All the analogies by which inventors have been encouraged in their
expectations are false, the rudders of ships and the tails of birds
are no exceptions. They will never be able to guide balloons as
sailors do ships, by a rudder, because ships do not float suspended
in the water as balloons float in the air; nor do birds _float_
through the air in any sense. They are not bouyant--lighter than the
element in which they move, but immensely heavier; besides they do not
guide themselves wholly by their tails. We may depend upon it, if we
ever succeed in navigating the air, it will be by a strict adherence
to the principles upon which birds fly, and a close imitation of the
means which they employ to effect that object.

It is true, that in respect to the means to be employed, animals
designed by the Creator for flight, have greatly the advantage of us,
but what natural deficiencies will not human ingenuity supply, and
what obstacles will not human skill overcome? It has already triumphed
over much greater than any that Nature has interposed between man and
the pleasures of aerial communication.

We have to a great extent, mastered the mysterious elements of nature.

We have conquered the thunderbolt and learned to write with the
burning fluid out of which it is forged.

We have converted the boundless ocean into a vast highway, traversed
for our use and on our errands, by the swift agent, and by great ships
driven against wind and tide by the mighty power of steam.

And yet a single generation ago, we knew nothing of all this, Our
grand-sires would have given these achievements a prominent place in