SHOEING. 153 



pared? it dries, separates, and scales avvay/^ 

 In concise reply to this sublime justification 

 and very simple explanation, I should, in any 

 conversation with the writer, if he had not 

 passed '^ that bourne from whence no travel- 

 ler returns,'" have solicited a greater degree 

 of candour in his opinion : whether the iiails 

 were not furnished to our own frames by the 

 '[ wisdom of the Creator as a natural and 

 proper defence*' to parts of the most exqui- 

 site sensibility ; and whether the exuberant 

 superflux in constant growth was never to 

 be reduced to the standard of mediocrity, tiU 

 every individual of the human species be^ 

 came a voluntarij Nebuclmdnezzar ? because, 

 vipon the opinions of La Fosse, Osmer, and 

 others, it would be tlie greatest presumption 

 to suppose '' the divine Artist" had left in 

 any part of bis works the least room for rec-» 

 tification, 



We might certainly introduce, with pro-r 

 priety, a succession of similes perfectly in 

 point to render the idea ridiculous ; resisting, 

 however, the great temptation to animadvert 

 ypon palpable absurdities, we come to the 



