Up in the Clouds

Up in the Clouds, by R.M.
Ballantyne

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Title: Up in the Clouds Balloon Voyages
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21708]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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CLOUDS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

UP IN THE CLOUDS, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
CHAPTER ONE.
BALLOON VOYAGES.

TREATS OF EARLY EFFORTS TO FLY, ETCETERA.
It is man's nature to soar intellectually, and it seems to have been his
ambition from earliest ages to soar physically.
Every one in health knows, or at some period of life must have known,
that upward bounding of the spirit which induces a longing for the
possession of wings, that the material body might be wafted upwards
into those blue realms of light, which are so attractive to the eye and
imagination of poor creeping man that he has appropriately styled them
the heavens.
Man has envied the birds since the world began. Who has not watched,
with something more than admiration, the easy gyrations of the
sea-mew, and listened, with something more than delight, to the song
of the soaring lark?
To fly with the body as well as with the mind, is a wish so universal
that the benignant Creator Himself seems to recognise it in that most
attractive passage in Holy Writ, wherein it is said that believers shall
"mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not faint."
Of course man has not reached the middle of the nineteenth century
without making numerous attempts to fly bodily up to the skies.
Fortunately, however, such ambitious efforts have seldom been made
except by the intellectually enthusiastic. Prosaic man, except in the case
of the Tower of Babel, has remained content to gaze upwards with
longing desire, and only a few of our species in the course of centuries
have possessed temerity enough to make the deliberate effort to ride
upon the wings of the wind.
Naturally, the first attempts were, like most beginnings, simple and
imitative. The birds flew with wings, therefore man put on artificial
wings and essayed to fly like the birds. It was not until many grievous
disappointments and sad accidents had befallen him, that he
unwillingly gave up wings in despair, and set to work to accomplish his
ends by more cumbrous and complex machinery.

Very early in the world's history, however, "flying machines" were
made, some of which were doubtless intended by their honest inventors
to carry men through the air, while others were mere shams, made by
designing men, wherewith to impose upon the ignorant for wicked ends
of their own; and some of these last were, no doubt, believed to be
capable of the feats attributed to them.
The credulity of the ancients is not to be wondered at when we reflect
on the magical illusions which science enables us to produce at the
present day--illusions so vivid and startling that it requires the most
elaborate explanations by adepts and philosophers to convince some
among their audiences that what they think they see is absolutely not
real! No wonder that the men of old had firm faith in the existence of
all kinds of flying machines and creatures.
They believed that fiery dragons were created by infernal machination,
which, although not what we may call natural creatures, were
nevertheless supposed to rush impetuous through the sky, vomiting
flames and scattering the seeds of pestilence far and wide. In those dark
ages, writers even ventured to describe the method of imitating the
composition of such terrific monsters! A number of large hollow reeds
were to be bound together, then sheathed completely in skin, and
smeared over with pitch and other inflammable matters. This light and
bulky engine, when set on fire, launched during thick darkness from
some cliff into the air, and borne along by the force of the wind, would
undoubtedly carry conviction to the minds of the populace, whilst it
would fill them with amazement and terror!
Sometimes, however, those who attempted to practise on the credulity
of their fellows were themselves appalled by the results of their
contrivances. Such was the case so late as the year 1750, when a small
Roman Catholic town in Swabia was almost entirely burnt to ashes by
an unsuccessful experiment made by some of the lowest order of priests
for the astonishment, if not the edification, of their