"Sir," said he, "you have seen but a small part of
what the mechanic sciences can perform. I have been long of
opinion that, instead of the tardy conveyance of ships and
chariots, man might use the swifter migration of wings, that the
fields of air are open to knowledge, and that only ignorance and
idleness need crawl upon the ground."
This hint rekindled the Prince's desire of passing the mountains.
Having seen what the mechanist had already performed, he was
willing to fancy that he could do more, yet resolved to inquire
further before he suffered hope to afflict him by disappointment.
"I am afraid," said he to the artist, "that your imagination
prevails over your skill, and that you now tell me rather what you
wish than what you know. Every animal has his element assigned
him; the birds have the air, and man and beasts the earth." "So,"
replied the mechanist, "fishes have the water, in which yet beasts
can swim by nature and man by art. He that can swim needs not
despair to fly; to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to fly is
to swim in a subtler.
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