THE RECORD OF AN AERONAUT: THE LIFE OF JOHN M.
BACON.
The Record of an Aeronaut : the .We of John M. Bacon. By his Daughter, Gertrude Bacon. (John Long. 168. net.)—John M. Bacon was born in Jane, 1846, the son of a clergyman, who, again, had for father and grandfather sculptors of considerable eminence : the statues of Johnson and Howard in St. Paul's are the work of the elder. In 1865 he. went up to Cambridge, and had every prospect of doing well; the prophets, who exercised their voca- tion with great success in the matter of the places in the Mathe- matical Tripes, gave him a place among the first ten Wranglers. But his eyesight failed him, and he had to be content with an aegrotat. But he did not give up the academical life. He went into partnership with his eldest brother in the business of pass coaching. Then he took Orders, and went on working double tides till his health broke down. All through we see him showing the determination, the energy, and the courage, perhaps verging 'on the excess of the ()patios, as Aristotle has it, which an aeronaut ought to have. The first balloon ascent—ho had thought of ballooning for many years—came off in August, 1888. From that time till his death sixteen years later this was the occupation of his life. It brought him more than once into serious peril. Miss Gertrude Bacon describes adventures quorum pars ipsa fuit, and bears testimony to the unfaltering courage which he showed when death seemed almost inevitable. All this is good to read about. It is likely that the long-sought secret of the dirigible balloon will ere long be made a mire possession, though we cannot suppose that we shall ever ensure safety,—the air will be no more safe than the water. John Mackenzie Bacon will always have a place among the pioneers of this great enterprise. It is well that he should have the honour, for no other acknowledgment was ever made to him. He had to find the means of carrying on his work and supporting himself by incessant lecturing. It can hardly be doubted that the strain of this work shortened his life. But this is our English way.
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