THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 207 



equally liable to blame for any and for all defects. It 

 is very certain that, whatever may be a man's own qua- 

 lifications for the office of a master of hounds, to that 

 level will he bring his establishment. If he commence 

 with an indifferent pack of hounds, and possess, in 

 himself, the elements of the science essential to their 

 well-being, he will 7'aise them till they arrive at his own 

 standard of perfection.* If, on the contrary, he has less 

 capacity for the undertaking, he will reduce things to 

 his own calibre. Wealth and station may pre-eminently 

 qualify one individual in a county, in these respects, for 

 such office, and he may, with proper public spirit, con- 

 sent to assume the government, without the slightest 

 practical knowledge of his duties. Still, upon him will 

 depend the efficiency of the whole concern. It will be 

 no excuse to say, that want of sport is not his fault, 

 that it is in his hounds or servants. It is his fault, 

 and his only, if they are not what they should be. It 

 has been most truly said, that " a little knowledge is a 

 dangerous thing." A man may commit a fatal error in 

 unlimited exercise of absolute authority, if he presume 

 too much upon an undue estimate of his own judgment ; 

 but as, according to the military regulation for the use 

 of discretionary power, we are told to act " according 

 to conscience, the best of our understanding, and the 

 custom of war in the like cases," so will no man err 



* Having, however, thus raised them, he must never relax — never think 

 he has finished a good work, or be tempted to excLiim ^^ opns exegi" — 

 of that which is never entirely exactum. Many have retrograded, from 

 too firm a reliance on their own footing. 



