168 SHOEING. 



lated only for the soft and artificial • floor-- 

 ing of a French Riding School, Ave 

 couie to such considerations as are adapted 

 to the state of our own roads, the customs 

 of our country, and the intellectual faculties 

 of those to whose scientific skill the mallea- 

 bility of the metal, the important use of the 

 butteris, the judicious formation of the shoe, 

 and the equally decisive direction of the nail, 

 are universailv intrusted. Advertinji for a 

 moment to the before-mentioned allusion to 

 Osmer's observation upon these men, who 

 say, '• they do not want to be taught," it 

 is very natural to suppose, from the profes- 

 sional knowledge they should have acquired 

 by strict attention and steady experience, that 

 they CANNOT '' want to be taught;'' but 

 that their judgment, founded upon the best 

 basis manual art, and ocular inspection, 

 OUGHT TO BE much supcrior to any theo- 

 retical instructions that can be obtruded or 

 enforced. Under that persuasion, and feel- 

 ing for those few who have industriousl}^ 

 rendered themselves adequate to all the diffi- 

 culties of the trade, I feel no surprize that 

 such spirited expostulations should be made, 

 y.s must frequently happen in reply to many 



