ROUSSEAU AS AN " AVIATOR."
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—From the days of Icarus to those of M. Bleriot the problem of flight has continued to fascinate the human mind. At the present moment, therefore, when the dream has been in
some measure realised, it is of some interest to recall the fact that among those who speculated on the subject was Jean Jacques Rousseau. I quote the following passage from Grimm's " Literary Correspondence," dated June 18th, 1762 :- "In this epoch, he occupied himself also with a machine by the aid of which he hoped to learn to fly ; ho merely succeeded in making attempts, which did not succeed : but he was never cured sufficiently of this notion to allow his project to be treated as a chimera. Thus his friends who have such faith in him, may one day yet see him soaring in the air."—" Jean Jacques Rousseau : a New Study in Criticism," Vol. II., p. 98, by Frederika Macdonald.
It is possible, indeed, that Rousseau's apologists may main- tain that this story of him may be one of Grimm's calumnies,
but he is not likely to have invented it. There is perhaps no more certain sign of genius than the power of peering in any degree, however small, through the dark curtain that over- hangs futurity. This power was in the possession of Rousseau. It is well known how in a celebrated passage in his " Contrat Social," in writing of Corsica, he in some mysterious way foreboded the uprising of Napoleon. " I have a presentiment," he said, "that this little island will one day astonish Europe." It is a curious speculation whether he had presentiments of the flights with which Europe is now being astonished.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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