I was only obliged occasionally to halt a little
in my course, and resist its progress, when it appeared that, by
following too quick, I lowered the kite too much; by doing which
occasionally, I made it rise again. I have never since that time
practised this singular mode of swimming, though I think it not
impossible to cross in this manner from Dover to Calais. The
packet-boat, however, is still preferable."
Doctor Franklin wrote another long letter to a man in mature life,
advising him to learn to swim. The man was not inclined to do it on
account of his age, whereupon Doctor Franklin wrote:
"I can not be of opinion with you, that it is too late in life for you
to learn to swim. The river near the bottom of your garden affords a
most convenient place for the purpose. And, as your new employment
requires your being often on the water, of which you have such a
dread, I think you would do well to make the trial; nothing being so
likely to remove those apprehensions as the consciousness of an
ability to swim to the shore in case of an accident, or of supporting
yourself in the water till a boat could come to take you up."
It is probable that Benjamin's experiment with his kite in swimming
was the seed-thought of his experiment in drawing lightning from the
clouds with a kite, thirty years thereafter,--an experiment that
startled and electrified the scientific world.
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