National Gazette

Reflections on Balloons.

I. WHEN one considers the slow progress of art, and the very tedious process that has ever been observable in bringing the inventions of human genius to perfection, it is surprising that Balloons should be so rashly pronounced, as they are by many at present, mere childish baubles and at best but objects of curiosity, and incapable of ever answering the purposes of real utility. Prejudice has ever operated against original invention, and the records of antiquity afford us incontestible proofs that the noble art of navigation once had its opposers, upon the idle supposition that the sea was an element upon which the human race was naturally prohibited from intruding—

impia

Non tangenda rates transtillunt vada

And, with regard to Balloons (or these aerostatic machines) ...
are by no means entirely of modern invention) they shuddered even at the thought:
Expertus vacuum Daedalus aeris
Opennis non homini datis.

Let us profit therefore from the errors of those that went before us, and although the art of sailing in the air be now in its first dawn of infancy, it is reasonable to suppose that a century, or less, may mature it into something of solid benefit to civilized man. It was remarkable, upon the late occasion, that many persons reprobated the aerial ascension as somewhat profane, and asserted that the aeronaut was intruding into regions where he had no business; these persons not considering that the air is our legal property, and that when a purchase of soil is made on the surface of the earth, the purchaser's right extends, in strict law ad superna et inferna, i. e. to any distance above and below him.

In Europe the danger of ascending in a balloon is now reckoned so trivial that even ladies have accompanied several of the aeronauts, and descended again in safety; and hence it would seem worth while to determine by a few experiments, whether the human race if generated in the higher regions of the atmosphere, would not partake of a more exalted nature, more inclined to virtue, and less to evil, than that which we now possess, and communicate, confined as we are to our woods and vallies.

The public are much indebted to M. Blanchard for gratifying their curiosity in the manner he has done; and as a final tribute on the occasion, the following lines were composed soon after his return from his excursion.

By science taught, on silken wings
Beyond our groveling race you rise,
And soaring from terrestrial things
Explore a passage to the skies—
O, could I thus exalted sail,
And rise with you beyond the gale!
Whoe'er shall thus presume to fly
While downward with disdain they look,
Shall own this journey through the sky
The dearest jaunt they ever took,
And choose, next time, without reproach
A humbler seat in Innskeep's coach—
Ah! when you rose, impell'd by air
Each bosom swell'd its thousand sighs;
To you each lady lent a tear,
And held the kerchief to her eyes
All hearts still follow'd as you flew,
All eyes admired a sight so new.
The birds that cleave th'expanse of air
Admiring, view your globe full-blown,
And chattering round the painted car
Complain your flight outdoes their own:
Beyond their track you proudly swim
Nor fear the loss of life or limb.
How vast the height! how grand the scene
That your enraptured eye surveys,
When towering in your gay machine
You leave th'astonish'd world to gaze,
And wandering in the ethereal blue
Our eyes in vain your course pursue.
The orb of day! how dazzling bright!
In glittering radiance gleams the Moon;
And TERRA, whence you took your flight
Appears to you—a mere balloon,
Its noisy crew no longer heard,
Towns, cities, forests, disappear'd.
Yet, travelling thro' the azure road,
Soar not too high for Reason's ken;
Reflect, our humble safe abode
Is all that NATURE meant for men:
Take in your sails before you freeze
And sink again among the trees.—