THE PLEASURES AND PERILS OF BALLOONING.

GENERAL

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University MICHIGAN

with bere and there a dish-cover-things which | graphic. The "performer" would change the
are called domes, and spires, and steeples!" As line of gravitation by such an attempt: he would
for the Father of Rivers, he becomes a dusky- never be able to mount the sides, and would only
gray, winding streamlet, and his largest ships are be like the squirrel in its revolving cage. He
no more than flat pale decks, ail the masts and would, however, pull the netting round-the spot
rigging being foreshortened to nothing. We soon where he clung to, ever remaining the lowest-
come now to the shadowy, the indistinct and until having reversed the machine, the balloon
hen all is lost in air. Floating clouds fill up all would probably make its escape, in an elongated
the space beneath. Lovely colors outspread shape, through the large interstices of that por-
then selves, ever-varying in tone, and in their tion of the net-work which is just above the car,
forms or outlines-now sweeping in broad lines when the balloon is in its proper position! But
-now rolling and heaving in huge, richly, yet the richest of all these romances is the following
softly-tinted billows-while sometimes, through brief statement:-A scientific gentleman, well
a great opening, rift, or break, you see a level advanced in years (who had “probably witnessed
expanse of gray or blue fields at an indefinite the experiment of the restoration of a withered
depth below. And all this time there is a noise- pear beneath the exhausted receiver of a pneu-
less cataract of snowy cloud-rocks falling around matic machine") was impressed with a conviction,
you-falling swiftly on all sides of the car, in on ascending to a considerable height in a balloon,
great fleecy masses-in small snow-white and that every line and wrinkle of his face had totally
glistening fragments-and immense compound disappeared, owing, as he said, to the preternatu-
masses-all white, and soft, and swiftly rushing ral distension of his skin; and that, to the aston-
past you, giddily, and incessantly down, down, ishment of his companion, he rapidly began to
and all with the silence of a dream-strange, assume the delicate aspect and blooming appear-
lustrous, majestic, incomprehensible.
ance of his early youth!

Aeronauts, of late years, have become, in many These things are all self-delusions. A bit of
instances, respectable and business-like, and not paper or a handkerchief might cling to the out-
given to extravagant fictions about their voyages, side of the car, but a penny-piece would, undoubt-
which now, more generally, take the form of a edly, fall direct to the earth. Wild birds do not
not very lively log. But it used to be very dif- return to the car, but descend in circles, till, pass-
ferent when the art was in its infancy, some ing through the clouds, they see whereabouts to
thirty or forty years ago, and young balloonists go, and then they fly downward as usual.
We
indulged in romantic fancies. We do not believe have no difficulty in breathing; on the contrary,
that there was a direct intention to tell falsehoods, being "called upon," we sing a song. Our head
but that they often deceived themselves very does not contract, so as to cause our hat to ex-
amusingly. Thus, it has been asserted, that tinguish our eyes and nose; neither does it ex-
when you attained a great elevation, the air be-pand to the size of a prize pumpkin. We see
came so rarefied that you could not breathe, and that it is impossible to climb up the netting of the
that small objects, being thrown out of the bal-balloon over-head, and so do not think of attempt-
loon, could not fall, and stuck against the side ing it; neither do we find all the lines in our face
of the car. Also, that wild birds, being taken up getting filled up, and the loveliness of our "blush-
and suddenly let loose, could not fly properly, but ing morning" taking the place of a marked ma-
returned immediately to the car for an explana- turity. These fancies are not less ingenious and
tion. One aeronaut declared that his head became comical than that of the sailor who hit upon the
so contracted by his great elevation, that his hat means of using a balloon to make a rapid voyage
tumbled over his eyes, and persisted in resting on to any part of the earth. "The earth spins
the bridge of his nose. This assertion was in- round," said he, "at a great rate, don't it? Well,
dignantly rebutted by another aeronaut of the I'd go up two or three miles high in my balloon,
same period, who declared that, on the contrary, and then 'lay to,' and when any place on the
the head expanded in proportion to the elevation; globe I wished to touch at, passed underneath me,
in proof of which he stated, that on his last as- down I'd drop upon it.”
cent he went so high that his hat burst. An-
other of these romantic personages described a
wonderful feat of skill and daring which he had
performed up in the air. At an elevation of two
miles, his balloon burst several degrees above
"the equator" (meaning, above the middle region
of the balloon), whereupon he crept up the lines
that attached the car, until he reached the net-
ting that inclosed the balloon; and up this net-
ting he clambered, until he reached the aperture,
into which he thrust-not his head-but his
pocket handkerchief! Mr. Monck Mason, to
whose "Aeronautica" we are indebted for the
anecdote, gives eight different reasons to show
the impossibility of any such feat having ever
been performed in the air. One of these is highly

