506 THE CENTURY, 



and fly in the air by the help of mechanical or artificial 

 wings, agitated only by his own strength, without the 

 assistance of any other either animate or inanimate 

 power ; I thought it might not be unacceptable to the 

 curious to receive some (though imperfect) account 

 thereof. 



44 It is, I confess, no new design, since there has 

 hardly been an age wherein some one or other of these 

 Daedalian engineers have not been trying the strength 

 of their invention about it. The story of Daedalus and 

 Icarus might have its ground from the attempts of some 

 persons about this matter, though poetic relations have 

 made it seem romantic. What the performances of 

 Simon Magus were is uncertain ; they might have 

 [been] somewhat mechanical. That attempt of one of 

 our English kings is delivered to us for true history : 

 whether so or no, I determine not. But without doubt, 

 it was believed possible, and attempted also in the time 

 of our famous Friar Eoger Bacon, who lived about 500 

 years since. Now, though he was believed a magician 

 or conjuror, and to have performed what was related 

 of him by the help of diabolical magic, yet from the 

 perusal of several of his excellent works yet extant, I 

 esteem him no such person ; but I rather find him to 

 have been a good mathematician, a knowing mechanic, 

 a rare chemist, and a most accomplished experimental 

 philosopher, which was a miracle for that dark age. 

 This man affirms the art of flying possible, and that he 

 himself knew how to make an engine,* in which a man 

 sitting, might be able to carry himself through the air 

 like a bird. And affirms that there was then another 

 person who had actually tried it with good success. 

 The stories of Architas his wooden dove, and Eegio- 



* On the contrary, he expressly declares he had never seen such an engine. H. L&amp;gt;. 



