In these fruitless researches he spent ten months. The time,
however, passed cheerfully away--in the morning he rose with new
hope; in the evening applauded his own diligence; and in the night
slept soundly after his fatigue. He met a thousand amusements,
which beguiled his labour and diversified his thoughts. He
discerned the various instincts of animals and properties of
plants, and found the place replete with wonders, of which he
proposed to solace himself with the contemplation if he should
never be able to accomplish his flight--rejoicing that his
endeavours, though yet unsuccessful, had supplied him with a source
of inexhaustible inquiry. But his original curiosity was not yet
abated; he resolved to obtain some knowledge of the ways of men.
His wish still continued, but his hope grew less. He ceased to
survey any longer the walls of his prison, and spared to search by
new toils for interstices which he knew could not be found, yet
determined to keep his design always in view, and lay hold on any
expedient that time should offer.



CHAPTER VI--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