la légende des siecles

First lyrical passage. The passage of the ship through the sky.
Description of the life in the ship; the absence of arms; the feeling of power and joy.
Description of the ship's movement.
Second lyrical passage. The voyage amongst the stars.
Whither will man go? He has thrown off his oid nature, his past history is buried, he
aspires to immortality.
Third lyrical passage. Is man to reach Heaven without death?
No, man must remain man, but the weight has been taken from his feet. War has
vanished; man is good and just.
Fourth lyrical passage. The ship is moving towards Virtue, Knowledge, Right, Reason,
Brotherhood, Justice and Love, and is carrying with it man, who will find liberty and
unity in the light.
La Fable, i.e. the myth of Aeolus.
Eole. Aeolus was the god of the Winds, which he kept fastened up in a bag.
fausse clef, skeleton key.
fatal, 'charged with destiny.'
pesanteur. Not 'weight' but 'the force of gravity'.
Nadir is the point in the heavens which would be reached if a line were drawn through
the centre of the earth and carried on till it reached the sky. But here it seems to be used
loosely for any distant point in the heavens. The meaning is that from a remote distance
the round earth, as it came into view beneath the ship, would have the appearance of a
dusky comet.
aéroscaphe. A word once proposed, but never widely accepted, as a designation for an
airship. It is derived from the Greek aer (air) and skaphe (a vessel).
humaine, i.e. made by man.
treuil, 'windlass.'
moufle, 'block.'
moteur, 'driving power.'
L. 171. i.e. by mathematics and poetry, that is by reason and imagination combined..
Euler was a Swiss geometrician (1707-83) who made great contributions to
mathematics and mechanics.