CHAPTER V 



MUSCLES ACT AS RECIPROCAL ENGINES, BUT IT TAKES 

 YEARS TO LEARN HOW TO MANAGE THEM 



We are all engine-drivers — drivers of muscular engines 

 — but it is such a long time ago since we began to learn 

 how to manage them that we have forgotten the difficulties 

 which had to be passed through. There came a day 

 when we managed to balance a small body and large head 

 over a little pair of uncertain legs, and actually took three 

 toddling steps from one pair of grown-up knees to another 

 pair — to the surprise and delight of our beholders. They 

 declared we had done a very wonderful thing ! and so we 

 had ! We had succeeded, after being in this world little 

 more than twelve short months, in setting into motion 

 scores of engines, starting each of them just at the right 

 instant, and in their right order, and each with the right 

 degree of strength to carry us through our first short 

 journey in life. There was again a day in which we gave 

 another surprise. We actually spoke an unmistakable 

 word ! We had at last discovered how to set in motion 

 the muscles of the mouth, throat, and chest, so that they 

 gave out that kind of sound we call speech. Although 

 we use far fewer muscles in speaking than in walking, yet 

 it was the set used in speech that was hardest to master. 

 Afterwards came a time when we could actually run, jump 

 and climb, put our clothes on and off, fasten and undo 

 buttons, use a spoon, fork, and knife, and sit quite quietly 

 at table, a truly difficult accomplishment. All the while 

 we were doing these things we were really learning how 

 to drive engines, to start them and stop them at different 



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