IO 
A PREFACE AND AN APOLOGT. 
paufe for a moment to fay that I fhall have no word of con¬ 
demnation for anyone (who does not perfonally know me,) 
who after reading what I am now about to relate, may fay— 
££ I don t believe a word of it! ” 
When in the life of fome one man occurrences foreign 
to the run of human experience take place, not only 
have mankind the right to challenge them, their verity, 
and the relator’s fanity, but he himfelf, in the intered of 
his own common fenfe, is bound to do the fame; and this 
is exactly what I did and what I have always done through 
life. I think no one in the prefent cafe can fairly charge 
me with any very great hade to fwallow the incredible, 
conddering that the phenomenon fpoken of was a con- 
flantly recurring one during a period of at lead feven full 
years. A man who wouldn’t or couldn’t have his eyes 
opened to a faSl during this length of time mud be either 
a very £C great” philofopher or a very old one; the latter, 
I fhould fuppofe, fomewhere of the tertiary period, podibly 
earlier. 
After having releafed the little dragon-dy from the 
fpider’s web in the grounds of the Wafhington Obfervatory, 
I had occadon to go almod immediately to Philadelphia, 
a didance by rail of 140 miles; and the day following 
my arrival was the Sabbath: a warm, fweet, bright dim¬ 
mer’s day. I had for years been in the habit of noting 
my obfervations of dying creatures under the head of 
££ Thoughts on Flying,” and this day was budly occupied 
