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AN
ACCOUNT
of the
First Aerial Voyage in England.

^[[Lunardi]][[signature]]
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AN
ACCOUNT
of the
First Aerial Voyage in England.
in a SERIES of LETTERS
to his GUARDIAN,
Chevalier Cherardo Compagni,
Written under the Impressions of the various Events
that affected the Undertaking,

By Vincent Lunardi, Esq.
Secretary to the Neapolitan Ambassador.

A non esse, necsuisse, non datur argumentum ad non posse.

LONDON:

Printed for the AUTHOR: and sold at the PANTHEON; also by the Publisher, J. BELL, at the BRITISH LIBRARY, Strand; and at Mr. MOLINI's, Woodstock-Street.
M,DCC,LXXXIV.
Entered at Stationers Hall.
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AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
FIRST AERIAL VOYAGE
in ENGLAND

Letter I.
MY HONOURED FRIEND, London July 15, 1784.
THE innumerable instances of kindness I have received from you, and the respectful affection it has impressed on my mind, have insensibly led me into the habit of giving all my interesting thoughts and actions, some reference to you, and making your opinion and satisfaction necessary to my happiness.
You are well apprized of the general effect which the attempts  to perform Aerial Voyages in France, have had in Europe; but you may not know, that the Philosophers in England have attended to them with a silence, and apparent indifference, not easily to be accounted for. 
B   These
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 [ 2 ] 
These two nations emulate each other in all circumstances. And the progress and advantage of manufactures are not watched on either side with greater anxiety and jealousy, than a discovery in science, or an improvement in fine arts. This has the happiest effect, as it is accompanied with a liberality and candour that do honour to human nature.

The first rumors of Aerial Voyages were so swollen by the breath of fame, and the imaginary advantages to attend them, so rapidly and plausibly multiplied, that the genius of English philosophy, which, since the days of Newton, has born the palm of science, clouded her brows with a kind of sullenness, and perhaps feared for a moment, the ascendancy of her sister.

The glory of a discovery is indivisible as the atoms of Epicurus; and in respect to aerostation, it remains, and must remain with France. It is supposed, and I speak it on better authority than rumour, that some of the most attentive and penetrating observers in England, meditate such improvements of Aerostatic Balloons, and such modes of applying them to use, as may give them an equal claim to glory with their philosophical rivals in France. But this has not hitherto been attended with any remarkable effects.

You will possibly wonder, that in such circumstances, at my age, with the numerous engagements and occupations of my office, not yet distinguished in the records of science, and but little known in a country so enlightened as England, I should have the ambition to be the first man who visited its atmosphere.

I have already acquainted you with the project of our friend Zambecari, and the reasons of its failure. Little disappointments
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