THE TEMPERAMENT. 97 



have a family of knock-kneed animals. So of feeble hoeks. If 

 I had a stallion, whose foot was out of order, I should expect the 

 feet of his colt would be a little disposed to get out of order. If 

 I had an animal with such defective lungs that he was short- 

 winded, I should expect his progeny to be short-winded. If I 

 had an animal with a delicate stomach, I should expect his 

 progeny to have delicate stomachs ; — just exactly as, in the 

 human family, we know that we sometimes get from our ances- 

 tors, diseases and defects. It is hardly worth while to discuss 

 that point. So, while I would avoid animals that have defects 

 from injury, I would also avoid those that have natural defects ; 

 and when I came to the selection of animals to breed, avoid all 

 accidental and all natural defects. What then ? Here is a bull 

 with a straight rump, high head, even shoulders, deep through 

 his heart, his offal properly balanced, and his quarters very 

 large — is he a good breeder ? There comes the question. And 

 that is where the man is obliged to get underneath the hide of 

 the animal, inside of his brains, and find out, as Professor 

 Agassiz has just whispered to me so significantly, his tempera- 

 ment. Why, animals have their moral sense, and their intellec- 

 tual sense, and their sentiments, just as much as we have, and 

 there is just as much difference between the calm, sagacious, 

 well-behaved, prudent stallion or bull, and one that is constantly 

 quarrelling, fighting, tormenting and destroying the temper of 

 the mothers of the flock, — a mere pest of the herd, — as much 

 difference as there is between the man who sets a good example 

 to mankind, and one who sets a bad example to mankind. So 

 that a breeder, in selecting a male animal for the purposes of 

 breeding horses, or cattle, or what not, must be able to under- 

 stand, by a sort of intuition, what the temperament of his ani- 

 mal is — especially the male, because it is through the male that 

 the great improvement comes. Always, the females are the 

 subservient ; it is they who do the work, and the male secures 

 the increase, in reality, and produces his stamp. 



Now, after having, as I say, selected the animal of the form 

 which you like, the next thing is to select the animal of the 

 temperament that you like. The temperament which one breed 

 of animals should have, is exactly the temperament that another 

 breed, or another kind, or another species, should have. For 

 instance : It is just as necessary that an ox should be sagacious 



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