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But we are still floating high in air. How do we feel all this time? Calm, sir-calm and resigned." Yes, and more than this. After a little while, when you find nothing happens, and see nothing likely to happen (and you will more especially feel this under the careful conduct of the veteran Green), a delightful serenity takes the place of all other sensations-to which the extraordinary silence, as well as the pale beauty and floating hues that surround you, is chiefly attributable. The silence is perfect-a wonder and a rapture. We hear the ticking of our watches. Tick! tick!-or is it the beat of our own hearts? We are sure of the watch; and now we think we can hear both.

Two other sensations must, by no means, be

forgotten. You become very cold, and desper- | bird, was made of hollow tin-a most inapplicable

ately hungry. But you have got a warm outer coat, and traveling boots, and other valuable things, and you have not left behind you the pigeon-pie, the ham, cold beef, bottled ale and brandy.

and brittle material; and besides this, it had two fractures. But Mr. Cocking was not to be deterred; convinced of the truth of his discovery, up he would go. Mr. Green was not equally at ease, and positively refused to touch the latch of Of the increased coldness which you feel on the "liberating iron," which was to detach the passing from a bright cloud into a dark one, the parachute from the balloon. Mr. Cocking arballoon is quite as sensitive as you can be; and, ranged to do this himself, for which means he probably, much more so, for it produces an imme- procured a piece of new cord of upward of fifty diate change of altitude. The expansion and con- feet in length, which was fastened to the latch traction which romantic gentlemen fancied took above in the car, and led down to his hand in the place in the size of their heads, does really take basket of the parachute. Up they went to a place in the balloon, according as it passes from great height, and disappeared among the clouds. a cloud of one temperature into that of another. Mr. Green had taken up one friend with him We are now nearly three miles high. Nothing in the car; and, knowing well what would hapis to be seen but pale air above-around-on all pen the instant so great a weight as the parasides, with floating clouds beneath. How should chute and man were detached, he had provided a you like to descend in a parachute ?—to be dangled small balloon inside the car, filled with atmosby a long line from the bottom of the car, and sud-pheric air, with two mouth-pieces. They were denly to be "let go," and to dip at once clean down through those gray-blue and softly roseinted clouds, skimming so gently beneath us? Not at all: oh, by no manner of means-thank you! Ah, you are thinking of the fate of poor Cocking, the enthusiast in parachutes, concerning whom, and his fatal "improvement," the public is satisfied that it knows every thing, from the one final fact-that he was killed. But there is something more than that in it, as we fancy.

now upward of a mile high.

"How do you feel, Mr. Cocking?" called out Green. "Never better, or more delighted in my life," answered Cocking. Though hanging at fifty feet distance, in the utter silence of that region, every accent was easily heard. "But, perhaps you will alter your mind?" suggested Green. "By no means," cried Cocking; "bu how high are we ?"-"Upward of a mile."—“1 must go higher, Mr. Green-I must be taken up two miles before I liberate the parachute." Now, Mr. Green, having some regard for himself and his friend, as well as for poor Cocking, was de

Two words against parachutes. In the first place, there is no use to which, at present, they can be applied; and, in the second, they are so unsafe as to be likely, in all cases, to cost a lifetermined not to do any such thing. After some for each descent. In the concise words of Mr. Green, we should say "the best parachute is a balloon; the others are bad things to have to deal with."

