CONDITION RESUMED 155 



old, at which time he took him to house, and rode him, 

 summer and winter, for between twenty and thirty 

 years, without ever turning him out, and he died of an 

 accident at last." 



Philosophers will tell us, that there is a condition 

 which is natural, and a condition which is not natural, 

 to aU bodies animate or inanimate, liquid or solid. 

 So much for the operation of external causes ! Now 

 most men will admit that the natural condition of 

 the ass is for the most part a sorry one, having more 

 than his share of that vis inertice which keeps things 

 in their places. Internal causes, however, operate 

 with him most forcibly ; and it is wonderful how this 

 vis inerticB is changed into a vis vivida by a plentiful 

 allowance of good oats and beans. I beg pardon for 

 introducing so mean an animal as this to the notice 

 of the reader, when speaking of what relates to the 

 horse, but time has been when this patient and better 

 deserving slave was held in higher estimation.^ In the 

 former state, however, he suits my purpose best, 

 though the question might be asked — what has an 

 ass to do with the condition of the horse ? My answer 

 is, that the ass, when in condition, is so far pro tempore 

 exalted in the scale of beings, as nearly to approach 

 the horse ; as the following anecdote will prove. 



On my return from Epsom races on the Derby day 

 (1824), my attention was attracted to what is vulgarly 

 'yclept a " donkey chaise," in which were a man and 



^ It is somewhat singular that in the Decalogue we are com- 

 manded not to covet our neighbour's ass, but not a word is said 

 about the horse. 



