swim
needs not despair to fly: to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to
fly is to swim in a subtler.
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