Engine up too fast, and indangers Precipitation: But 'tis happily
observed, That these ill Feathers are but a very few, compar'd to the
whole number; at the most, I never heard they were above 134 of the
whole number: As for the empty ones, they are not very dangerous, but
a sort of Good-for-nothing Feathers, that will fly when the greatest
number of the rest fly, or stand still when they stand still. The
fluttering hot-headed Feathers are the most dangerous, and frequently
struggle hard to mount the Engine to extravagant heights; but still
the greater number of the Feathers being stanch, and well fixt, as
well as well furnisht, they always prevail, and check the Disorders
the other would bring upon the Motion; so that upon the whole Matter,
tho' there has sometims been oblique Motions, Variations, and
sometimes great Wandrings out of the way, which may make the Passage
tedious, yet it has always been a certain and safe Voyage; and no
Engine was ever known to miscarry or overthrow, but that one
mentioned before, and that was very much owing to the precipitate
Methods the Prince took in guiding it; and tho' all the fault was
laid in the Feathers, and they were to blame enough, yet I never
heard any Wise Man, but what blam'd his Discretion, and particularly,
a certain great Man has wrote three large Tracts of those Affairs,
and call'd them, The History of the Opposition of the Feathers;
wherein, tho' it was expected he would have curst the Engine it self
and all the Feathers to the Devil, on the contrary, he lays equal
blame on the Prince, who guided the Chariot with so unsteddy a hand,
now as much too slack, as then too hard, turning them this way and
that so hastily, that the Feathers could not move in their proper
order; and this at last put the Fire in the Center quite out, and so
the Engine over-set at once. This Impartiality has done great Justice
to the Feathers, and set things in a clearer light: But of this I
shall say more, when I come to treat of the Works of the Learned in