Mr. Cocking, as we have said, was an enthusiast in parachutes. He felt sure he had discovered a new, and the true, principle. All parachutes, before his day, had been constructed to descend in a concave form, like that of an open umbrella; the consequence of which was, that the parachute descended with a violent swinging from side to side, which sometimes threw the man in the basket in almost a horizontal position. Mr. Cocking conceived that the converse form; viz., an inverted cone (of large dimensions), would remedy this evil; and becoming convinced, we suppose, by some private experiments with models, he agreed to descend on a certain day. The time was barely adequate to his construction of the parachute, and did not admit of such actual experiments with a sheep, or pig, or other animal, as prudence would naturally have suggested. Besides the want of time, however, Cocking equally wanted prudence; he felt sure of his new principle; this new form of parachute was the hobby of his life, and up he went on the appointed day (for what aeronaut shall dare to "disappoint the Public ?")-dangling by a rope, fifty feet long, from the bottom of the car of Mr. Green's great Nassau Balloon. The large upper rim of the parachute, in imitation, we suppose, of the hollow bones of a

further colloquy, therefore, during which Mr. Green threw out a little more ballast, and gained a little more elevation, he finally announced that he could go no higher, as he now needed all the ballast he had for their own safety in the balloon. "Very well," said Cocking, "if you really will not take me any higher, I shall say good-by."

At this juncture Green called out, "Now, Mr. Cocking, if your mind at all misgives you about your parachute, I have provided a tackle up here, which I can lower down to you, and then wind you up into the car by my little grapnel-iron windlass, and nobody need be the wiser."

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Certainly not," cried Cocking; "thank you all the same. I shall now make ready to pull the latch-cord." Finding he was determined, Green and his friend both crouched down in the car, and took hold of the mouth-pieces of their little air-balloon. All ready?" called out Cocking. "All ready!" answered the veteran aeronaut above. "Good-night, Mr. Green!"-"Goodnight, Mr. Cocking!"-"A pleasant voyage to you, Mr. Green-good-night!"

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There was a perfect silence-a few seconds of intense suspense—and then the aeronauts in the car felt a jerk upon the latch. It had not been forcible enough to open the liberating iron Cocking had failed to detach the parachute Another pause of horrid silence ensued.

Then came a strong jerk upon the latch, and in an instant, the great balloon shot upward wit. a side-long swirl, like a wounded serpent. The

ment to the voyagers, the balloon, gardens, crops, &c.

The valve-line is pulled!-out rushes the gas from the top of the balloon-you see the flag fly upward-down through the clouds you sink faster and faster-lower and lower. Now you begin to see dark masses below-there's the Old Earth again!—the dark masses now discover themselves to be little forests, little towns, tree-tops house-tops-out goes a shower of sand from the ballast-bags, and our descent becomes sloweranother shower, and up we mount again, in search of a better spot to alight upon. Out guardian aeronaut gives each of us a bag of ballast, and directs us to throw out its contents when he calls each of us by name, and in such quantities only as he specifies. Moreover, no one is suddenly to leap out of the balloon, when it touches the earth; partly because it may cost him his own life or limbs, and partly because it would cause the balloon to shoot up again with those who remained, and so make them lose the advantage of the good descent already gained, if nothing worse happened. Meantime, the grap

