86 



THE WING. 



rendering itself light or heavy at its will, of admitting more or less 



of air into its expressly constructed 

 reservoirs. Would it otow light, it 

 ^^^^ inflates its dimension, while dimin- 

 ^ g ishing its relative weight; by this 

 ^M means it spontaneously ascends in 

 ^ a medium heavier than itself. To 

 T^ descend or drop, it contracts itself, 

 grows thin and small ; cutting 

 through the air which supported 

 and raised it in its former heavy 

 condition. Here lay the error, 

 the cause of man's fatal ignorance. 

 He assumed that the bird was a ship, 

 not a balloon. He imitated the wing 

 only ; but the wing, however skilfully 

 imitated, if not conjoined with this 

 internal force, is but a certain means 

 of destruction. 



But this faculty, this rapid inhal- 

 ation or expulsion of air, of swim- 

 ming with a ballast variable at plea- 

 sure, whence does it proceed ? From 

 an unique, unheard-of power of re- 

 spiration. The man who should in- 

 hale a similar quantity of air at once 

 would be suffocated. The bird's 

 lung, elastic and powerful, quaffs it, 

 grows full of it, grows intoxicated 

 with vigour and delight, pours it 

 abundantly into its bones, into its 

 aerial cells. Each aspiration is re- 

 newed second after second with tre- 

 mendous rapidity. The blood, ceaselessly vivified wdth fresh air. 



