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Article A FRENCH NOVELIST OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ← Page 5 of 12 →
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A French Novelist Of The Seventeenth Century.
in the rotatory movement of the earth ; and even quoted , for the edification of his listener , the opinion of a missionary who had a firm conviction that the earth turned ,- —not from the reasons alleged by Copernicus , however , but because the fires of the infernal regions being inclosed within the centre of the globethe condemned spiritsanxious to escape from the
sul-, , phureous odour of the flames , are constantly climbing towards the dome , and thus cause the earth to revolve , as a clog turns a wheel when it is confined within it . Thus mutually instructing and instructed , the two philosophers found the days pass pleasantly enough , until the affairs of the province demanding the whole time and attention of the
governor , Bergerac was once more thrown upon his oivn resources for amusement , and resolved upon a second ascent to his faA'ourite planet . While maturing his plans , he wandered in the vast forest , buried in thought , and ruminating over his project , amid the sighing of the leaves , the songs of the wild birds , ancl the deep hoAA'lings of the beasts of prey , insensible to
all external objects , and engrossed by his one darling idea ; until , finally , on the eve of St . John , while a council was held in the fort , and the authorities Avere deliberating upon the policy of assisting the natives against the Iroquois , he bent his steps towards a lofty mountain , and having ascended to its summit , seated himself in a small machine AA'hich he hacl invented since
his arrival , believing that he should soon find himself among the clouds ; but he Avas painfully undeceived , when , having throAvn himself over the eclge of the precipice , he fell into the valley with such violence that his entire body was one mass of contusions .
With some difficult y / ancl great suffering , he succeeded in dragging himself back to the fort , where he rubbed his person from head to foot with beef-marrow , fortified himself with a bottle of cordial essence , and again set forth to seek his machine , which he hacl been unable to carry away with him . It happened unfortunately , however , that a party of soldiers
who had been sent to cut wood for the bonfires ivhich were to be lighted on St . John ' s clay , hacl found the machine , ancl having , during their examination of so novel an object , discovered the secret spring , had carried it off to the Square of Quebec , where they had amused themselves by attaching to it a number of rocketsdeclarinthat when bthe action of these powerful
, g y propellers it was raised into the air , and that the wind expanded its huge wings , it would serve admirably to represent a fiery dragon . Delighted with their prize , the soldiers had just applied a
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A French Novelist Of The Seventeenth Century.
in the rotatory movement of the earth ; and even quoted , for the edification of his listener , the opinion of a missionary who had a firm conviction that the earth turned ,- —not from the reasons alleged by Copernicus , however , but because the fires of the infernal regions being inclosed within the centre of the globethe condemned spiritsanxious to escape from the
sul-, , phureous odour of the flames , are constantly climbing towards the dome , and thus cause the earth to revolve , as a clog turns a wheel when it is confined within it . Thus mutually instructing and instructed , the two philosophers found the days pass pleasantly enough , until the affairs of the province demanding the whole time and attention of the
governor , Bergerac was once more thrown upon his oivn resources for amusement , and resolved upon a second ascent to his faA'ourite planet . While maturing his plans , he wandered in the vast forest , buried in thought , and ruminating over his project , amid the sighing of the leaves , the songs of the wild birds , ancl the deep hoAA'lings of the beasts of prey , insensible to
all external objects , and engrossed by his one darling idea ; until , finally , on the eve of St . John , while a council was held in the fort , and the authorities Avere deliberating upon the policy of assisting the natives against the Iroquois , he bent his steps towards a lofty mountain , and having ascended to its summit , seated himself in a small machine AA'hich he hacl invented since
his arrival , believing that he should soon find himself among the clouds ; but he Avas painfully undeceived , when , having throAvn himself over the eclge of the precipice , he fell into the valley with such violence that his entire body was one mass of contusions .
With some difficult y / ancl great suffering , he succeeded in dragging himself back to the fort , where he rubbed his person from head to foot with beef-marrow , fortified himself with a bottle of cordial essence , and again set forth to seek his machine , which he hacl been unable to carry away with him . It happened unfortunately , however , that a party of soldiers
who had been sent to cut wood for the bonfires ivhich were to be lighted on St . John ' s clay , hacl found the machine , ancl having , during their examination of so novel an object , discovered the secret spring , had carried it off to the Square of Quebec , where they had amused themselves by attaching to it a number of rocketsdeclarinthat when bthe action of these powerful
, g y propellers it was raised into the air , and that the wind expanded its huge wings , it would serve admirably to represent a fiery dragon . Delighted with their prize , the soldiers had just applied a