A study, then, of the conditions that enable a bird thus to defy the ordinary currents of the atmosphere seems to furnish the most likely mode of solving the problem.

Whilst a bird flies, whilst I see a mass of matter overcoming, by its structure and a power within it, the natural forces of gravitation and a current of air, I dare not say that air navigation is absurd or impossible.
"I consider the difficulties to be overcome are the combining of strength with lightness in the machine sufficient to allow of the exercise of a force without the machine from a source of power within.

A difficulty will occur in the right adaptation of propellers, and, should this difficulty be overcome, the risks of derangement of the machinery from the necessary lightness of its parts would be great, and consequently the risks to life would be greater than in any other mode of travelling.

From a wreck at sea or on shore a man may be rescued with his life, and so by the running off the track by the railroad car, the majority of passengers will be saved; but from a fall some thousands, or only hundreds, of feet through the air, not one would escape death....
"I have no time to add more than my best wishes for the success of those who are struggling with these difficulties." These observations, made nearly sixty-five years ago, are most pertinent to present-day conditions, when the conquest of the air has been accomplished, and along the very lines suggested by Morse, but at what a terrible cost in human life.
That the inventor, harassed on all sides by pirates, unscrupulous men, and false friends, should, in spite of his Christian philosophy, have suffered from occasional fits of despondency, is but natural, and he must have given vent to his feelings in a letter to his true friend and able business agent, Mr.Kendall, for the latter thus strives to hearten him in a letter of April 20, 1849:-- "You say, 'Mrs.Morse and Elizabeth are both sitting by me.' How is it possible, in the midst of so much that is charming and lovely, that you _could_ sink into the gloomy spirit which your letter indicates?
Can there be a Paradise without Devils in it--Blue Devils, I mean?
And how is it that now, instead of addressing themselves first to the woman, they march boldly up to the man?
"Faith in our Maker is a most important Christian virtue, but man has no right to rely on Faith alone until he has exhausted his own power.

When we have done all we can with pure hands and honest hearts, then may we rely with confidence on the aid of Him who governs worlds and atoms, controls, when He chooses, the will of man, restrains his passions and makes his bad designs subservient to the best of ends.
"Now for a short application of a short sermon.