enough to carry divers men at the same time, together with food
for their viaticum, and commodities for traffic. It is not the
bigness of anything in this kind that can hinder its motion if
the motive faculty be answerable "hereunto. We see that; great
ship swims as well as a small cork, and an eagle flies in the air
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 means
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
famous but the age 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 conveyance that is now in use. So that, notwithstanding
all these seeming impossibilities, it is likely enough that there
may be a means invented of journeying to the moon; and how happy
shall they be that are first successful in this attempt!"

Afterwards comes Cyrano of Bergerac, who promulgates five
different means of flying in the air. First, by means of phials
filled with dew, which would attract and cause to mount up.
Secondly, by a great bird made of wood, the wings of which should
be kept in motion. Thirdly, by rockets, which, going off
successively, would drive up the balloon by the force of
projection. Fourthly, by an octahedron of glass, heated by the
sun, and of which the lower part should be allowed to penetrate
the dense cold air, which, pressing up against the rarefied hot
air, would raise the balloon. Fifthly, by a car of iron and a
ball of magnetised iron, which the aeronaut would keep throwing