320 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



and which contained the figure of a lady within, with a 

 footman and page behind. When this machine was 

 placed at the extremity of a table of the proper size, the 

 coachman smacked his whip, and the horses instantly set 

 off, moving their legs in a natural manner, and drawing 

 the coach after them. When the coach reached the oppo- 

 site edge of the table, it turned sharply at a right angle, 

 and proceeded along the adjacent edge. As soon as it 

 arrived opposite the place where the King sat it stopped ; 

 the page descended and opened the coach door ; the lady 

 alighted, and with a curtsey presented a petition, which 

 she held in her hand to the King. After waiting some 

 time she again curtsied and re-entered the carriage. The 

 page closed the door, and having resumed his place 

 behind, the coachman whipped his horses and drove on. 

 The footman who had previously alighted, ran after the 

 carriage and jumped up behind into his former place. 



Not content with imitating the movements of animals, 

 the mechanical genius of the 17th and 18th centuries 

 ventured to perform by wheels and pinions the functions 

 of vitality. We are informed by M. Lobat, that General 

 Degennes, a French officer who defended the colony of St. 

 Christopher's against the English forces, constructed a 

 peacock, which could walk about as if alive, pick up 

 grains of corn from the ground, digest them as if they 

 had been submitted to the action of the stomach, and 

 afterwards discharge them in an altered form. Degennes 

 is said to have invented various machines of great use in 

 navigation and gunnery, and to have constructed clocks 

 without weights or springs. 



The automaton of 'Degennes probably suggested to M. 

 Vaucanson the idea of constructing his celebrated duck, 

 which excited so much interest throughout Europe, and 

 which was perhaps the most wonderful piece of mechanism 

 that was ever made. Vaucanson's duck exactly resembled 



