BRITISH TURF. Ill 



are nearly beyond our ken ; and secondly, sucli 

 horses are really not mis-shapen, inasmuch as there 

 are hidden virtues in the mechanism of their inter- 

 nal frames, which the eye cannot detect ; and 

 where deficient in one point, they are recompensed 

 by additional powers in others ; they possess the 

 essential points, although not so elegantly dis- 

 played ; and this we believe is the case with other 

 animals than the horse, although, generally speak- 

 ing, true symmetry in all, is attended with cor- 

 responding excellence in their useful properties, 

 and adaptation to the purposes of man . 



'' Those persons who insist upon an innate quality, 

 in what is termed, ' blood,' are led to believe that 

 there is something in the nature of a thorough 

 bred horse, which enables him to struggle in a 

 race, far beyond his natural capabilities, and which 

 is distinguished by the term ' game.' We do not 

 think there is. We learn from experience that 

 horses often allow themselves to be beaten by 

 others which are inferior to them, from sheer ill- 

 temper ; but their efforts to win a race, we consi- 

 der to be merely limited by their physical powers, 

 the effect of a proper arrangement of their parts ; 

 and that the operation of the mind or spirit has 

 nothing at all to do with it. The hero at the 

 Olympic games had, and the champion of the Bri- 

 tish boxing ring may have had, feehngs which, 

 from the superiority of their nature, and the fact 



