WALKING ON SLOPES. 105 



take little mincing paces while the lower leg takes 

 strides. Here there are some beautiful morals ; but 

 we have no time to bring them out ; only we shall 

 remark, that, as in walking, so in living and in learn* 

 ing, there is a gravitation in us; and if we do not, 

 by careful observation, adjust it to the circumstances 

 through which w6 have to come, our path not only 

 becomes crooked, but we are always getting lower 

 down ; and that the grand cause of the crook and 

 the descent is, over-exertion of our higher foot : 

 our ambition strides away; our industry cannot 

 keep pace with it ; and down we come. 



Both thQse causes of deviation operate upon the 

 man who tries to cross the foggy moor ignorantly ; 

 that moor shelves in all directions, and he knows 

 not how to counteract the shelvings ; and as little 

 does he heed the differences of path or the regula- 

 tion of his paces, so as to adapt himself to these. 

 But the man who is intimately acquainted with such 

 places finds out those matters; and let the moor 

 be ever so wide, and the fog ever so dense, he knows 

 the direction of the place where he wishes to go, 

 sets his face directly to it at the outset, and attend- 

 ing to his own steps, and to the form of the surfaces 

 over which he passes, he accomplishes his purpose 

 with ease and certainty. 



The sailor is another remarkable instance of what 

 may be done by observation, and working to circum- 

 stances. No matter though the wind blow directly 

 from the place to which the sailor is bound, he trims 

 his vessel so that it works within less than eight 

 points of the wind, and thus, by a combination of 

 observations, and of contrivances founded upon 

 those observations, he so tacks and zigzags across 

 and across that wind, as to make it actually blow 

 him towards that point from which it is itself blowing: 



To beware of slighting any thing, on account of 

 its supposed insignificance, is the grand precaution 

 for those who would pleasantly and profitably study 



