. I have been told, that respiration is difficult upon lofty
mountains, yet, from these precipices, though so high as to produce
great tenuity of air, it is very easy to fall; therefore, I suspect,
that from any height, where life can be supported, there may be danger
of too quick descent."

"Nothing," replied the artist, "will ever be attempted, if all possible
objections must be first overcome. If you will favour my project, I will
try the first flight at my own hazard. I have considered the structure
of all volant animals, and find the folding continuity of the bat's
wings most easily accommodated to the human form. Upon this model, I
shall begin my task tomorrow, and in a year, expect to tower into the
air beyond the malice and pursuit of man. But I will work only on this
condition, that the art shall not be divulged, and that you shall not
require me to make wings for any but ourselves."

"Why," said Rasselas, "should you envy others so great an advantage? All
skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has owed much to
others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has received."

"If men were all virtuous," returned the artist, "I should, with great
alacrity, teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the
good, if the bad could, at pleasure, invade them from the sky? Against
an army sailing through the clouds, neither walls, nor mountains, nor
seas, could afford any security. A flight of northern savages might
hover in the wind, and light, at once, with irresistible violence, upon
the capital of a fruitful region, that was rolling under them. Even this
valley, the retreat of princes, the abode of happiness, might be
violated by the sudden descent of some of the naked nations, that swarm
on the coast of the southern sea."

The prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not wholly
hopeless of success. He visited the work, from time to time, observed
its progress, and remarked many ingenious contrivances, to facilitate
motion, and unite levity with strength. The artist was every day more
certain, that he should leave vultures and eagles behind him, and the
contagion of his confidence seized upon the prince.

In a year the wings were finished, and, on a morning appointed, the
maker appeared, furnished for flight, on a little promontory: he waved
his pinions awhile, to gather air, then leaped from his stand, and, in
an instant, dropped into the lake. His wings, which were o