THE PROGRESS OF AERONAUTICS. 193 



erie.s, when tho}' come, will present one a.spect under whieh their ])en- 

 clits will l)e undeniable and their fruits will be unmixed with any bitter; 

 and that is their scientific aspect. When man takes possession of this 

 new estate he will garner as his first harvest a complete meteorologj-, 

 phenomena, and cause, through the whole depth of the atmosphere, 

 and this knowlege, be sure, will have consequences that avc can hardly 

 imagine to-da^'. Agriculture, industr}^, navigation, will be trans- 

 formed. The same knowledge will be utilized the better to avail one's 

 self of the energv now wasted in the tides, in great waterfalls, and in 

 the solar energy" which in a given time is scattered over the earth in 

 six hundred thousand times the amount of what is l)rought up from 

 coal mines. Such will 1)6 the benefits which posterity will reap from 

 those pacific conquests which I love to contemplate. Here, at least, 

 we have no reason for other sentiments than those of joy and admira- 

 tion. Happy are we to have been called to contribute our stone to 

 such an edifice; happier still our posterity, who shall have the glory of 

 crowning it. This seizure of a domain from which nature seemed to 

 have closed all access will certainly constitute, by the constancy and 

 intensity of the efforts it will have cost, by the discoveries and marvel- 

 ous inventions that it will have provoked, one of the highest titles to 

 glory of which the himian race will be able to boast. 



