The next stanza is worth repeating, if only for the excessive comedy of the concluding verse:

"The mighty Elijah mounted so on high,

That second man who leap'd the ditch where all

The rest of mankind fall,

And went not downwards to the sky.

With much of pomp and show

(As conqu❜ring kings in triumph go)

Did he to heaven approach;

And wondrous was his way, and wond'rous was his COACH !!" The word "coach," it must be confessed, was not in quite such undignified repute then, as now; but still the poet had no business with it. He proceeds, however, to make good his words, by a refinement on Ovid's description of Phaeton's:

""Twas gaudy all, and rich in every part:

Of essences, and gems, and spirit of gold," &c.

There is something not so bad in "spirit of gold; he goes on to tell us how it was not only with ": beams silver'd bright,” but

"Double-gilt with the sun's light!"

" but

moon

Enough, however, of the vagaries of dear, noble-hearted, genial Cowley, who was among the Tories what Thomson was among the Whigs-one of the best specimens of hearty British nature, and only liable to want of selectness in his taste, because he had a love for every thing. My volume of Shelley happens to be lent at this moment, otherwise I could quote some fine things out of his ethereal pages; nor am I lucky enough to have by me that of Mr. Southey, in which he gives us his beautiful fiction of the Glendoveer with his heavenly boat.

Poetry and matter-of-fact meet oftener than is supposed. The first hints of aërostation may be truly said to be lost

in the clouds of antiquity; but real and fabulous things of all kinds are naturally so confounded in those obscure periods of time, that it is not improbable there was some foundation in fact for the stories of Abaris, Dædalus, and others, beyond even the supposed solution of the difficulty by means of a ship. Sciences have been lost and recovered. The Chinese had been in possession, for many centuries, of inventions supposed to be original to Europe. Should there have been no art of printing, the fact of the Channel's having been crossed by men in balloons, and of the fate of poor Pilâtre de Rozier, might, in the course of time, become stories of no greater credibility than that of Dedalus and his son. Immortal poetry, at all events, keeps the tradition alive in some shape or other, not omitting those verisimilitudes which enable all stories, real or fabulous, to be true to the human heart. With what pretty pathos does Ovid describe little Icarus enjoying his father's manufacture of the wings, unconscious of the death they were to give him!

That with his death he play'd; and, smiling, caught
The feathers, tossed by the wandering air;

Now chafes the yellow wax with busy care,
And interrupts his sire."

SANDYS.

"But for men to flye is impossible" (says this fine old translator in his notes, where he thinks to make up for his natural credulity by an occasional peremptory standing out for some matter of fact); "although," continues he,

"I am not ignorant that the like is reported of Simon Magus; which others, by the breaking of their necks, have as miserably, as foolishly, attempted. Nero exhibited this spectacle to the Romanes in their amphitheater; the poor youth fell not far from his throne, whose blood, to upbraid his cruell pastime, besprinkled his garments." Contemporary with Sandys, however, arose a learned divine, Bishop Wilkins, who was of opinion that men might not only fly, but fly to the moon. After contending for points which are now admitted (such as that the moon is a separate planet, has probably sea and land, &c.), and the supposed absurdity of which at former periods helps to give his remaining propositions a less air of the ridiculous, he gives the three following answers to the objection as to ascending above the sphere of the earth's attraction:

"1. It is not perhaps impossible, that a man may be able to flye by the application of wings to his owne body; as angels are pictured, and as Mercury and Daedalus are fained, and as hath been attempted by divers, particularly by a Turk in Constantinople, as Busbequius relates. 2. If there be such a great Rock in Madagascar, as Marcus Polus the Venetian mentions, the feathers in whose wings are twelve foot long, which can swoope up a horse and his rider, or an elephant, as our kites doe a mouse; why, then, it is but teaching one of these to carry a man, and he may ride up thither, as Ganymed does upon an eagle. 3. Or if neither of these ways will serve, yet I doe seriously, and upon good grounds, affirm it possible to make a flying chariot; in which a man may sit, and give such a motion into it, as shall convey him through the aire. And this perhaps might be made large enough to carry divers men at the same time, together with food

