THE POWER OF FLIGHT 63 



a machine — a mechanism apart from the 

 operator whose very Ufe depends on the 

 efficiency of its moving parts. But this is not 

 so with the bird, whose wings are parts of 

 itself over which it has absolute command — 

 wings ever ready and fit to cope with any 

 possible eccentricity of the atmosphere. 



Flying is as natural to a bird as the act of 

 walldng is to man ; in neither case is instruc- 

 tion necessary, the power develops of itself, 

 subconsciously. Fond mothers, however, are 

 under the impression they teach their infants 

 to walk, but this of course is not really the 

 case. If left entirely to its own devices a child 

 would walk on its own account so soon as its 

 legs are strong enough to support the weight 

 of the body. Like its primaeval ancestors, an 

 infant begins by moving about on all fours ; 

 after awhile it instinctively clutches a fixed 

 support (as it might be a tree) and pulls itself 

 up to an erect position, which throws weight 

 on the legs and so strengthens them. This is 

 the first step in a natural way. The next is to 

 totter from one support to another close at 

 hand. As strength increases supports are no 

 longer necessary, and man in the making steps 

 out into the world an erect form, not of his 

 own volition, but the upright creature nature 

 intended him to be. 



