Levitation

“ Take the case of the levitation of a round table. I have so often seen a rather heavy table lifted to a height of eight, twelve, sixteen inches from the floor, and I have taken such undeniably authentic photographs of these; I have so often proved to myself that the suspension of this article of furniture by the imposition upon it of the hands of four or five persons produces the effect of a floating in a tub full of water or other elastic fluid, that, for me, [Pg 6] the levitation of objects is no more doubtful than that of a pair of scissors lifted by the aid of a magnet. ”

“ Levitation in the proper sense of the word, that is to say, the raising, without contact, and floating of an inanimate object or even of a person, might possibly be due to the same hallucinatory power ”

“ We have a system of levers to do our walking with, and they act precisely as do all levers. One leg is a lever to pry the body over the other leg, and the latter becomes a pendulum and swings back by force of gravity. ”

“ No matter what part of the human body we examine, we shall find that its mechanical work is performed by means of bony levers. Having seen how the head is moved as a lever of the first order, we are now to choose a part which will show us the plan on which levers of the second order work, and there are many reasons why we should select the foot. It is a part which we are all familiar with; every day we can see it at rest and in action. The foot, as we have already noted, serves as a lever in walking. ”

“ My body is far below me, yet it will be taken care of. It does not stumble, nor make any clumsy, unnecessary movement. Finding it alone and forgotten, Rhythm catches it in her gentle arms. Slowly, softly, gently, Rhythm carries it along, the same that carries the deer so swiftly in the forest, the mountain sheep from ledge to ledge and over valleys, and that which waves the trees' long arms so gracefully.... The night moves on its way, the threat of storm is passed. I am back again—an untellable freshness has sweetened hair and clothing. I am all glowing inside. ”

“ Thus, when we say, lift, expand, and let go, we mean lift from the hips, the center of gravity, in an easy, flexible manner; expand the body with a free movement without conscious thought of any part of it; have the sensation of letting go all contraction or rigidity, and absolutely release the muscles of the throat and face. The let go is in reality more a negative than a positive condition, and virtually means, when you lift and expand, do not locally grip, harden, or set any muscle of the body, throat, or face. ”

“ This done, I will consider the bones and joints of the skeleton which form the levers, and the muscles which move them.
“The Lever.—Levers are commonly divided into three kinds, according to the relative positions of the prop or fulcrum, the power, and the resistance or weight. The straight lever of each order is equally balanced when the power multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum equals the weight, multiplied by its distance, or P the power, and W the weight, are in equilibrium when they are to each other in the inverse ratio of the arms of the lever, to which they are attached. ”

“ As to gait, that progression which advances, unmodified by any lateral movement of the body, or any perpendicular rising of the head, and which belongs exclusively to the locomotive system—or that soft lateral rolling of the body, which belongs exclusively to the vital system—or that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at every impulse to step, which belongs exclusively to the mental system—these reciprocally indicate a corresponding locomotive, or vital, or mental character, which will be found also indicated by the features of the face. ”

“ AS we are on the subject of leverage, we will take some examples of levers in Art and Nature, without, however, even attempting to exhaust the topic.
On the right hand of the illustration is shown a very familiar example of a lever, namely, nut-crackers, with a nut between them. This useful implement is simply an adaptation of levers of the second kind, the power being represented by the human hand, the weight by the nut, and the fulcrum being the joint of the instrument. ”

“ Some believed that, now that men might be supported in the air, nothing was wanted but some light handy instruments to give and direct motion. Others believed that a running footman, or a horse, slung and suspended under such a globe, so as to diminish the weight of their feet on the ground to perhaps eight or ten pounds, might, with a fair wind, run in a [Pg 385] straight line across country as fast as that wind, and over hedges, ditches and even waters. ”

“ But the moving body, ever tending to fall, needs constant support, if it is to move in a true horizontal line. 'What, then,' he asked himself, 'will give constant support to a moving body?' And his answer was 'Human legs!' That was the discovery that immortalised his name! ”

“ I feel good. Now
a stoic ice shines
in me.
It makes me laugh this ruby
rope
grinding in my body.
Rope without end,
like a
spiral
descending
from
evil...
bloody and left-handed rope
formed by
a thousand daggers in support. ”

“ Any body, moving of itself, will do it with more or less velocity in proportion as the centre of its gravity is more or less removed from the centre of its support. This is mentioned chiefly in regard to the motion of birds, which, without any clapping of their wings, or assistance of wind, move themselves. ”

“ If I sit for a few minutes, flutter, flutter, begins every nerve in my whole system. My heart throbs as if from machinery, and the only thing, it seems, that can save me, is to leap up and walk—walk furiously, in any direction. Passing by objects swiftly,—trees, men, and women—that gives me a relief, that headlong motion disturbs the beat of the pendulum, and whirling wheels. ”

“ Moreover, what is moved either moves itself, or suffers motion from another. Now, that which is moved by itself has some bents and inclinations proceeding from its gravity or levity; and gravity and levity are either certain habits or faculties or differences of bodies. ”

“ The foot and the hand, no less than the head, were seen to be endowed with life; and this pervading life seemed sufficiently to explain the power of motion in each part of the frame, without its being held necessary to seek out a special seat of the will, or instruments by which its impulses were made effective. ”

“ In the deep sleep that had come upon the crawler, arms and legs kept raising in a deliberate, dreadful climbing motion. It was as though they had a life of their own—they kept their movement independently of the motionless body. ”

“ Just so, when an iron lever is applied to a weight which a great many hands cannot move, with the fulcrum, which the Greeks call ὑπομὁχλιον, lying as a centre in a right line under the lever, and with the tongue of the lever placed under the weight, one man's strength, bearing down upon the head of it, heaves up the weight. ”

