MancJu'ster Memoirs, Vol. xiiv. {igoo). No. 11. 5 



10. Chapter VI. of this remarkable book treats upon 

 fl)Mny; automata, whereby they arc carried aloft in the 

 open air like the flii^ht of birds. To those objecting to 

 the heaviness of the materials in such an invention it is 

 answered that it is easy to contrive such springs and other 

 instruments whose strength shall much exceed their 

 heaviness. Scaliger and Gellius are quoted to show that 

 " such automata may be actuated by some lamp or fire 

 within them which might produce such a forcible rarefaction 

 as should give a motion to the whole frame." 



11. Respecting the utility of these experiments it is 

 urged " that, though the composing of such motions may 

 be a sufficient reward to any one's industry in searching 

 after them, yet, there are some other inventions depending 

 upon them of more general benefit and importance ; for 

 if there be an}- such artificial contrivances that can fly 

 in the air, then it will clearly follow that it is possible for 

 a man to fl_\' himself; it being easy from the same ground 

 to frame an instrument wherein anyone may sit and give 

 such a motion unto it as shall convey him aloft through 

 the air." 



12. Chapters VII. and VIII. treat on the several ways 

 whereby the art of flying ma}' be attempted, either by 

 wings fastened to the body, or b}' a fl}'ing chariot so con- 

 trived as to carr}' several persons within it. 



13. Although some of the means proposed by 

 Dr. Wilkins to accomplish mechanical flight are, in the 

 light of modern knowledge, impracticable in the extreme, 

 yet, his general method of attacking the problem still 

 retains its value. In the divergency of his method from 

 its practical realisation the learned prelate was paralleled 

 by his illustrious prototype Bacon, who, notwithstanding 

 the depth of his philosoph}', strongly opposed Gilbert's 



