274 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



leaping fences straight before him, the loss of an eye 

 is no detriment to a horse. I sit at this present 

 moment with a pencil-case held just at the end of my 

 nose, and, shutting one eye, it exactly hides from my 

 view the handle which opens the door. I shut the 

 other eye, and the said pencil-case just covers the back 

 of a dictionary in a bookcase seven feet from the door. 

 Here then is great error of conception as far as relates 

 to focal distance ; and if I were to foUow the direction 

 of the pencil-case it would at one time lead me to the 

 dictionary and at another to the door, according to 

 the eye through which I looked at it ; but when I 

 stand four yards from the window, and have the pencil- 

 case held up to one of the panes for my view, it does 

 not appear to vary more than one inch when looked at 

 with either eye, which cannot at all affect a horse 

 judging his focal distance at a fence. 



Notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding some 

 of the very best hunters I ever saw have been one-eyed 

 horses, I do not like them. Unless very handy, and 

 of excellent tempers indeed, they are apt to strike 

 trees and gate-posts on their blind sides ; and where 

 is the horse that at times does not require to have all 

 his eyes about him ? A twig, or briar, wiU also 

 sometimes injure the sound eye, and then danger is 

 at hand. Nothing, however, can exceed the structure 

 and economy of the eye, particularly as to its pro- 

 tection from injury ; and so careful has the Creator 

 been that his creatures should enjoy the blessing of 

 sight, no animal is produced with less than two. Nor 

 is this all ; although the image of every object is 



