146 LECTURE III. 



to secure the knee and ankle joints in that 

 state in which thej admit of no motion. 



Thus standing, all the other limbs are 

 free to move, and can be moved with great 

 power, because they are connected to a 

 perpendicular column which owes its stabi- 

 lity to its great weight. In the sculptured 

 figures of the ancients, if a man is represent- 

 ed standing on one leg, he seems as firmly 

 fixed to the ground as a fast-rooted tree ; 

 and associating freedom and power of mo- 

 tion with this stability, we seem to expect 

 the continuance of that action, which the 

 figure is represented to have begun. When 

 we stand upon both legs, we can transfer 

 the weight from one to the other, witli very 

 little variation in the position of our bodies. 

 The oblique direction of the thigh bones, 

 the consequent approximation of the knees, 

 and the transmission of the weight, in a 

 perpendicular direction on the arch of the 

 foot, seems to me designed to give us this 

 facility. 



In progression, the supporting limb 



