Atterley quitted the cell, and waited with feverish expectation for the termination of the allotted two hours, when, to his inexpressible delight, he found, on re-entering the cell, that not only did the Brahmin breathe, but that he slept soundly; and, in the course of an hour, he awoke, almost restored to health.  This event, however, was the occasion of a more early disclosure of the Brahmin’s important secret, but not until he had recovered his ordinary health and vigour:—­

“I have already told you, my dear Atterley, that I was born and educated at Benares, and that science is there more thoroughly understood and taught than the people of the west are aware of.  We have, for many thousands of years, been good astronomers, chymists, mathematicians, and philosophers.  We had discovered the secret of gunpowder, the magnetic attraction, the properties of electricity, long before they were heard of in Europe.  We know more than we have revealed, and much of our knowledge is deposited in the archives of the castle to which I belong, but, for want of language generally understood and easily learnt, (for these records are always written in the Sanscrit, that is no longer a spoken language,) and the diffusion which is given by the art of printing, these secrets of science are communicated only to a few, and sometimes even sleep with their authors, until a subsequent discovery, under more favourable circumstances, brings them again to light.

“It was at this seat of science that I learned, from one of our sages, the physical truth which I am now about to communicate, and which he discovered, partly by his researches into the writings of ancient Pundits, and partly by his own extraordinary sagacity.  There is a principle of repulsion as well as gravitation in the earth.  It causes fire to rise upwards.  It is exhibited in electricity.  It occasions water-spouts, volcanoes, and earthquakes.  After much labour and research, this principle has been found embodied in a metallic substance, which is met with in the mountain in which we are, united with a very heavy earth, and this circumstance had great influence in inducing me to settle myself here.

“This metal, when separated and purified, has as great a tendency to fly off from the earth, as a piece of gold or lead has to approach it.  After making a number of curious experiments with it, we bethought ourselves of putting it to some use, and soon contrived, with the aid of it, to make cars and ascend into the air.  We were very secret in these operations, for our unhappy country having then recently fallen under the subjection of the British nation, we apprehended that if we divulged our arcanum, they would not only fly away with all our treasures, whether found in palace or pagoda, but also carry off the inhabitants, to make them slaves in their colonies, as their government had not then abolished the African slave trade.