12 THE REASON WHY 



What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, 



Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head ? &quot;Peps. 



is so shifted as that the perpendicular through it to the centre of 

 the earth falls in any way without the base of the statue that is, 

 without a figure formed by lines joining all the external points of 

 the feet upon which the statue rests the statue must necessarily 

 fall to the earth with all the passiveness of a mass of matter of any 

 other shape. The human body, on the other hand, has a muscular 

 feeling of the centre of gravity, in consequence of which, if that 

 centre inclines so much on one side that the position is beginning 

 to become unstable, the motions and flexions of the limbs instantly 

 shift the centre of gravity, or rather shift the attitude of the body, 

 so as to accommodate it to that centre. 



18. The centre of gravitv in the body is somewhere in the height of it, varying a little 

 with the form ; and if this centre is kept in the perpendicular, the body will always 

 maintain the position of the greatest stability, whatever may be the flexures or 

 motions of the other parts ; or the centre of gravity may move so as to be over any 

 one point in the base and yet be stable, only the stability will always be less the 

 nearer that the body is to one side of the base, and the farther it is from the oppo 

 site side. The number of positions which the body can assume while on the same 

 base of the two feet is almost beyond the power of arithmetic ; and as the positions 

 of thp feet themselves may be also greatly varied, the command which we have of 

 the bo i by means of our power of working it upon its centre of gravity is truly 

 wondt^-lul. 



19. Why is the sole of the foot arched ? 



Because by this arrangement the weight of the body is made to 

 fall on the summit of the arch, which is supported by a strong liga 

 ment, and this method of support, as is demonstrated by bridges 

 and other buildings, is the strongest and most secure that can be 

 devised. 



20. \V~ky is the human hand the most important member of the 

 whole 



Because it is the hand which gives the power of execution 

 to the mind ; and it is the relative position of one of the 

 fingers to the other four which principally stamps the character of 

 the hand ; for the thumb, by its capability of being brought into 

 opposition witft eacfy of the other fingers, enables the hand to adapt 