“ This practical knowledge no doubt sufficed for a vast number of generations of men who used the lever habitually, without making specific study of the relations between the force expended, the lengths of the two ends of the lever, and the weight raised. ”

“ To increase the length of a lever is to increase its power at one end, and the distance through which it moves at the other; hence the faculty of bounding or leaping possessed in such perfection by many quadrupeds.34 If the wing be considered as a lever, a small degree of motion at its root produces an extensive sweep at its tip. ”

“ B. Nature employs this kind of lever in the structure of the human frame. In lifting a weight with the hand, the lower part of the arm becomes a lever of the third kind; the elbow is the fulcrum, the muscles of the fleshy part of the arm, the power; and as these are nearer to the elbow than to the hand, it is necessary that their power should exceed the weight to be raised. ”

“ What but experience can possibly inform us that a force applied transversely to a lever will have any tendency to turn the lever on its center? This cannot be, except we suppose in the lever tenacity, rigidity and the like, which are qualities known only by experience. ”

“ As for instance, a little agitation of the air will turn a windmill, or sail a great ship; and it is demonstrable in mechanicks, that a hair of a man’s head, or a puff of his breath, by the help of proper springs, wheels, and pulleys, may have force enough to move a body as big and heavy as the world. ”

“ Then there was a movement, a movement that blanched the watching faces to a more pallid white—that dangling, wobbling leg drew inward slowly, very slowly, and hip and knee, as though guided by some mighty power, immutable, supreme, came deliberately into normal form. ”

“ Breath is like the fly-wheel of this machine, the body. In a big engine you find the fly-wheel first moving, and that motion is conveyed to finer and finer machinery until the most delicate and finest mechanism in the machine is in motion. The breath is that fly-wheel, supplying and regulating the motive power to everything in this body. ”

“ Throw it into the air and it will fly. In its flight it will avoid obstacles, and will alight upon a ledge, or your shoulder. But it will not fly unless thrown into the air; it will not escape through the open door or window; it will avoid objects, but will show no fear of them,—alighting on your head, for example, without hesitation. ”

“ Capers, are when in rising or leaping from the Ground, one Leg beats against the other, which we call Cutting.
Fallings, are when the Body, being out of its proper Poise, falls by its own Weight.
Slidings, are when, in moving, the Foot slides on the Ground. ”

“ Planted broadside, its four limbs—the massive wheels—hold the ground like a wrestler drawing to him the unwilling opponent. Humming, panting, trembling, with stretched but irresistible muscles, the iron creature conquers, and the plough approaches. ”

“ The anatomical organisation of these members denotes heavy, slow, and powerful locomotion, but solid and admirable combinations for supporting the weight of an enormous sedentary creature; a sort of excavating machine, slow of motion but of incalculable power for its own purposes. ”

“ Anthropologists have often asked, what was that lever-power lying enfolded in the dark womb of some remote semi-human brain, which, by first stirring, lifting, and vitalizing other potential and latent faculties, gave birth to man? Would it be rash to assume that this lever-power was a vigorous movement of the faculty of wonder? ”

“ A lever of given strength will raise a given weight; so far does the Motion of Liberty prevail over that of the Greater Congregation; but if the weight be increased, it is overcome. Leather stretches to a certain extent without breaking; so far does the Motion of Continuity prevail over the Motion of Tension; but if the tension be increased, the leather breaks, and the Motion of Continuity is overcome. ”

“ Sometimes the wind would cause her veil for a few moments to rear straight up above her head in a monstrous black column of woe. Sometimes, if she stopped a moment waiting to cross the street, it would whip round the body of any one who happened to be near, like a cord. ”

“ The extending of the arm, which was bent, removes the weight of the figure upon the foot which bears the weight of the whole body: as is observable in rope-dancers, who dance upon the rope with their arms open, without any pole. ”

“ Moreover, each attitude—standing, sitting, lying down, turning over—entails a different set of pressures, both of the parts on one another and on the ground; and those partial arrests of motion which result from sitting down the feet alternately when running, send jolts or waves of varying pressure through the body. ”

“ Falling from morn till night, he throws himself on his way, a machine for turning gravity into a motive force. He fits to the circumstances of his flight as water fits to the circumstances of the vessel into which it is poured. ”

“ She saw how no wind left emptiness where it had been, but how the elastic tissue thinned out, spread, gathered together, ran here and there so that no outflow was without its inevitable influence of contraction: the whole sphere of air was a medley of pattern, always rhythmic and interchanging. ”

“ Pedal Motion.
2677. Standing is the position of a lever "in equilibrio," the creation of the proper centre of gravity.
2678. Walking or running is an exchange or alternation of the equilibrium, a combination of standing and creeping.
2679. Leaping or hopping is a flight with the feet.
2680. Climbing is an use of the feet as hands.
c. Alary Motion.
2681. Flying is lever-swimming in the air. It takes place by means of aerial branchiæ, namely, the wings in Insects, and by the thoracic extremities in Birds, which are also none other than animal branchiæ. ”

“ Accordingly, the organ of movement must be capable of expanding and contracting; and this is precisely the characteristic of spirit. It contracts and expands naturally, and so is able to pull and to thrust from one and the same cause, exhibiting gravity compared with the fiery element, and levity by comparison with the opposites of fire. ”

“ The twisted inclined planes act upon the air and water by means of curved surfaces, the curved surfaces reversing, reciprocating, and engendering a wave pressure, which can be continued indefinitely at the will of the animal. ”

“ The first movement is a movement of her hands. They rise slowly from her side and waver in the air like the hands of a person groping in the dark. Another interval—and the movement spreads to her lips; they part and tremble. ”

“ The body appears to be in the act of constant motion and rotation like a wheel, to the partial and unspiritual observers of materialism; and it is believed by them to be perpetually subject to birth and death, like the succession of light and darkness. ”