"After various trials and many successive improvements, in which our
desires increased with our success, we determined to penetrate the
aerial void as far as we could, providing for that purpose an
apparatus, with which you will become better acquainted hereafter. In
the course of our experiments, we discovered that this same metal,
which was repelled from the earth, was in the same degree attracted
towards the moon, for in one of our excursions, still aiming to ascend
higher than we had ever done before, we were actually carried to that
satellite, and if we had not there fallen into a lake, and our machine
had not been water-tight, we must have been dashed to pieces or
drowned. You will find in this book," he added, presenting me with a
small volume, bound in green parchment, and fastened with silver
clasps, "a minute detail of the apparatus to be provided, and the
directions to be pursued in making this wonderful voyage. I have
written it since I satisfied my mind that my fears of British rapacity
were unfounded, and that I should do more good than harm by publishing
the secret. But still I am not sure," he added, with one of his faint
but significant smiles, "that I am not actuated by a wish to
immortalize my name; for where is the mortal who would be indifferent
to this object, if he thought he could attain it? Read the book at
your leisure, and study it.
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