The Narbonne Lycosa: The Family 



ternal perambulator, they briskly pick them- 

 selves up, briskly scramble up a leg and make 

 their way to the top. It is a splendidly nim- 

 ble and spirited performance. Besides, once 

 seated, they have to keep a firm balance in the 

 mass; they have to stretch and stiffen their 

 little limbs in order to hang on to their neigh- 

 bours. As a matter of fact, there is no abso- 

 lute rest for them. Now physiology teaches 

 us that not a fibre works without some ex- 

 penditure of energy. The animal, which can 

 be likened, in no small measure, to our indus- 

 trial machines, demands, on the one hand, the 

 renovation of its organism, which wears out 

 with movement, and, on the other, the mainte- 

 nance of the heat transformed into action. 

 We can compare it with the locomotive-en- 

 gine. As the iron horse performs its work, it 

 gradually wears out its pistons, its rods, its 

 wheels, its boiler-tubes, all of which have to be 

 made good from time to time. The founder 

 and the smith repair it, supply it, so to speak, 

 with 'plastic food,' the food that becomes 

 embodied with the whole and forms part of it. 

 But, though it have just come from the engine- 

 shop, it is still inert. To acquire the power 

 of movement, it must receive from the stcker 



165 



