118 BIPEDS AND QUADEUPEDS. 



a better. I will bring forward a case I conceive to 

 be in point. 



We will suppose a man to be fond of walking, yet 

 has a lounging, dwelling, inelastic step, or, on the 

 other hand, steps with the petit pas of a French- 

 woman on some of their roughly-paved streets ; 

 people might say, depend on it he walks in the way 

 most easy to himself. Such idea, natural as it seems, 

 would be a very erroneous conclusion — he only walks 

 with a gait that is the best till he is taught a better : 

 put him under Westhall, Smith, Mayne, Newman, 

 and other professional walkers, they would soon 

 alter his style of carriage and step, and his rate of 

 going also : to his great surprise, he would find they 

 would teach him to cover six miles of ground or 

 more in an hour, with no more exertion than he be- 

 fore used in completing five. What, then, becomes 

 of the idea of a man himself best knowing the most 

 advantageous way in which he can walk, or indeed 

 do anything else ? 



I will instance another case. We find a ploughman 

 Avith a heavy laboured step, we enlist him, send him 



