52 ANIMAL MECHANICS 



rules of art, but it is formed by chance : amongst 

 the many fragments of marble, there has been 

 one thus formed of itself. The rain and the 

 winds have detached it from the mountain, and a 

 storm has placed it upright on the pedestal. The 

 pedestal, too, was prepared of itself in this lonely 

 place. True, it is like the Apollo, or the Venus, 

 or the Hercules. You might believe that the 



o 



figure lived and thought ; that it was prepared to 

 move and speak; but it owes nothing to art; 

 blind chance has placed it there." l 



The first passage suggests the conviction that 

 the power of standing proceeds not from any 

 symmetry, as in a pillar, or from gravitation 

 alone. It, in fact, proceeds from an internal pro- 

 vision, by which a man is capable of estimating, 

 with great precision, the inclination of his body, 

 and correcting the bias by the adjustment of 

 the muscles. In the second passage, it is meant 

 to be shown, that the outward proportion of 

 the form bears a relation to the internal struc- 

 ture ; that grace and expression are not superficial 

 qualities, and that only the Divine Architect 

 could form such a combination of animated ma- 

 chinery. 



We shall consider how the human body is pre- 

 pared by mechanical contrivances to stand up- 

 right, and by what fine sense of the gravitation 



1 Demonstration de V Existence de Dieu, par Fenelon. 



