- end_line
- 8469
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 8420
- text
- clearest, beyond the immediate subject.
At that period, no large bell was made to sound otherwise than as at
present, by agitation of a tongue within, by means of ropes, or
percussion from without, either from cumbrous machinery, or stalwart
watchmen, armed with heavy hammers, stationed in the belfry, or in
sentry-boxes on the open roof, according as the bell was sheltered or
exposed.
It was from observing these exposed bells, with their watchmen, that
the foundling, as was opined, derived the first suggestion of his
scheme. Perched on a great mast or spire, the human figure, viewed from
below, undergoes such a reduction in its apparent size, as to
obliterate its intelligent features. It evinces no personality. Instead
of bespeaking volition, its gestures rather resemble the automatic ones
of the arms of a telegraph.
Musing, therefore, upon the purely Punchinello aspect of the human
figure thus beheld, it had indirectly occurred to Bannadonna to devise
some metallic agent, which should strike the hour with its mechanic
hand, with even greater precision than the vital one. And, moreover, as
the vital watchman on the roof, sallying from his retreat at the given
periods, walked to the bell with uplifted mace, to smite it, Bannadonna
had resolved that his invention should likewise possess the power of
locomotion, and, along with that, the appearance, at least, of
intelligence and will.
If the conjectures of those who claimed acquaintance with the intent of
Bannadonna be thus far correct, no unenterprising spirit could have
been his. But they stopped not here; intimating that though, indeed,
his design had, in the first place, been prompted by the sight of the
watchman, and confined to the devising of a subtle substitute for him:
yet, as is not seldom the case with projectors, by insensible
gradations, proceeding from comparatively pigmy aims to Titanic ones,
the original scheme had, in its anticipated eventualities, at last,
attained to an unheard of degree of daring.
He still bent his efforts upon the locomotive figure for the belfry,
but only as a partial type of an ulterior creature, a sort of
elephantine Helot, adapted to further, in a degree scarcely to be
imagined, the universal conveniences and glories of humanity; supplying
nothing less than a supplement to the Six Days’ Work; stocking the
earth with a new serf, more useful than the ox, swifter than the
dolphin, stronger than the lion, more cunning than the ape, for
industry an ant, more fiery than serpents, and yet, in patience,
another ass. All excellences of all God-made creatures, which served
man, were here to receive advancement, and then to be combined in one.
Talus was to have been the all-accomplished Helot’s name. Talus, iron
slave to Bannadonna, and, through him, to man.
- title
- Chunk 8