SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS. 177 



They refuse to make themselves acquainted with 

 the structure of the hoof, to listen to arguments, 

 or examine proofs. Mostly they have made up their 

 minds that to drive a horse without shoes over hard 

 roads would be as cruel as to make a man take off 

 his shoes and run over the stones at once. 



Sometimes they have consulted farriers, grooms, 

 &c., and of course have been told that for a horse 

 to traverse roads unshod would be impossible, be- 

 cause if the hard iron be worn away by friction, the 

 comparatively soft horn could not possibly endure 

 the work. Thinking that people who have been 

 employed about horses all their lives could not be 

 mistaken in such a subject, they accept the state- 

 ment as if it were the result of experience based on 

 facts, and were not, as it really is, a mere opinion 

 of a subject in which they have had no practical 

 experience. 



