neral freeing of
the body, as the motions of the spine. There are no motions more
difficult to describe, or which should be more carefully directed. The
habitual rigidity of the spine, as compared with its possible freedom,
is more noticeable in training, of course, than is that of any other
part of the body. Each vertebra should be so distinctly independent of
every other, as to make the spine as smoothly jointed as the toy
snakes, which, when we hold the tip of the tail in our fingers, curve
in all directions. Most of us have spinal columns that more or less
resemble ramrods. It is a surprise and delight to find what can be
accomplished, when the muscles of the spine and back are free and under
control. Of course the natural state of the spine, as the seat of a
great nervous centre, affects many muscles of the body, and, on the
other hand, the freedom of these muscles reacts favorably upon the
spine.

The legs are freed for standing and walking by shaking the foot free
from the ankle with the leg, swinging the fore leg from the upper leg,
and so freeing the muscles at the knee, and by standing on a footstool
and letting one leg hang off the stool a dead weight while swinging it
round from the hip. Greater freedom and ease of movement can be gained
by standing on the floor and swinging the leg from the hip as high as
possible. Be sure that the only effort for motion is in the muscles of
the hip. There are innumerable other motions to free the legs, and
often a great variety must be practised before the freedom can be
gained.

The muscles of the chest and waist are freed through a series of
motions, the result of which is shown in the ability to toss the body
lightly from the hips, as the head is tossed from the waist muscles;
and there follows the same gentle involuntary swing of the muscles of
the waist which surprises one so pleasantly in the neck muscles after
tossing the head, and gives a new realization of what physical freedom
is.

In tossing the body the motion must be successive, like running the
scale with the vertebrae.

In no motion should the muscles work _en masse._ The more perfect the
co-ordination of muscles in any movement, the more truly each muscle
holds its own individuality. This power of freedom in motion should be
worked for after once approaching the natural equilibrium. If you rest
on your left leg, it pushes your left hip a little farther out, which
causes your body to swerve slightly to