BOOK OF THE DAMNED 251 



put in jail and beaten to death that these are the birth-pangs of 

 translation to the Positive Absolute. 



So, though positive-negative, myself, I feel the attraction of the 

 positive pole of our intermediate state, and attempt to correlate 

 these three data: to see them homogeneously; to think that they 

 relate to one object. 



In the aeronautic journals, and in the London Times there is no 

 mention of escaped balloons, in the summer or fall of 1898. In the 

 New York Times there is no mention of ballooning in Canada or 

 the United States, in the summer of 1898. 



London Times, Sept. 29, 1885: 



A clipping from the Royal Gazette, of Bermuda, of Sept. 8, 1885, 

 sent to the Times by General Lefroy: 



That, upon Aug. 27, 1885, at about 8:30 a. m., there was ob- 

 served by Mrs. Adelina D. Bassett, "a strange object in the clouds, 

 coming from the north." She called the attention of Mrs. L. Lowell 

 to it, and they were both somewhat alarmed. However, they con- 

 tinued to watch the object steadily for some time. It drew nearer. 

 It was of triangular shape, and seemed to be about the size of a 

 pilot-boat mainsail, with chains attached to the bottom of it. While 

 crossing the land it had appeared to descend, but, as it went out to 

 sea, it ascended, and continued to ascend, until it was lost to sight 

 high in the clouds. 



Or with such power to ascend, I don't think much myself of the 

 notion that it was an escaped balloon, partly deflated. Neverthe- 

 less, General Lefroy, correlating with Exclusionism, attempts to 

 give a terrestrial interpretation to this occurrence. He argues that 

 the thing may have been a balloon that had escaped from France or 

 England or the only aerial thing of terrestrial origin that, even to 

 this date of about thirty-five years later, has been thought to 

 have crossed the Atlantic Ocean. He accounts for the triangular 

 form by deflation "a shapeless bag, barely able to float." My 

 own acceptance is that great deflation does not accord with observa- 

 tions upon its power to ascend. 



In the Times, Oct. i, 1885, Charles Harding, of the R. M. S., 

 argues that if it had been a balloon from Europe, surely it would 

 have been seen and reported by many vessels. Whether he was as 

 good a Briton as the General or not, he shows awareness of the 

 United States or that the thing may have been a partly collapsed 

 balloon that had escaped from the United States. 



General Lefroy wrote to Nature about it (Nature, 33-99), saying 



