which was borne upward to the white moon by a great team of the
gigantic swans. At the end of twelve days he arrived, according
to his story, at his destination. A little later another writer
of this peculiar kind of fiction, Wilkins, an Englishman,
professed to have made the same ascent, borne up by an eagle.
Alexandre Dumas, who recently wrote a short romance upon the same
subject, only made a translation of an English work by that
author. Wilkins' work is entitled, "The Discovery of a New
World." One chapter of the book bears the title, "That 'tis
possible for some of our posterity to find out a conveyance to
this other world; and, if there be inhabitants there, to have
commerce with them." It is thus that the right reverend
philosopher reasons:--

"If it be here inquired what means there may be conjectured for
our ascending beyond the sphere of the earth's mathematical
vigour, I answer.--1. 'Tis not possible that a man may be able to
fly by the application of wings to his own body, as angels are
pictured, as Mercury and Daedalus are feigned, and as hath been
attempted by divers, particularly by a Turk in Constantinople, a
Busbequius relates. 2. If there be such a great duck in
Madagascar as Marcus Polus, the Venetian, mentions, the feathers
of whose wings are twelve feet long, which can scoop up a horse
and his rider, or an elephant, as our kites do a mouse; why,
then, 'Tis but teaching one of these to carry a man, and he may
ride up thither, as Ganymede does upon an eagle. 3. Or if
neither of these ways will serve yet I do seriously, and upon
good grounds, affirm it is possible to make a flying chariot, in
which a man may sit and give such a motion to it as shall convey
him through the air. And this, perhaps, might be made large