FLYING, Awi 'FTC IAL. Mankind have always viewed the flight of the feathered tribes as an enviable faculty : they have ascribed it to beings more favoured than them selves, whose power was courted or dreaded by them ; and, after indulging in innumerable fictions and legends concerning its operation, in regard to terrestrial objects, they have entertained expectations that it is one of the pre rogatives of a celestial state. Some more hardy and intel ligent, however, have even, from the remotest ages, con ceived the practicability of conveying themselves through the air by mechanical expedients. But so incompatible has it appeared with the physical structure and abilities of the human frame, that " to fly in the air" has universally been regarded as one of those chimerical projects which no ingenuity could realize. Mende the learned Bishop Wilkins has truly observed, " amongst other impediments of any strange invention or attempts, it is none of the mean est discouragements, that they are so generally derided by common opinion, being esteemed only as the dreams of a melancholy distempered fancy." Yet, on considering the nature of the atmosphere in common with other fluids, the disposal of matter of known specific gravity, and the ap plication and effect of the mechanical powers, it does not seem altogether logical, to declare it impossible for man kind to elevate themselves in the air by means of wings.
Though more peculiarly the attribute of birds and in sects, flight is not denied to quadrupeds. A species of squirrel is provided with two broad membranes, connect ing the fore and hind limbs, by means of which it accom plishes leaps resembling short flights. The numerous bats 11 hich inhabit every region, enjoy the privilege in the highest extent. We know also that there is a fish which can leave the sca, and support itself for a short time in the air, by the size and action of its fins, forming a substitute for wings. It is chiefly, however, in birds and insects that we find the full exercise of this admirable faculty, which is attained by organs very different in appearance and structure. Indeed, on attending to those of insects, nothing can be more diversified, or, in certain species, more re mote from the wings of birds. The bodies of some
scarcely bear any proportion to their enormous wings, as in several genera of butterflies ; while the wings of grass hoppers, bees, and many species of dipterous or two•wing ed insects, and beetles, seem incapable of supporting the body. The wings of birds arc invariably formed of feathers, long and light, and in general tapering to a point : those of insects consist, in some, of a thin membranaceous sub stance, covered with scales, which fall off in a powder, or of a reticulated frame, or of thick horny plates conjoined with the thinnest membranes. But all these varieties per form analagous functions, in enabling the animals to ac complish their aerial navigations. Nevertheless, their mode of action is not alike, and great specific gravity is overcome by the rapidity of percussion on the air. Thus, the broad wings of the butterfly, slightly exerted, sustain it as if floating above, while the wings of the humble bee are in the quickest motion during its flight. There is also a considerable variety in the structure of birds, and in their powers of flying. Some, as the kite, the eagle, and the swallow, rise to an incredible height, while the penguin, the ostrich, and the emu, are incapable of elevating them selves from the earth. The penguin is provided only with short feathered stumps ; the ostrich has wings, which ate never employed but to assist it in running ; and the tex ture of the whole plumage of the emu plainly evinces. that it is not formed for flight. It is not a covering of feathers, therefore, that imparts the faculty of aerial trans portation; nor is it essential that wings should be com posed of light substances.
Mankind have considered it possible to attain this fa culty by the aid of artificial wings ; and have always re sorted to them, in history and fiction, as the primary mode of rising aloft in the air. It is an idea that has loCen equally indulged by the ancients and the moderns. Dxda Ins thought to effect his escape from Crete, by the close imitation of nature, as pictured by Ovid.