saw their flag clinging flat down against the flag-staff, while a torrent of gas rushed down upon them through the aperture in the balloon above their heads, and continued to pour down into the car for a length of time that would have suffocated them but for the judgmatic provision of the little balloon of atmospheric air, to the mouth-pieces of which their own mouths were fixed, as they crouched down at the bottom of the car. Of Mr. Cocking's fate, or the result of his experiment, they had not the remotest knowledge. They only knew the parachute was gone! The termination of Mr. Cocking's experiment is well known. For a few seconds he descended quickly, but steadily, and without swinging-as he had designed, and insisted would be the result -when, suddenly, those who were watching with glasses below, saw the parachute lean on one side-then give a lurch to the other-then the large upper circle collapsed (the disastrous hollow tin-tubing having evidently broken up), and the machine entered the upper part of a cloud in a few more seconds it was seen to emerge from the lower part of the cloud-the whole thing turned over-and then, like a closed-nel-iron has been lowered, and dangling down at up broken umbrella, it shot straight down to the the end of a strong rope of a hundred and fifty earth. The unfortunate, and, as most people re- feet long. It is now trailing over the ground. gard him, the foolish enthusiast, was found still Three bricklayers' laborers are in chase of it. It in the basket in which he reached the earth. He catches upon a bank-it tears its way through. was quite insensible, but uttered a moan; and in Now the three bricklayers are joined by a couple ten minutes he was dead. of fellows in smock-frocks, a policeman, five boys, followed by three little girls, and, last of all, a woman with a child in her arms, all running, shouting, screaming, and yelling, as the grapneliron and rope go trailing and bobbing over the ground before them. At last the iron catches upon a hedge-grapples with its roots; the balloon is arrested, but struggles hard; three or four men seize the rope, and down we are hauled. and held fast till the aerial Monster, with many a gigantic heave and pant, surrenders at discretion, and begins to resign its inflated robust proportions. It subsides in irregular waves-sinks, puffs, flattens-dies to a mere shriveled skin; and being folded up, like Peter Schlemil's shadow, is put into a bag, and stowed away at the bottom of the little car it so recently overshadow ed with its buoyant enormity.

Half a word in favor of parachutes. True, they are of no use "at present;" but who knows of what use such things may one day be? As to Mr. Cocking's invention, the disaster seems to be attributable to errors of detail, rather than of principle. Mr. Green is of opinion, from an examination of the broken latch-cord, combined with other circumstances, which would require diagrams to describe satisfactorily, that after Mr. Cocking had failed to liberate himself the first time, he twisted the cord round his hand to give a good jerk, forgetting that in doing so, he united himself to the balloon above, as it would be impossible to disengage his hand in time. By this means he was violently jerked into his parachute, which broke the latch-cord; but the tin tube was not able to bear such a shock, and this caused so serious a fracture, in addition to its previous unsound condition, that it soon afterward collapsed. This leads one to conjecture that had the outer rim been made of strong wicker-work, or whalebone, so as to be somewhat pliable, and that Mr. | Green had liberated the parachute, instead of Mr. Cocking, it would have descended to the earth with perfect safety-skimming the air, instead of the violent oscillations of the old form of this machine. We conclude, however, with Mr. Green's laconic-that the safest parachute is a balloon.

We are glad it is all over; delighted, and edified as we have been, we are very glad to take our supper at the solid, firmly-fixed oak table of a country inn, with a brick wall and a barn-door for our only prospect, as the evening closes in. Of etherial currents, and the scenery of infinite space, we have had enough for the present.

Touching the accidents which occur to balloons, we feel persuaded that in the great majority of cases they are caused by inexperience, ignorance, rashness, folly, or-more commonly But here we are still above the clouds! We than all-the necessities attending a "show." may assume that you would not like to be "let Once "announced" for a certain day, or night off" in a parachute, even on the improved princi- | (an abominable practice, which ought to be preple; we will therefore prepare for descending vented)-and, whatever the state of the wind with the balloon. This is a work requiring great and weather, and whatever science and the good skill and care to effect safely, so as to alight on a sense of an experienced aeronaut may know and suitable piece of ground, and without any detri- | suggest of imprudence—up the poor man must

MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN EN

GLISH LIFE.*

BOOK VIII.-INITIAL CHAPTER.

THE ABUSE OF INTELLECT.

take the hindmost. But when it comes to individual marchers upon their own accountprivateers and condottieri of Enlightenmentwho have filled their pockets with lucifer-match

If those who are eternally rhapsodizing on the celestial blessings that are to follow Enlightenment, Universal Knowledge, and so forth, would just take their eyes out of their pockets, and look about them, I would respectfully inquire if they have never met any very knowing and enlightened gentleman, whose acquaintance is by nc means desirable. If not, they are monstrous lucky. Every man must judge by his own ex

countered were amazingly well-informed, clever fellows! From dunderheads and dunces we can protect ourselves; but from your sharp-witted gentleman, all enlightenment and no prejudice, we have but to cry, "Heaven defend us!" It is true, that the rogue (let him be ever so enlightened) usually comes to no good himself (though not before he has done harm enough to his neighbors). But that only shows that the world wants something else in those it rewards, besides intelligence per se and in the abstract; and is much too old a world to allow any Jack Horner to pick out its plums for his own personal gratification. Hence a man of very moderate intelligence, who believes in God, suffers his heart to beat with human sympathies, and keeps his eyes off your strong-box, will perhaps gain a vast deal more power than knowledge ever gives to a rogue.

