We are only to proportion our power of
resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to
pass. You will be, necessarily, upborne by the air, if you can renew any
impulse upon it, faster than the air can recede from the pressure."
"But the exercise of swimming," said the prince, "is very laborious; the
strongest limbs are soon wearied; I am afraid, the act of flying will be
yet more violent, and wings will be of no great use, unless we can fly
further than we can swim."
"The labour of rising from the ground," said the artist, "will be great,
as we see it in the heavier domestick fowls; but as we mount higher, the
earth's attraction, and the body's gravity, will be gradually
diminished, till we shall arrive at a region, where the man will float
in the air without any tendency to fall; no care will then be necessary
but to move forwards, which the gentlest impulse will effect. You, sir,
whose curiosity is so extensive, will easily conceive with what pleasure
a philosopher, furnished with wings, and hovering in the sky, would see
the earth, and all its inhabitants, rolling beneath him, and presenting
to him, successively, by its diurnal motion, all the countries within
the same parallel. How must it amuse the pendent spectator to see the
moving scene of land and ocean, cities and deserts! To survey, with
equal security, the marts of trade, and the fields of battle; mountains
infested by barbarians, and fruitful regions gladdened by plenty, and
lulled by peace! How easily shall we then trace the Nile through all its
passage; pass over to distant regions, and examine the face of nature,
from one extremity of the earth to the other!"
"All this," said the prince, "is much to be desired; but I am afraid,
that no man will be able to breathe in these regions of speculation and
tranquillity.
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