FOR PEACE AND WAR. 47 



The well-known examples of those hybrids, between the 

 male pony and female ass and vice versa, are very conclu- 

 sive evidence as to the preponderating influence of the 

 male parent in transmitting external organization and 

 appearances to posterity. 



' May it not, with every show of reason and example then, 

 be deduced that male influence in propagation of gregarious 

 animals is paramount ? Such, doubtless, is the case ; but 

 the contrary is a vulgar belief ; and the general breeders of 

 half-bred horses imagine that a good mare may be put with 

 impunity to any stallion, boasting in his escutcheon a long 

 hst of ancestral " flyers " of the turf, not knowing or caring 

 whether he or they were defective in those material points 

 from the propagation of which alone can success and satis- 

 faction attend upon horse-breeding as individual specula- 

 tion, or for the possible period of a great national necessity. 



Granting, then, for argument's sake, if you do not from 

 complete conviction — or, probably, from the native insular 

 instinct of calling a thing or system right because one is 

 and has been used to it — the preponderating influence of 

 the male parent amongst gregarious animals in transmitting 

 their individual form and characteristics to their descen- 

 dants, and it being incontestable that bad qualities are as 

 easily, or, indeed, much more easily transmitted than good 

 ones — for " ill weeds grow apace " — does it not impress 

 those interested in the subject Avith the very grave import- 

 ance of having that source from which good or evil must, 

 as a natural consequence, flow, of such character and merit 

 as will insure beneficial instead of deleterious and degene- 

 rating results ? Surely yes. And all will admit that 

 care, judgment, and forethought must be invariably used 

 in selecting any stallion to improve stock, and that he 

 should be not only full of good qualities, but free from bad 

 ones. For it cannot be too forcibly impressed upon horse 