for their viaticum, and commodities for traffique. It is not the bignesse of any thing in this kind, that can hinder its motion, if the motive faculty be answerable thereunto. We see a great ship swim as well as a small cork, and an eagle flies in the aire as well as a little gnat. This engine may be contrived from the same principles by which Archytas made a wooden dove, and Regiomontanus a wooden eagle. I conceive it were no difficult matter if a man had leisure, to show more particularly the meanes of composing it. The perfecting of such an invention would be of such excellent use, that it were enough, not only to make a man, but the age also wherein he lives. For besides the strange discoveries that it might occasion in this other world, it would be also of inconceivable advantage for travelling, above any other conveiance that is now in use. So that, notwithstanding all these seeming impossibilities, 'tis likely enough, that there may be a meanes invented of journeying to the moone. And how happy shall they be, that are first successful in this attempt?

"Fœlicesque animæ, quas nubila supra

Et turpes fumos, plenumque vaporibus orbem
Inserit Cœlo sancti scintilla Promethei!'

"Having thus finished this discourse, I chanced upon a late fancy to this purpose, under the feigned name of Domingo Gonzales, written by a late reverend and learned Bishop (Godwin); in which (besides sundry particulars, wherein this latter chapter did unwittingly agree with it) there is delivered a very pleasant and well-contrived fancy concerning a voyage to this other world.” *

* "Biographical Dictionary," art. Wilkins.

[Addison, in the following letter from a projector, quietly satirizes Wilkins and his brother philosophers in the art of flying:

The bishop, however, has here overlooked the still more formidable objection as to the power of breathing at so great an altitude. He seems to have forgotten that a man above a certain limit of the atmosphere is like a fish out of water. I have not his book at hand to see whether he notices this dilemma; though, doubtless, he would get

"Knowing that you are a great encourager of ingenuity, I think fit to acquaint you that I have made considerable progress in the art of flying. I flutter about my room two or three hours in a morning: and when my wings are on, can go above a hundred yards at a hop, step, and jump. I can fly already as well as a Turkey-cock, and improve every day. If I proceed as I have begun, I intend to give the world a proof of my proficiency in this art. Upon the next public thanksgiving day, it is my design to sit astride the dragon upon Bow steeple, from whence, after the first discharge of the Tower guns, I intend to mount into the air, fly over Fleet-street, and pitch upon the Maypole in the Strand. From thence, by a gradual descent, I shall make the best of my way for St. James's Park, and light upon the ground near Rosamond's pond. This, I doubt not, will convince the world that I am no pretender; but before I set out, I shall desire to have a patent for making of wings, and that none shall presume to fly, under pain of death, with wings of any other man's making. I intend to work for the court myself, and will have journeymen under me to furnish the rest of the nation. I likewise desire that I may have the sole teaching of persons of quality, in which I shall spare neither time nor pains, till I have made them as expert as myself. I will fly with the women on my back for the first fortnight. I shall appear at the masquerade, dressed up in my feathers and plumage like an Indian prince, that the quality may see how pretty they will look in their travelling habits. You know, Sir, there is an unaccountable prejudice against projectors of all kinds; for which reason, when I talk of practising to fly, silly people think me an owl for my pains; but, Sir, you know better things. I need not enumerate to you the benefits which will accrue to the public from this invention; as how much the roads of England will be saved when we travel through these new highways, and how all family accounts will be lessened in the article of coaches and horses. I need not mention posts and packet-boats, with many other conveniences of life, which will be supplied this way. In short, Sir, when mankind are in possession of this art, they will be able to do more business in three-score and ten years, than they could do in a thousand by the methods now in use. I therefore recommend myself and art to your patronage, and am

"Your most humble servant."— ED.]