CONCERT IN ACTION. 139 



This is an instance of a very curious habit of the 

 bodies of animals, which is so general that man him- 

 self is not exempted from it. It is this : if any one 

 system of the body, be that system what it may, 

 whether external or internal, is to work in its most 

 graceful and efficient and least laborious manner, it 

 must work alone, and the rest of the body must be 

 trimmed to its accommodation, and not in a state of 

 excitement or action. This is a proof that the 

 principle of animal life in the individual is one, in 

 the same manner as the intellectual principle in man 

 is one. If the breathing, or the circulation, or the 

 digestion, labours violently, the external organs 

 become unfit for motion ; and if the whole body is 

 excited, no one organ of it can perform its function 

 so well as if the rest of the body were tranquil. In 

 man, this is called self-possession, coolness, or firm- 

 ness, and every one knows its value ; in other animals 

 it arises from a different cause, but its effect is nearly 

 similar. 



We find the difference between the wholly excited 

 and acting body, and the acting of one part only, with 

 the others trimmed or borne in accordance with its 

 action, well exemplified in the spring of the lion or 

 the tiger, and the stroke of the falcon. In the beast, 

 the impetus is given with the whole body ; in the 

 bird it is given with the wings only. Thus it is 

 momentary and exhausting in the former, but in the 

 latter it may be continuous, with comparatively little 

 abatement of energy. 



The flight of the gallinidae may be regarded as 

 only a sort of semiflight. It is performed with the 

 whole body, and partakes of the exhausting character 

 of every motion so performed ; and the faster that 

 these birds attempt to fly, they can fly for the shorter 



