10 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



a very great capacity it is, a very noble gift indeed, — 

 nobler than much cleverness. Several animals are 

 cleverer than the horse in the way of intelligence; 

 not one is so amenable to discipline." 1 This is 

 true, unless an exception should be made in favor 

 of the elephant. But Mr. Hamerton omits to state 



— except perhaps by implication — the very respect 

 in which the superiority of the horse to all other 

 dumb animals is most important and most striking, 

 namely, the fineness of his nervous system. All the 

 great achievements of the horse ; all his wonderful 

 flights of speed and feats of endurance ; all his ca- 

 pacity for being guided, restrained, quickly turned, 

 and stopped, for being urged to the limit, and beyond 

 the limit, of his strength, — all, in fact, that is glo- 

 rious in him springs from the sensitiveness of his 

 nervous organization. In this respect no other dumb 

 animal that I know of will bear comparison with the 

 horse. Mr. Hamerton well says, in contrasting the 

 horse and the ass : — 



" I have never yet seen the donkey which could be 

 guided easily and safely through an intricate crowd 

 of carriages or on a really dangerous road. The de- 

 ficiency of the ass may be expressed in a single word, 



— it is deficiency of delicacy. You can guide a good 

 horse as delicately as a sailing-boat ; when the skil- 

 ful driver has an inch to spare he is perfectly at his 



1 Mr. Hamerton adds that the horse is not observant except of 

 places. But this is a great mistake. A strange footfall in a stable 

 will be noticed in a moment by all the occupants of the stalls. A 

 lively horse observes the least movement of his groom or rider, and 

 his curiosity is extreme. On strange roads horses always drive 

 better than on familiar roads. They are more alert and go faster, 

 so as to see what is coming next. 



