ISBN: 2940013654846

CHAPTER ONE.BALLOON VOYAGES.TREATS OF EARLY EFFORTS TO FLY, ETCETERA.It is man's nature to soar intellectually, and it seems to have been hisambition from earliest ages to soar physically… Mehr…

CHAPTER ONE.BALLOON VOYAGES.TREATS OF EARLY EFFORTS TO FLY, ETCETERA.It is man's nature to soar intellectually, and it seems to have been hisambition from earliest ages to soar physically.Every one in health knows, or at some period of life must have known,that upward bounding of the spirit which induces a longing for thepossession of wings, that the material body might be wafted upwards intothose blue realms of light, which are so attractive to the eye andimagination of poor creeping man that he has appropriately styled themthe heavens.Man has envied the birds since the world began. Who has not watched,with something more than admiration, the easy gyrations of the sea-mew,and listened, with something more than delight, to the song of thesoaring lark?To fly with the body as well as with the mind, is a wish so universalthat the benignant Creator Himself seems to recognise it in that mostattractive passage in Holy Writ, wherein it is said that believers shallmount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, theyshall walk and not faint.Of course man has not reached the middle of the nineteenth centurywithout making numerous attempts to fly bodily up to the skies.Fortunately, however, such ambitious efforts have seldom been madeexcept by the intellectually enthusiastic. Prosaic man, except in thecase of the Tower of Babel, has remained content to gaze upwards withlonging desire, and only a few of our species in the course of centurieshave possessed temerity enough to make the deliberate effort to rideupon the wings of the wind.Naturally, the first attempts were, like most beginnings, simple andimitative. The birds flew with wings, therefore man put on artificialwings and essayed to fly like the birds. It was not until many grievousdisappointments and sad accidents had befallen him, that he unwillinglygave up wings in despair, and set to work to accomplish his ends by morecumbrous and complex machinery.Very early in the world's history, however, flying machines were made,some of which were doubtless intended by their honest inventors to carrymen through the air, while others were mere shams, made by designingmen, wherewith to impose upon the ignorant for wicked ends of their own;and some of these last were, no doubt, believed to be capable of thefeats attributed to them. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940013654846

Up In The Clouds Up-In-The-Clouds~~RM-Ballantyne Fiction>Fiction>Fiction NOOK Book (eBook), SAP