Episode IV.

My retrospective journey from this point of departure seemed destined to be even more full of observations than that which preceded it.  My day had been so full of work, so fruitful in unexpected discoveries, that it was absolutely necessary for me to stop at this first station.

After a few days of rest I naturally resumed my walk, toward the garden of the Tuileries, whither I was led by an instinct full of promise.  There, in fact, fresh re-appearances were not long in adding light to that with which I was still dazzled!

I remember that I had been vaguely struck by the contemplative attitude of a mother toward her child.  The reason why this attitude struck me even in the midst of my absorption in search of notes relative to the thumb, was, first, because this attitude was a contrast to that assumed by most of the nurses under the action of the same feeling; and, in the next place, it seemed to deny the contemplative forms which I had deduced from my first discovery, and which rested upon such motives as the following:  That a painter admires his work by throwing back his head.  Hitherto it had seemed to me clearly proven that admiring contemplation entailed this retroaction.  I considered this, it will be remembered, the characteristic feature of a law, and that for the reasons which I had previously given.  Well! were all these reasons, plausible as they appeared, to be contradicted by a single fact still present to my memory, in spite of the observations in the midst of which it arose, and which, moreover, should have been more than enough to efface it?  Strange to say, this fact vaguely noted amidst preoeccupations to which it seemed absolutely foreign, had remained persistently in my mind!  Now this fact, becoming by a reflex act the object of serious thought, resulted from this observation: 

That a woman, as she contemplated her child, bent her head toward it.

Searching in my memory, I found several similar instances completely confirming this principle, opposed to my observations, that contemplation tends to push the head toward the object contemplated.

And yet this example does not affect those to which I had at first paid exclusive heed.  Here, as in the preceding remarks, the law is complex, and it must first be recognized that contemplation or simple admiration is produced alike by the retreat or advance of the head.  This double action being admitted, it remained to decide how far they might be mingled in a single situation; that is to say, to what point these two inverse inclinations might be produced indifferently; and if, as I must a priori suppose, these inclinations recognized two distinct causes.  If so, what were those reasons?  The question was not easy of solution, and yet it must be decided definitely.  I could enjoy no peace until I had answered it.  The doubt instilled into my mind by this new contradiction was intolerable.  I set boldly to work, determined