336 DISPOSITION OF ANIMALS. 



more rapid in the succession. In those animals 

 with which we have been so long familiar as to 

 know their appearances and habits intimately, we 

 never find two that are exactly alike in any one par- 

 ticular. We know them by their form, their look, 

 their gait, their voice, the sound of their feet, or any 

 one particular which could be mentioned ; and we 

 do so with ease, even in cases where the greatest 

 master of language would find it very difficult to 

 say in words in what the difference consisted. And 

 in making up a picture of an animal, if the artist 

 takes with perfect fidelity those parts of several 

 different animals which are deemed the most hand- 

 some in them, the compound is always a patchwork, 

 wanting entireness and symmetry, and really less 

 handsome than if he had been faithful to one of his 

 models only. Each individual part, taken in itself, 

 may be more handsome, but an eye accustomed to 

 examine closely will soon find out that they do not 

 belong to each other. It is usually said that the 

 Grecian artist compiled for his Venus the charms 

 of all the beauties in Greece ; but, if so, the work 

 must have been a motley and meaningless thing 

 something like those " best words of all authors," 

 which the ignorant compile for the confirmation of 

 the idle. 



It is the same with the dispositions and habits 

 of the animals, as with those instantly perceptible 

 characters which, though we cannot explain them 

 in cases where there is much resemblance, yet 

 strike us at first sight. Similarity of disposition 

 and habits always accompanies similarity of ap- 

 pearance, when we take the whole particulars of 

 the appearance into the account. A skilful jockey 

 or sportsman, who has noticed the appearances and 

 characters of many horses or dogs, can tell their 

 leading good or bad qualities at a glance; and so 

 can one who has been very observant of human 

 character come very near the character of an indi- 



