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Projectile would be completely free from every operation of the law of
gravity; in other words, when everything would cease to have weight.
This gradual diminution of the action of gravity, the travellers had
been for some time noticing, but they had not yet witnessed its total
cessation. But that very morning, about an hour before noon, as the
Captain was making some little experiment in Chemistry, he happened by
accident to overturn a glass full of water. What was his surprise at
seeing that neither the glass nor the water fell to the floor! Both
remained suspended in the air almost completely motionless.
"The prettiest experiment I ever saw!" cried Ardan; "let us have more of
it!"
And seizing the bottles, the arms, and the other objects in the
Projectile, he arranged them around each other in the air with some
regard to symmetry and proportion. The different articles, keeping
strictly each in its own place, formed a very attractive group wonderful
to behold. Diana, placed in the apex of the pyramid, would remind you of
those marvellous suspensions in the air performed by Houdin, Herman, and
a few other first class wizards. Only being kept in her place without
being hampered by invisible strings, the animal rather seemed to enjoy
the exhibition, though in all probability she was hardly conscious of
any thing unusual in her appearance.
Our travellers had been fully prepared for such a phenomenon, yet it
struck them with as much surprise as if they had never uttered a
scientific reason to account for it. They saw that, no longer subject to
the ordinary laws of nature, they were now entering the realms of the
marvellous. They felt that their bodies were absolutely without weight.
Their arms, fully extended, no longer sought their sides. Their heads
oscillated unsteadily on their shoulders. Their feet no longer rested on
the floor. In their efforts to hold themselves straight, they looked
like drunken men trying to maintain the perpendicular. We have all read
stories of some men deprived of the power of reflecting light and of
others who could not cast a shadow. But here reality, no fantastic
story, showed you men who, through the counteraction of attractive
forces, could tell no difference between light substances and heavy
substances, and who absolutely had no weight whatever themselves!
"Let us take graceful attitudes!" cried Ardan, "and imagine we are
playing _tableaux_! Let us, for instance, form a grand historical group
of the three great goddesses of the nineteenth century. Barbican will
represent Minerva or _Science_; the Captain, Bellona or _War_; while I,
as Madre Natura, the newly born goddess of _Progress_, floating
gracefully over you both, extend my hands so, fondly patronizing the
one, but grandly ordering off the other, to the regions of eternal
night! More on your toe, Captain! Your right foot a little higher! Look
at Barbican's admirable pose! Now then, prepare to receive orders for a
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