“All this,” said the prince, “is much to be desired; but I am afraid, that no man will be able to breathe in these regions of speculation and tranquillity.  I have been told, that respiration is difficult upon lofty mountains, yet, from these precipices, though so high as to produce great tenuity of air, it is very easy to fall; therefore, I suspect, that from any height, where life can be supported, there may be danger of too quick descent.”

“Nothing,” replied the artist, “will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.  If you will favour my project, I will try the first flight at my own hazard.  I have considered the structure of all volant animals, and find the folding continuity of the bat’s wings most easily accommodated to the human form.  Upon this model, I shall begin my task tomorrow, and in a year, expect to tower into the air beyond the malice and pursuit of man.  But I will work only on this condition, that the art shall not be divulged, and that you shall not require me to make wings for any but ourselves.”

“Why,” said Rasselas, “should you envy others so great an advantage?  All skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has owed much to others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has received.”

“If men were all virtuous,” returned the artist, “I should, with great alacrity, teach them all to fly.  But what would be the security of the good, if the bad could, at pleasure, invade them from the sky?  Against an army sailing through the clouds, neither walls, nor mountains, nor seas, could afford any security.  A flight of northern savages might hover in the wind, and light, at once, with irresistible violence, upon the capital of a fruitful region, that was rolling under them.  Even this valley, the retreat of princes, the abode of happiness, might be violated by the sudden descent of some of the naked nations, that swarm on the coast of the southern sea.”

The prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not wholly hopeless of success.  He visited the work, from time to time, observed its progress, and remarked many ingenious contrivances, to facilitate motion, and unite levity with strength.  The artist was every day more certain, that he should leave vultures and eagles behind him, and the contagion of his confidence seized upon the prince.

In a year the wings were finished, and, on a morning appointed, the maker appeared, furnished for flight, on a little promontory:  he waved his pinions awhile, to gather air, then leaped from his stand, and, in an instant, dropped into the lake.  His wings, which were of no use in the air, sustained him in the water, and the prince drew him to land, half dead with terrour and vexation.[a]

[a] See Rambler, No. 199, and note.

CHAP.  VII.

THE PRINCE FINDS A MAN OF LEARNING.

The prince was not much afflicted by this disaster, having suffered himself to hope for a happier event, only because he had no other means of escape in view.  He still persisted in his design to leave the happy valley by the first opportunity.