Mobility

“ The use of the Mobility is, to produce food, habitation, and clothing, for the superior classes, and to perform for them those various offices, which, though essential to existence, are not of a dignified quality. ”

“ Mobility implies not mere movement, but fresh stimulation, an increase in number and intensity of stimulants, and a tendency to respond more readily to new stimulation. The process by which the city absorbs and incorporates its own offspring or foreign elements into its life, and what becomes of them, may be referred to as the metabolism of city life. Mobility is an index of metabolism. ”

“ When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility and movement! ”

“ The manners of the Mobility are neither sweet nor refined; there is none of the lump-sugar of humanity in them. It is true that one laundress will address another as "Ma'am," and that the driver of a public cabriolet will speak of a locomotive vegetable vender as "that other gentleman;" ”

“ Whoever looks at the portraits of the Children of the Nobility, will see that some are represented as standing in the first; others in the second position; while others again are resting, with all the elegance of a Cerito, upon the very tips of their very little feet. Dove-like in everything else, they are as unlike that bird as possible in their attitudes. Why should the young Mobility tread the earth like pigeons, when the opposite mode of standing and of progression is so much more becoming? ”

“ The impression left after watching the motions of birds is that of extreme mobility—a life of perpetual impulse checked only by fear. ”

“ If we observe two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line, we shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength in one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile, effort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push with a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds, or even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the carriage, [149] and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in motion. ”

“ Till railroads shall be built through this country, the best mode of traveling, and the most healthful, is to walk, and ‘wade.’ As for speed in a journey of a few hundred miles, a man on foot will out-travel a bull, or even a good horse. Persons who travel in a ‘tipoia,’ amid the rattle of sleigh bells, and the shouts of their carriers, are not in a position to receive my statement, but I base it, not on a theory, but on facts from the field of action. ”

“ Probably every accident of which I had heard or read in my half-century tinged the uncertainty that by the correlation of forces passed over into the tremor that I felt when we began to round the terminus bend of the broad Priory walk. And who shall say by what original energy the mind forced itself at once from the contemplation of disaster and thrust into the very movement of the foot on the pedal a concept of vigor, safety, and success? ”

“ To pass over the other senses, we find that the legs are the outward art of locomotion, from passive to active; from the nails of the toes to the wheel of the knee and the globe of the hip; in short, from the walking-stick to the railroad; the real body uses them in nature, whether as the staff of its lowliness, or the means of its swiftness, or the equipage of its pride; they are the columns of movement; the rich soul's carriage, and the poor soul's crutches. But the arms and hands are all the finer machineries or inventions that are wielded directly by the arms and hands of the soul ”

“ In considering the power of traction or impulsion necessary to move a body, whether on a canal or on a road. I must carefully distinguish that force which is requisite to put the body from a state of rest into a state of motion, from that which is requisite to sustain the motion when once imparted to it. ”

“ In the use of each of those species of exercise great attention should be paid to the degree or force of action with which they are applied to the body. For example, in riding in a carriage, the exercise will be less in a four-wheel carriage than in a single horse chair, and less when the horses move in a walking, than a trotting gait. ”

“ But in the progress of the training, his condition may be ascertained by the effect of the sweats, which cease to reduce his weight; and by the manner in which he performs one mile at the top of his speed. It is as difficult to run a mile at the top of one’s speed, as to walk a hundred, and therefore, if he performs this short distance well, it may be concluded, that his condition is perfect, or that he has derived all the advantages which can possibly result from the training process. ”

“ The mechanics of walking and running, in so far as they concern the question at issue, were analyzed; and it was shown that effort is economized and efficiency increased in proportion as the stress is thrown more and more on the inner digits of the foot and less and less on the outer digits. ”

“ But when all the problems of mechanical locomotion have been solved, there will be no further use for our physical and mental restlessness, with its nomad instinct; and our science of motion and locomotion having been learned and adopted by the round-headed Turanian races, ours may be destined to die out or become absorbed in theirs, our rôle on earth being accomplished. ”

“ To do this, let us imagine a railway carriage, full of passengers, to be whirling along at a great speed, its occupants quietly at ease, because, although they are in rapid motion, they are all moving at the same rate and in the same direction. ”

“ We seek for something different, something not different but faster and still faster, to fill our eyes with flying, our ears with rushing, our skins with scurrying, our diaphragms, which are our souls, with the thrill of curves, and straight stretches, of lifts, and drops, and sudden halts—as of elevators, merry-go-rounds, chutes, scenic railways, aeroplanes, and heavy low-hung cars. ”

“ The development of mechanical means for transporting and manipulating all matter has, to a wonderful extent, excused the use of man’s legs and arms: and the facility with which a great mass is loaded for transportation,18 delivered at its destination, and there manipulated with scarcely the touch of human hands has, it must be admitted, greatly diminished the labor otherwise delegated to the limbs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The strength and activity of the human frame arise from the muscular conformation of its parts, and their constant EXERCISE.—Those habituated to carry burdens will bear a load of from six to eight hundred pounds; while other men, of the same weight and apparent strength, would find it difficult to carry more than one hundred and fifty, to two hundred pounds. This difference is the effect of practice; as nature proportionally augments the power of those parts of the body which are most exerted. ”

