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As a ballon d'essai it lacked buoyancy; and no doubt Mr Farquharson was right in declaring that above all things it lacked actuality, business the proposition, in good set terms, for men to turn over, to accept or reject. Nothing could be done with it, Mr Farquharson averred, as a mere prospect; it was useful only to its enemies.
He is known as unusually friendly with several Martians in Greater New York of bad reputation." "Well?" "What you don't know," Halsey said, "is that Grantline expects to find radiactum on the Moon." We gasped. "Exactly," said Halsey. "The ill-fated Ballon Expedition thought they had found it on the Moon, shortly after its merit was discovered.
Then there is Thann, with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave and apse only.
The word is ponton in French, and comes from the Latin pons, "a bridge." Most words of this sort in French ending in on take the ending oon in English. Thus ballon in French becomes balloon in English. Barracks also comes from the French baraque, and the French had it from the Spanish or Italian barraca or baraca; but no one knows whence these languages got the word.
Numerous songs and epigrams, of which the unfortunate abbes were the subjects, also appeared at this time. The letters which composed the words "l'Abbe Miolan" were found to form the anagram, Ballon abime "the balloon swallowed up." The most extravagant balloon project was that of Robertson, who published a scheme for making a tour of the world. The following is this aeronaut's prospectus:
It was a good joke for the parson to suppose I was drunk." "Perhaps you were," suggested Wilton. "I felt good; but I was as sober as I am now." "The drink I took went into my head, and I felt as though I was going up in a ballon." "That was because you are not used to the article. It waked me up a little, but I knew what I was about." "I think you were a confounded fool to do what you did."
I have said enough to show that Irish Nationalist opinion has not been committed to the Bryce scheme to the exclusion of every other solution, but it is to be regretted, in the interests of education, that the proposal which the majority of Irishmen regarded as the solution nearest approaching the ideal should have been launched by the Government merely as a ballon d'essai, to be withdrawn at the first breath of opposition, and to be replaced by what, at the best, can only prove to be a less hopeful compromise.
The proposed change of programme came in a questionable shape to a suspicious time. It was not received with universal favour, and, to avert dissension, it was represented as a mere ballon d'essai and was abandoned. O'Connell died, and Repeal and Federation alike were swallowed up in the Great Famine. But time was to renew its urgency.
In addition to this, Charles provided the first 'ballon sonde' in the form of a small pilot balloon which he handed to Montgolfier to launch before his own ascent, in order to determine the direction and velocity of the wind. It was a graceful compliment to his rival, and indicated that, although they were both working to the one end, their rivalry was not a matter of bitterness.
Archettes, just below; the flat valley with the river winding from side to side; the straight rows of poplar trees; the dark pines on the hills, and the rounded mountains rising farther and higher into the distance until the last I saw, far off to the south-east, must have been the Ballon d'Alsace at the sources of the Moselle the hill that marked the first full stage in my journey and that overlooked Switzerland.
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