In the second place I have asserted that society contracts the sphere of action, which should naturally belong to many of the external organs. Indeed, for the sole reason that any one of them is the more occupied, the others must be less so, and lose in aptitude what is gained by the single organ. The most common observation will prove this truth at every moment. Examine the philosopher, who in his abstract meditations, and in the silence of the closet condemns to inaction his external and locomotive powers. Examine him by chance attempting any exercise of the body, and you will laugh at his awkwardness and air of constraint; his sublime conceptions astonish, the heaviness of his movements is amusing. Examine on the contrary the dancer, who by the lightness of his steps exhibits apparently to the eye whatever the graces of fable have set before the imagination. It might be imagined perhaps that the profoundest meditations, have been productive of such felicity of motion; but let him be conversed with, and nothing very surprising will be found in the man. The observing mind, which analyses the different individuals of society at every moment, will be led to similar remarks. Perfection of action in the locomotive organs, concurring with a like perfection of intellect, will seldom be found. V. _Of the laws, which regulate the education of the organs of the animal life._ It is manifest then that society inverts the natural order of education in the animal life, and that it irregularly distributes to the different organs of this life, a perfection which they would otherwise enjoy in a more uniform proportion. A determined sum of power, has been attributed to every individual, which sum must always remain the same, whether it be equally or unequally distributed, accordingly the activity of one organ must imply more or less inactivity in the others. This truth will conduct us to the fundamental principles of all social education whatever; namely, that no individual at the same time, should be applied to many studies, even if it be wished that he should succeed in all of them. Philosophers have long insisted upon this maxim, but I doubt whether the moral reasons on which they have founded it, are all of them together worth this single and beautiful physiological observation by which it is demonstrated, that for the purpose of augmenting the powers of one organ, there are no other means than those of diminishing the powers of the others. On this account I shall dwell upon this observation, and prove its truth by a variety of facts.