140 NATURAL THEOLOU r. 



the body. A certain degree also of tension of the sinews 

 appears to be essential to an erect posture ; for it is by 

 the loss of this that the dead or paralytic body drops 

 down. 



The whole is a wonderful result of combined powers and 

 of very complicated operations. Indeed, that standiiig is 

 not so simple a business as we imagine it to be, is evident 

 from the strange gesticulations of a drunken man, who has 

 lost the government of the centre of gravity. 



We have said that this property is the most worthy ol 

 observation in the human body ; but a Urd resting upon 

 its perch, or hopping upon a spray, affords no mean speci- 

 men of the same faculty. A chicken runs off as soon as it is 

 hatched from the egg ; yet a chicken, considered geometri- 

 cally, and with relation to its centre of gravity, its line ol 

 direction, and its equilibrium, is a very irregular solid. Is 

 this gift, therefore, or instruction ? May it not be said to bo 

 with great attention that nature has balanced the body upon 

 its pivots ? 



I observe also in the same bird a piece of useful mechan- 

 ism of this kind. In the trussing of a fowl, upon bending 

 the legs and thighs up towards the body, the cook finds that 

 the claws close of their own accord. Now let it be remem- 

 bered, that this is the position of the limbs in which the bird 

 rests upon its perch. And in tliis position it sleeps in safety ; 

 for the claws do their office in keeping hold of the support, 

 not by any exertion of voluntary power which sleep might 

 suspend, but by the traction of the tendons in consequence 

 of the attitude which the legs and thighs take by the bird 

 sitting down, and to which the mere weight of the body 

 gives the force that is necessary. 



VI. Regarding the human body as a mass , regarding 

 the general conformations w^iich obtain in it ; regarding also 

 particular parts in respect to those conformations, we shall 

 be led to observe what I call " interrupted analogies." The 

 following are examples of what I mean by these terms ; and 



