24 NOTES FOR HUXTLXG-MEN 



a man's by his exterior alone. A man may have 

 the form and strength of Hercules and the Apollo 

 Belvedere combined, and yet be a cowardly slug- 

 gard, unenterprising and good for nothing ; and so 

 a faultlessly shaped hunter may, from want of 

 courage or a sulky temper, prove inferior as a con- 

 venience to a mean -looking animal with a larger 

 heart. Not for a moment do I wish to appear to 

 underrate the importance of true form and physical 

 development ; they are essential adjuncts to prowess 

 in athlete or horse. I merely warn you against 

 treating as of no account the unseen qualities of 

 this ' animal soul.' To produce anything like per- 

 fection these two elements — the physical and 

 moral— must harmonise and be in proportion, for 

 it is manifestly useless to have an animal filled 

 with a fire and spirit beyond the limits of the 

 powers of his bodily structure ; but if he must be 

 somewhat lacking in one of these I would prefer, 

 for a hunter, that it should not be in the latter. 



I can almost hear the ' end of the century ' sports- 

 man laugh at all this, and, maybe, I am a senti- 

 mental idiot, and the horse, what they assert him 

 to be, a ' silly brute ' controlled only by fear. This 

 theory of government may be simple, but appears 

 to me sadly crude, incomplete, and unconvincing. 

 Adopt it, and how will you account for the un- 

 doubted love most good hunters have for the sport, 



