THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 25 



a fool." Ignorance and prejudice are fading fast, 

 and common sense finds its way into the stable, as 

 well as into other departments of general economy, 

 and knowledge predominates over ignorance and 

 error, as man governs other animals. 



The word " condition " is one of the widest latitude. 

 Dr Johnson defines it thus : "a quality by which 

 anything is denominated good or bad," Strictly 

 speaking, therefore, the adjective "good" or " bad " 

 is wanting to give it its proper signification. It has, 

 however, been generally applied in a favourable light. 

 Our old writers were wont to call men of rank and 

 fortune " gentlemen of condition " ; and in our own 

 times, if we see a horse, or a piece of land, looking well, 

 we are apt to say " they are in condition." As, how- 

 ever, by the word condition, when applied to the horse, 

 we mean a state quite contrary to a state of Nature, 

 if follows that art is necessary to produce it ; and as 

 all measures which tend to throw Nature out of her 

 destined course hy violence are bad, it also follows that 

 time, great caution, and judgment are necessary in 

 the use of them ; for which reasons it is not in the 

 power of every man calling himself a groom to get a 

 horse into condition. In the first place, it requires 

 a larger stock of strength of mind than persons of this 

 description are generally possessed of, to induce them 

 to lay aside old prejudices and customs ; and, what is 

 a still harder task, to acknowledge that they know 

 nothing. That there are scientific grooms it is true ; 

 men capable of getting a stud of horses into perfect 

 condition without the master's eye ; but it is not in 



