ght,
dazzling colors, the soft roseate and purple hues, the sudden light and
fiery sun . . . and on I go as if carried by spiritual wings, far above
the diminutive objects of a liliputian world. We rise in the midst of
splendor, where light and silence combine to make one wish he never
need return."

Donaldson was a many-sided man--among other things, in no small measure
a philosopher, as when he commented as follows:

"I have noticed on different occasions a class of people who were only
half alive and who find fault with my exercise, which to them looks
frightful. They [Transcriber's note: Their?] nervous system is not
properly balanced. They have too much nerves for their system, which
is caused by want of a little moderate exercise up where the air is
pure, instead of which they spend hours in a place which they call
their office. They sit themselves in a dark corner, hidden from the
sun's rays, and in one position remain for hours, inhaling the
poisonous air with the room full of carbonic acid gas, which is as
poisonous to man as arsenic is to rats; and in addition to this, will
fill their lungs with tobacco smoke, and to steady their nerves require
a stimulation of perhaps eight or ten brandies a day. If I were as
helpless as this class of people, then my life would be swinging by a
thread, and I would wind up with a broken neck."

About as sound philosophy and scientific hygiene as could well be found.

And yet another side to his character: the kindly nature, the
gentleness and generous thought for others, reluctance to cause
needless injury or pain, which is always the characteristic of any man
of real courage. This beautiful side of his nature he once hinted at
as follows:

"I cannot look at a person cutting a chicken's head off, and as for
shooting a poor, innocent bird for sport, I think it is a great wrong
and should not be allowed. Did you ever think what a barbarous set we
were--worse than Indians or Fiji Islanders! There is nothing living
but what we torture and kill. As for fear . . . my candid opinion is
that the only time one is out of danger is when sailing through the air
in a balloon."

Early in 1873, after having made twenty-five or thirty ascents, and
well-nigh exhausted people's capacity for sensations and excitements
afforded by ballooning over _terra firma_, Donaldson began making plans
for a balloon of a capacity and equipment adequate, in his judgment, to
enable him to