THE HORSE. ^ 



ing aoxnmts for the great size and beauty observable ii cattle that roam at large, /n 

 South America, as indicated bj the hides we often see on the wharves in our large 

 seaports though at other times the males mingle in all kindness and social harmony, 

 yet in these affairs of love, still more than in trade, all nature proclaims there is " no 

 friendship." How much of truth to nature, in the chaste and pious Thomson' 

 description of the effect of this vernal influence on the temper of the Bull! 



" Through all his lusty veins 



The bull, deep-scorch' d, the raging passion feels 

 Of pasture sick, and negligent of food: 

 Scarce seen, he wades among the yellow broom, 

 While o'er his ample side, the rambling sprays 

 Luxuriant shoot ; and through the mazy wood 

 Dejected wanders, nor the enticing bud 

 Crops, though it presses on his careless sense. 

 And oft in jealous maddening fancy wrapt 

 He seeks the fight, and idly butting feigns 

 His rival gored in every knotty trunk." 



In these cases, where nature is left without disturbance to preserve herself from 

 decay, Providence, which never works in vain, will take care that all goes right ; 

 but how different the result when animals tamed and domesticated by the cunning of 

 man, are brought together for reproduction, arbitrarily, and, as is generally done in 

 our country, perhaps above all others, in utter disregard of everything like rule or 

 system, and in total ignorance or carelessness of their respective pointsand qualities, 

 as well as of their adaptation or relationship, the one to the other ! With this igno- 

 rance and carelessness almost universal, there is constant danger, as we have before 

 stated, of general deterioration ,- and in introducing a work intended to promote the 

 health and improvement of this animal, it cannot be too strongly urged that this ever- 

 existing tendency is only to be counteracted by presenting those strong incentives 

 which alone can prompt a few to devote the time and the skill which are indispensa- 

 ble to maintain the blood horse, sans tache, and in the highest perfection. Nothing 

 can more clearly show the wise and benevolent order of Providence that man should 

 exercise his superior intellect for the improvement of all around him, than the ease' 

 and certainty with which it is seen that, by close attention, we can modify and 

 meliorate all organized existences in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Hence 

 the most acid and worthless grape is by skilful culture rendered sweet and luscious ; 

 flowers without attraction are gradually nurtured into beauty and fragrance; tne 

 cat may be made to present all the rich colours of tortoise-shell, and the pigeor, 

 may be "bred to a feather." These remarks might appear foreign or super- 

 fluous, but for their obvious design to enforce the necessity of breeding the horse 

 with incessant regard to an ever-existing susceptibility of improvement on the 

 one hand, and liability to degenerate on the other. Without some such strong 

 incentives as above referred to, in a few years, one might as well look among 

 the black Dutch for a dancing-master, as to look anywhere for breeding horses 

 that will insure speed, and stoutness, and spirit. 



In regard to the prevalent impression that the Arabian horse runs wild in the desert, 

 breeding promiscuously, and that where he has been domesticated, no attention is paid 

 to pedigree, and no recourse had to racing to test their powers, all accounts go to show, 

 on the contrary, that no people preserve their equestrian/^jmYy trees with more seduloua 

 care. To reach the root of some, they go down many centuries. Although, according to 

 Strabo, an historian of high repute, who lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, 

 much about the era of Christ's appearance, Arabia was still without horses; yet it is 

 undoubtedly a fact that they soon took the most effectual methods to' improve them to 

 the utmost, and among these, says a very learned commentator on the Mosaic Code, 

 * I am inclined to consider the spirit of horse-racing, an exercise in which the Aiaba 

 eagerly sought for renown, as the primary cause of that perfection which the art of 

 horse-breeding so rapidly attained among them ; but I by no means exclude soil and 

 dimat*., and food, as contributing causes." "Wherever, (says the same writer,^ 

 racing is established either as a source of fame or profit, good horses will be sough! 

 r or, and thf breed improved in the first instance by the best foreign stallions, ami then 



