Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first
beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus
satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere
chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan,
floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem
of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make
obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and
plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of
her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a
great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief
against the sky.
But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and
the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were
already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and
seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency
of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement
immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to
create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an
indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was
attended with some apprehensions and regrets.
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