“ Flexibility.—In the ordinary wagon or carriage wheel, there is but little, if any, flexibility; but in automobiles, where speed is a consideration, elasticity, either in the rim, or in some other part of the wheel, is necessary. ”

“ I can hear the practical and common-sensible man asking, "is to be gained from walking—walking? Surely walking is the paltriest of sports. Why not write of riding, driving, rowing, bicycling, motoring, aeroplaning—any mode of locomotion rather than that of mere trudging?"—Well, in a technical and paronomasiacal phrase, the question really solvitur ambulando. ”

“ Truly; but if carriage exercise be more agreeable, is it as healthful? Certainly not: there is very little exercise in riding in a carriage; but every organ, muscle, nerve, and blood-vessel of the body is put into beneficial action by walking. ”

“ Meanwhile the climbing and leaping from branch to branch, the measuring with the eye of distances and strength of branches, the power of grasping the right point at the right instant, and all the complicated series of movements combined in this form of locomotion furnished a marvellous set of exercises not only for the muscles but for the higher centres in the cortex of the brain. ”

“ Because instead of yielding entirely and freely to the seat of the carriage first, and then to its motion, you try to help the horses, or to hold yourself still while the carriage is moving. A man should become one with a carriage in driving, as much as one with his horse in riding. ”

“ Skill in jumping from a moving carriage consists in making proper allowance for the forward motion which is had in common with the carriage. Most persons are apt to overdo the matter, and so come to the ground prostrate, and with more violence than is necessary. ”

“ Chief of these was the act of locomotion; that is, the means by which we get from one place to another, an act which is, of course, of prime importance in maintaining life, since it is concerned both with the securing of food and the escaping of harm. Locomotion is performed in a number of different ways; in ourselves, walking, running, leaping, swimming, riding a bicycle are all forms of locomotion. Any of these acts, as stated in Chapter VIII, requires the accurate timing and accurate grading of the contractions of a great many different muscles. ”

“ So much inventive ingenuity, so much marvellous energy has been expended upon the solution of the problem of transporting large masses, in which we see the wheel has finally played an important part, that the question of the individual transportation of individual men has received comparatively little attention, and it is only within the last twenty-five years that an amount of labor and thought has been given to this problem at all commensurate with its importance. ”

“ It is a principle of walking which I have set before myself, to economize effort, to attain maximum speed with minimum expenditure of strength; but you do not see that principle carried out by all the walkers before you on the track. One fellow over there is twisting his body on the back stretch in an awful contortion, showing he is not a natural walker. ”

“ Or if a train of cars, loaded with hundreds of passengers, or scores of tons of freight, had been seen passing over the surface of the earth, at the rate of sixty miles per hour, and propelled, seemingly, by its own inherent powers of locomotion, our fathers would have beheld a miracle—an event which would have appeared, to them, to break those very laws of nature with which they were the most familiar. ”

“ But how, then, is a good carriage to be obtained; which is not only pleasing to the eye, but is, when natural, absolutely conducive itself to health? To insure a good carriage, the only rational way is to give the necessary power, especially to the muscles chiefly concerned; and this is to be done, not by wearying those muscles by continual and unrelieved exertion, but by invigorating the frame generally, and more especially by strengthening the particular muscles through varied exercise alternated with due repose. ”

“ It is by the mode of locomotion of the climber that the hand became, little by little, apt for the function of prehension, then for the function of manipulation, and it is by virtue of the complete emancipation here supposed of the superior member with reference to locomotion that the functions of prehension and of manipulation of the hand have been able to acquire adaptations the most varied. ”

“ In primitive societies the transport of goods is effected by men and women carrying them; in civilized societies by the aid of horses and camels, and wagons drawn by oxen; till finally these are insufficient, and railways are created, whose power of transport transcends the earlier methods, as the breathing of a mammal transcends the respiration of a mollusc. Breathing is the special function of an organ—the lungs (or more strictly, the thoracic apparatus) —as Railway Transport is a special social function. ”

“ In the simple foot-race, fleetness or agility only was required; but in the long course, strength of body, and command of WIND, were indispensable to enable the candidate to gain the prize. Strength and agility are seldom united in the same person ”

“ The change of speed from three to five miles an hour elevates an automatic, listless occupation into a vigorous exercise, employing many new muscle groups and stimulating the heart, lungs, and skin, while the change from a smooth, level road to the broken ground of the mountain-side may be dangerous for many a one who is able to walk at a moderate speed on level ground. ”

“ No pretext of convenience in locomotion, whether by horseback, rail, steamer, velocipede, or mangle, can rub out of our preference the lines which trace the reserve that protects our youthful dream. And how can this being, only half suggested yet clearly not ourselves, put a scrawl of crudity in place of those fluent curves that describe something less angular than we are? ”

“ Seeing the preparations made for the descent, prepares us for something of a hill; but when once started down the narrow, winding grade, with the coach seemingly minded to tumble over the backs of the horses, it is the most natural thing in the world to wish we had not undertaken the ride down. Walking, we reflect, if not an easy mode of locomotion, has the advantage of being eminently safe, compared to this. ”