258 LEAVES EROM THE 



of being revived by the rays of the sun, I proposed making the 

 experiment upon these : they were, therefore, exposed to the sun 

 upon a sieve, which had been employed to strain them out of the 

 wine. In less than three hours two of them began by degrees to 

 recover life. They commenced by some convulsive motions in the 

 thighs, and at length they raised themselves upon their legs, wiped 

 their eyes with their fore-feet, beat and brushed their wings with 

 their hind-feet, and soon after began to fly, — finding themselves 

 in old England without knowing how they came thither. The 

 third continued hfeless till sunset, when, losing all hopes of him, 

 he was thro^vn a^Aay. 



The philosoplier thus improves the occasion : — 



I wish it were possible, from this instance, to invent a method 

 of embalming drowned persons, in such a manner that they might 

 be recalled to life at any jieriod, however distant ; for, having a 

 very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America an 

 hundred years hence, I should prefer to any ordinary death the 

 being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine, with a few friends, till 

 that time, to be recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear 

 country.* 



Now, Heaven forbid, that in this incredulous time any 

 doubt should be thrown upon this comfortable story ; 

 but I have somewhere met with another account of the 

 extraordinary longevity of a fly. The relator, when in 

 Germany, was promised by his host a superlative wine 

 which had been ten years in bottle. The well-corked 

 flask was produced, and while mine host was descanting 

 on its age and merits, and holding it up to the light, he, 

 to whom it was offered, beheld between his eye and the 

 sun a fly vigorously struggling on the surface of the 

 wine. Modest as he was, he could not resist his impulse 

 to point out the struggler, observing that the venerable 

 insect had, no doubt, been kept in health and vigour by 

 the elixir vitce in the bottle. The innkeeper— and this 

 is the strangest part of the story — was abashed ; and in 

 his confusion was surprised into a declaration that he 

 never would tell another lie. 



* Franklin's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 227. 



