Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-18

~AsAoSAVu. TO glorify Leonardo da
Vinci, the father of aviation, was a Eot-
able political event
The joint glor;ication by France and
Italy of the most remarkable genius of
the fifteenth century marks an epoch.
Italy was the country OF Leonardo da
Ninci's birth, France the country where
he died. The fete. then. at the Sorbonne
may result in the rapprochement of the
two nations
NJ Raymond Poincare. president of the
council of ministers of France. presided
at the meeting. assisted by Signor Tittoni.
ambassador of Italy at Paris. Both min
listers affirmed on the occasion of the
ceremony the friendship that united
France and Italy.
NJ Poincare said the government of the
republic owed it to itself 10 participat tie
in that fete TO Latin genius. The minis
ter congratulated himself that he could
be associated with the eminent diplo-
mat who. prior to representing the royal
government in France, had directed with
so much talent and authority the exterior
policy of his country.
Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist.
a philosopher who resumed in himself all
the aspirations of humanity, endowed with
a diyining intelligence that anticipated
centuries and penetrated the future. an
expert at once imaginative and precise,
whose powerful unity is composed of har-
mony in the variety man born on the
sides of Mont Albano reared under the
skies of Florence. and who died in the
Touraine. Was not Leonardo da Einci
then a most symbolical figure represent
ing the characteristics of two Italian
sisters?
Leonardos contemporaries reproached
him with devoting too much time to APP
parent extraneous things-time which he
should have given to painting. Were not
studies of the physics, physiology. geome-
try. mechanics necessary to the compost
ton of his wonderful universally?
4 y
II we consult the pages of the astonish-
ing manuscripts of Leonardo We will find
there the science of the ply
Studied stefan in the flight of birds.
We will find there the most
blr0S. extraordinary intuitions and
the most audacious anticipations. Leo
nardo da Vinci learned that the bird
was an organism that operated mathe-
matically; he affirmed that there was as
much work to move the air against any
thing immovable as to move the thing
against immobile air; he observed that
the wind acts on the bird as a wedge
that raises a weight: he noted that the
bird. supported its wings against the ar
as a chimney sweep supports ms feet ana
his back against the wall of chimney ;
he exposed in word with prodlg1ouS
surety the theory yet obscure and mys-
FERROUS of heavier than air.
Leonardo da Vinci was not content with
that result, but with a sublime lnsplra-
ton he prophesied the conquest of the
air by the future man. He attempted TO
realize it himself and launched himself
from Mont de Cygnes near Florence.
You see said Leonardo, that the
eagle. by beating. his wings against
elevated zone and in the lightest of
terrestrial air; you see, also. the wind
swell the sails of a ship heavily laden
and push it over the water. You may
conclude that. with the great wings
acting against the resistance of the
air. man will triumph over the air
and dominate it..
The wings represented by his
famous drawings at talencienneS are
very large and have a spread of forty
fathoms, and the dimensions of the
machine invented by the artist stupe-
fed his contemporaries, who perhaps
took his ingenious researches for
sterile reyerieS.
Leonardo da Vinci dreamed. for a
fact; dreamed that beyond space and
beyond time his machine.
no Vinci'S which was powerless to
accomplish it's master 8
Dreams. will then, would ulti-
anately accomplish it; and the dream
etr's dream has been realized. As
ridiculous as it must appear, this
PRECEDENCE is not an inexpiicabie
chance The renaissance, with its de-
licious. mixture of imagination ano
realism, with its passion for the beau
tifuI and, its fervent cult for the truth.
found itself entire m the soul OF
it. "It was in him that blossomed the
flower of the Mediterranean spirit; in
him were persohified the noblest vir-
tues of our race.A
When Leonardo Aa Vinci died. in 1919,
at Ambrose, in the Chateau de Clouet.
where Francis /. whoA loved and called
him father" came to- converse with
him Familiarity. he had hconce.ved the
project Joining by canal the Loire
with the Saone, the Tourahpe with the
Lyonnais. and thus facilitatS the com
munications between France And Italy
NJ Poincare said: 1T pleases hle. gen
tlemen. to think that the ill1strious
in France. should have conceived i'm his
last hours the generous idea of concord
and union. the design of bringing to-
gether his natal country and the cdun-
try of Whlcn ne was the TeSpecVeu
guest
was a hap presage. added the
president of the French council, to PET
ceive already at the dawn of moderi,
times and under the auspices of q
Leonardo. the first signs of friendt
shin which was to come in the nineA
teenth centu--- and in the twentieth
add to the bonds of two nations vol
untary and unbreakable tie.
NJ Tittoni addressing himself to the
president of the council. declared that
no country better than France could COM
memorate Leonardo, the precursor of avi-
alton, for it was France which had out
stripped other nations in this genial sport
and which had given to aero navigation
the first heroes and the first martyrs.
And after tracing the life OF the great
Florentine, the ambassador referred to
the ties of parentage
Franco Italian and affinity which united
the two countries
neidtlOA0. France and Italy. The
aff1nities OF race, idiom. souvenirs. habits
and tastes had already created between
France and Italy since the sixteenth CEN
fury numerous relations. Since the six
teenth century the Italian renaissance
had been created and Leonardo da Nincl
had been one of the most illustriouS rep
reSentatiVeS.
The renaissance. it may he useful to
recall lust here was facilitated particu-
larly by the discovery of printing, which
vulgariZed books and works of art, and
the invention of engraving In Italy the
renaissance had for protectors Jules III
and Leon X. who freely protected and