: 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 the 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 or 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