THER HERE is at present so vehement a flourishes, and have a sublime contempt for their neighof trumpets, and so prodigious a roll of the bors' barns and hay-ricks, I don't see why I should drum, whenever we are called upon to throw up throw myself into the seventh heaven of admiraour hats, and cry "Huzza" to the "March of tion and ecstasy. Enlightenment," that, out of that very spirit of contradiction natural to all rational animals, one is tempted to stop one's ears, and say, "Gently, gently; LIGHT is noiseless; how comes 'Enlightenment' to make such a clatter? Meanwhile, if it be not impertinent, pray, where is enlightenment marching to ?" Ask that question of any six of the loudest bawlers in the procession, and I'll wager ten-perce to California that you get SIX very unsatisfactory answers. One respecta-perience; and the worst rogues I have ever enble gentleman, who, to our great astonishment, insists upon calling himself a "slave," but has a remarkably free way of expressing his opinions, will reply-"Enlightenment is marching toward the nine points of the Charter." Another, with his hair à la jeune France, who has taken a fancy to his friend's wife, and is rather embarrassed with his own, asserts that Enlightenment is proceeding toward the Rights of Women, the reign of Social Love, and the annihilation of Tyrannical Prejudice. A third, who has the air of a man well to do in the middle class, more modest in his hopes, because he neither wishes to have his head broken by his errand-boy, nor his wife carried off to an Agapemoné by his apprentice, does not take Enlightenment a step further than a siege on Debrett, and a cannonade on the Budget. Illiberal man! the march that he swells will soon trample him under foot. No one fares so ill in a crowd as the man who is wedged in the middle. A fourth, looking wild and dreamy, as if he had come out of the cave of Trophonius, and who is a mesmeriser and a mystic, thinks Enlightenment is in full career toward the good old days of alchemists and necromancers. A fifth, whom one might take for a Quaker, asserts that the march of Enlightenment is a crusade for uni-ers from the general march of enlightenment, it versal philanthropy, vegetable diet, and the per- is no reason that we should make ourselves a petuation of peace, by means of speeches, which target, because enlightenment has furnished them certainly do produce a very contrary effect from with a gun. It has, doubtless, been already rethe Philippics of Demosthenes ! The sixth-marked by the judicious reader, that of the nu(good fellow, without a rag on his back)-does merous characters introduced into this work, the not care a straw where the march goes. He larger portion belong to that species which we can't be worse off than he is; and it is quite im- call the INTELLECTUAL-that through them are material to him whether he goes to the dogstar analyzed and developed human intellect, in above, or the bottomless pit below. I say no- various forms and directions. So that this Histhing, however, against the march, while we tory, rightly considered, is a kind of humble, take it all together. Whatever happens, one is familiar Epic, or, if you prefer it, a long Serioin good company; and though I am somewhat Comedy, upon the varieties of English Life in indolent by nature, and would rather stay at this our century, set in movement by the intelhome with Locke and Burke (dull dogs though ligences most prevalent. And where more or they were), than have my thoughts set off helter-dinary and less refined types of the species round skelter with those cursed trumpets and drums, blown and dub-a-dubbed by fellows that I vow to Heaven I would not trust with a five-pound note -still, if I must march, I must; and so deuce

• Continued from the November Number.

Wherefore, though I anticipate an outcry against me on the part of the blockheads, who, strange to say, are the most credulous idolators of enlightenment, and, if knowledge were power, would rot on a dunghill; yet, nevertheless, I think all really enlightened men will agree with me, that when one falls in with detached sharpshoot

and complete the survey of our passing genera tion, they will often suggest, by contrast, the deficiencies which mere intellectual culture leaves in the human being. Certainly I have no spite against intellect and erlightenment. Heaven