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Show 104 CE~TRE OF GRAVI'fV. ci~cular tower which has no parapet, slope outwards It IS not only difficult but highly dangerous to walk fast round them; but if they slope inwards, they are safe! and more easy than if one were walking in a strmg~t I?ath having the same width. Upon a similar pnnc1ple-though there the forward motion of the centre of gravity has more to do in the matter -if a circular turn in a road slope outwards, a coach, if moving rapidly, is apt to be overturned or the 1 passengers flung off towards the outside, but if, on the contrary, the road at such a place slope inwards, it is safer than if it were level. On this principle, coa.ches are much more endangered by passing rapidly loops of road at the hips of hills, than similar loops at the heads of valleys. Thus, we perceive that there is no little information even in that which to those who "see things but do not look at them" appears to be a merely accidental path, and that ~ shor1d lead us to be careful to "look at every thing we can see;" and if we once do that, we are independent of the lessons of other people. But we further see that there is, in the nature of the surface over which we proceed, a tendency to turn. us from the purposed direction of our path ; and If we do not observe the variations of surface which act. mechanicall¥ upon our centre of gravity, and occaswn these deviatiOn~ from the straight line, we never can get to our mtended place by the shortest road,-and very often we cannot uet to it at all. The inequality of our steps incre:ses tl1is tendency to deviate ; for if, upon level ground, we take short steps with the one leg, and lonO' steps with the other, it is altogether impossible fo; us to keep the straight line; and if we are on a slope, it is just as impossible for us to prevent ourselves from curving down that slope, if we do not take short steps with the higher leg and long steps with the lower; and if we would gradually climb the slope with the least exertion, the higher leg mu~t WALKING ON SLOPES. 105 take little mincing paces while the lower leg takes strides. Here there are some beautiful morals ; but we have no time to bring them out ; only we shall remark that as in walking, so in living and in learning, th~re is' a gravitation. in ~s; and i.f we do not, by careful observation, adJust It to the Circumstances through which we have to come, our path not only becomes crooked, but we are always getting lower down; anj that the grand .cause of the. crook and the descent is, over-exertiOn of our higher foot : our ambition strides away ; our industry cannot I keep pace with it; and down we come. Both those causes of deviation operate upon the man who tries to cross the foggy moor ignorantly; that moor shelves in all directions, and he knows not how to counteract the shelvings ; and as little does he heed the differences of path or the regula tion of his paces, so as to adapt himself to these. But the man who is intimately acquainted with such places finds out those matters ; and let the moor be ever so wide, and the fog ever so dense, he knows thP, direction of the place where he wishes to go, sets his face directly to it at the outset, and attending to his own steps, and to the form of the surfaces over which he ·passes, he accomplishes his purpose with ease and certainty. The sailor is another remarkable instance of what may be done by ob3ervation, and working to circumstances. No matter though the wind blow directly from the place to which the sailor is bound, he trims his vessel so that it works within less than eight points of the wind, and thus, by a combination of observations, and of contrivances founded upon those observations, he so tacks and zigzags across and across that wind, as to make it actually blow him towards that point from which it is itselfblowing To beware of slighting any thing, on account of its supposed insignificance, is the grand precaution for those who would pleasantly and profitably study |
