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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
9
If
we
recall
the
impressions
which
the
first
air-journeys
made,
we
shall
find
that,
among
people
of
enthusiastic
temperament,
it
was
believed
that
it
was
not
merely
the
blue
sky
above
us,
not
merely
the
terrestrial
atmosphere,
but
the
vast
spaces
through
which
the
worlds
move,
that
were
to
become
the
domain
of
man--the
sea
of
the
balloon.
The
moon,
the
mysterious
dwelling-place
of
men
unknown,
would
no
longer
be
an
inaccessible
place.
Space
no
longer
contained
regions
which
man
could
not
cross!
Indeed,
certain
expeditions
attempted
the
crossing
of
the
heavens,
and
brought
back
news
of
the
moon.
The
planets
that
revolve
round
the
sun,
the
far-flying
comets,
the
most
distant
stars--these
formed
the
field
which
from
that
time
was
to
lie
open
to
the
investigations
of
man.
This
enthusiasm
one
can
well
enough
understand.
There
is
in
the
simple
fact
of
an
aerial
ascent
something
so
bold
and
so
astonishing,
that
the
human
spirit
cannot
fail
to
be
profoundly
stirred
by
it.
And
if
this
is
the
feeling
of
men
at
the
present
day,
when,
after
having
been
witnesses
of
ascents
for
the
last
eighty
years,
they
see
men
confiding
themselves
in
a
swinging
car
into
the
immensities
of
space,
what
must
have
been
the
astonishment
of
those
who,
for
the
first
time
since
the
commencement
of
the
world,
beheld
one
of
their
fellow-creatures
rolling
in
space,
without
any
other
assurance
of
safety
than
what
his
still
dim
perception
of
the
laws
of
nature
gave
him?
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