and his son, and with these attempted to fly away; but Icarus soared so high that the sun melted the wax by which his wings were fastened, and he fell into that part of the sea which, by way of testimony, bore his name for hundreds of years afterwards.

Dædalus, however, more careful, arrived safely in Sicily.

1260. At this date Roger Bacon is the first English philosopher who asserts the existence of a machine for flying; but he says, "Not that he himself had seen it, or was acquainted with any person who had done so, but he knew an ingenious person who had contrived one."

1338. At this date lived Froissart, the great historian; he speaks of an apprentice of Valenciennes who made himself a pair of wings six feet and a half high, and requested the Count of Flanders to be allowed to try them in his presence. Of course the Count assented, and, in some curiosity, came out with his whole Court to see the sight; but the performance was exceedingly meagre.

After tying his wings to his shoulders, the apprentice was taken up to an embrasure that overlooked the castle drawbridge, and he was just on the point of leaping forward, when the Countess became nervous, and ordered him to an embrasure that crowned the moat, so that in case of accident he should only get a ducking. This turned out to be a good precaution, for, upon jumping from the battlements, the venturesome lad tumbled head foremost into the water.

1510. The first historical flying experiment was made this year in Scotland by an Italian Friar, whom King James IV. had made Prior of Tongland.

This man was a great favourite, from his supposed successes in alchemy; in fact, he was said to be in league with "Auld Hornie"; and thinking he had discovered a method of flying, the Prior appointed a day for a flight, and invited the King and his Court to witness the feat. At the appointed time the Italian, with an enormous pair of wings, ascended one of the battlements of Stirling Castle, and in the presence of James and his Court spread his wings and vaulted into the air.

Unfortunately, the experiment was a complete failure; he came down anyhow, and tumbled on to a manure heap, which saved his neck; but he broke his thigh bone.

He said his failure was owing to the wings of his machine containing common feathers from common poultry, instead of being all pure from eagles and other noble birds.

1617. This year a monk of Tubingen made himself wings of parchment, and leaped with them into the air from a high tower: he fell to the ground and was killed.

Previous to this, Fielder, rector of the School at Tubingen, gave a lecture on the art of flying, which the monk unfortunately illustrated with the above fatal result.

1640.-At this period a Frenchman named Cyrano de Bergerac wrote The History of the States and Empires of the Moon and Sun, and, speaking of his first imaginary voyage to the moon, he writes:

"He filled with smoke two large vases, which he sealed hermetically and fastened under his wings; hereupon the smoke, which had a specific tendency to rise, but which was unable to penetrate the metal, pushed the vases upwards so that they rose into the clouds, carrying with them this great man.

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And he, when he had reached to 25 feet above the surface of the moon, untied the vases he had got as wings around his shoulders and allowed himself to fall.

"The height was great, but he wore a long and ample gown, into the folds of which the wind engulfed itself, and thus bore him softly and slowly to earth" (of the moon).

Now it is not only a remarkable, but a very curious coincidence, that this was written before the Montgolfiers were born, and about 143 years before they started their first balloon which was in 1783, and which ascended by means of smoke. 1645.-Cyrano de Bergerac wrote another work, the title whereof was The Comical History of the Kingdom of the Sun and the Moon.

1660. This year Francis Lana, a Francis Lana, a Jesuit Priest, proposed to make hollow spheres of copper, which being exhausted of air, would float in our ordinary atmosphere.

1672.-John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, studied mathematics and mechanical philosophy. He wrote a curious treatise, viz., Discovery of a New World, 1638, which gravely discussed the possibility of communicating by a flying machine with the moon and its supposed inhabitants, and he stated that it would be possible to make a journey there, if he could be conveyed for a starting point to some place beyond the reach of the earth's attraction.

He also published in 1691 (fourth edition) a work called Mathematical Magick: or the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry, in two books:

I.

1. "Archimedes, or Mechanical Powers." 2. "Dædalus, or Mechanical Motion." In the latter-

Chap. 6: "Of the volant automata. Archytos his dove, and Regiomoutanus his eagle."

Chap. 7: "Concerning the art of flying the several ways hereby this hath been or may be attempted.'

Chap. 8: "A resolution of the two chief difficulties that seem to oppose the possibility of a flying chariot."

1709.-No. 56 of The Evening Post, a newspaper published in the reign of Queen Anne, and dated 20-22 December, 1709, sets out a description of a flying ship, the invention of a Brazilian priest, Bartholomew Laurent, and brought under the notice of the King of Portugal. He says:

"That he has found out an invention by the help of which one may more speedily travel through the air than any other way, either by sea or land, so that one may go 200 miles in twenty-four hours. Merchants may have their merchandize, and send letters and packets more conveniently. Places besieged may be supplied