The time I have spent in the study of the _dead_ languages has been sheer waste; and all I have learnt wont raise us a foot higher here.

My knowledge of Jupiter and Juno is not likely to gain us the means of getting out of our difficulty, no more than my acquaintance with Mercury will help me to a pair of wings.

So a truce to classical ideas, and let us see whether scientific ones may not serve us better just now.

You have a quick invention, brother Caspar; can you think of anything--I mean anything within our reach--that would make the air-bag of a balloon ?" "But could you make the balloon, if you had the stuff ?" inquired Caspar, still in doubt whether any other than an experienced aeronaut could construct so wonderful a machine.
"Pooh!" replied the philosopher, "the making of a balloon is almost as easy as making a soap-bubble.

Any air-tight bag, filled with heated atmosphere, becomes a balloon.