214 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



I suppose also that it would be difficult to stand 

 firmly upon stilts or wooden legs, though their 

 base exactly imitated the figure and dimensions 

 of the sole of the foot. The alternation of the 

 joints, the knee-joint bending backward, the hip- 

 joint forward ; the flexibihty, in every direction, 

 of the spine, especially in the loins and neck, ap- 

 pear to be of great moment in preserving the 

 equilibrium of the body. With respect to this 

 last circumstance, it is observable, that the ver- 

 tebrae are so confined by ligaments as to allow no 

 more slipping upon their bases, than what is just 

 sufficient to break the shock which any violent 

 motion may occasion to the body. A certain de- 

 gree 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. In- 

 deed, that standing 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.^^ 



^ All this is admirably well put by our author. Yet when he 

 says '* the gift consists in the faculty of perpetually shifting the 



