A DISSERTATION ON THE ART OF FLYING
Among the artists that had been allured into the Happy Valley, to labour
for the accommodation and pleasure of its inhabitants, was a man eminent
for his knowledge of the mechanic powers, who had contrived many engines
both of use and recreation. By a wheel which the stream turned, he
forced the water into a tower, whence it was distributed to all the
apartments of the palace. He erected a pavilion in the garden, around
which he kept the air always cool by artificial showers. One of the
groves, appropriated to the ladies, was ventilated by fans, to which the
rivulet that run through it gave a constant motion; and instruments of
soft music were placed at proper distances, of which some played by the
impulse of the wind, and some by the power of the stream.
This artist was sometimes visited by Rasselas, who was pleased with
every kind of knowledge, imagining that the time would come when all his
acquisitions should be of use to him in the open world. 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 mechanic 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. 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 upborn 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 domestic 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 his 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. I have been told that respiration is difficult upon lofty
mountains; yet from these precipices, though so high as to produce great
tenuity of air, it is very easy to fall; therefore I suspect that, from
any height where life can be supported, there may be danger of too quick
descent."
"Nothing," replied the artist, "will ever be attempted, if all possible
objections must be first overcome. If you will favour my project, I will
try the first flight at my own hazard. I have considered the structure
of all volant animals, and find the folding continuity of the bat's
wings most easily accommodated to the human form. Upon this model I
shall begin my task to-morrow, and in a year expect to tower into the
air beyond the malice and pursuit of man. But I will work only on this
condition, that the art shall not be divulged, and that you shall not
require me to make wings for any but ourselves."
"Why," said Rasselas, "should you envy others so great an advantage? All
skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has owed much to
others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has received."
"If men were all virtuous," returned the artist, "I should with great
alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the
good, if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an
army sailing through the clouds, neither walls, nor mountains, nor seas,
could afford any security. A flight of northern savages might hover in
the wind, and light at once with irresistible violence upon the capital
of a fruitful region that was rolling under them. Even this valley, the
retreat of princes, the abode of happiness, might be violated by the
sudden descent of some of the naked nations that swarm on the coast of
the southern sea."
The prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not wholly
hopeless of success. He visited the work from time to time, observed its
progress, and remarked many ingenious contrivances to facilitate motion,
and unite levity with strength. The artist was every day more certain
that he should leave vultures and eagles behind him, and the contagion
of his confidence seized upon the prince.
In a year the wings were finished; and, on a morning appointed, the
maker appeared furnished for flight on a little promontory: he waved
his pinions awhile to gather air, then leaped from his stand, and in an
instant dropped into the lake. His wings, which were of no use in the
air, sustained him in the water, and the prince drew him to land, half
dead with terror and vexation.