writers, one of whom states that the failure of his experiment
was due to the prayers of some individual of a conservative turn
of mind, who prayed so vigorously that Danti fell appropriately
enough on a church and injured himself to such an extent as to
put an end to his flying career. That Danti experimented, there
is little doubt, in view of the volume of evidence on the point,
but the darkness of the Middle Ages hides the real truth as to
the results of his experiments. If he had actually flown over
Thrasimene, as alleged, then in all probability both Napoleon
and Wellington would have had air scouts at Waterloo.

Danti's story may be taken as fact or left as fable, and with it
the period of legend or vague statement may be said to end--the
rest is history, both of genuine experimenters and of
charlatans. Such instances of legend as are given here are not a
tithe of the whole, but there is sufficient in the actual history
of flight to bar out more than this brief mention of the legends,
which, on the whole, go farther to prove man's desire to fly than
his study and endeavour to solve the problems of the air.



II. EARLY EXPERIMENTS

So far, the stories of the development of flight are either
legendary or of more or less doubtful authenticity, even
including that of Danti, who, although a man of remarkable
attainments in more directions than that of attempted flight,
suffers--so far as reputation is concerned--from the
inexactitudes of his chroniclers; he may have soared over