THE SIRE. 95 



their offspring with their own characteristics. They 

 are indebted, every one of them, to their old ancestor, 

 Justin ^lorgan, for the possession of that rarest of all 

 faculties in horses, — the power to reproduce their own 

 excellences, — and which, derived from him, has won 

 them fame, and their owners large incomes. We all 

 live in debt to-day to an animal which so many horse- 

 men underrate, if not despise, but which, in our 

 opinion, gave to the country more handsome, docile, 

 serviceable, and fast horses, than any animal America 

 ever had. But, leaving this topic for subsequent dis- 

 cussion, — and we propose to give the reasons for our 

 emphatic assertion before we are done, — we lay it down 

 as the first maxim of intelligent breeding, that a stock- 

 horse is to he judged hij his stock rather than hy himself 

 and that the stallion that gets the best colts is the best one 

 to patronize. 



But what is it that the sire gives to his descendants ? 

 and how far, and in what, as compared to the dam, 

 does he dominate over his offspring? This, perhaps, 

 should be the next point for us to consider. We will 

 proceed to do so ; premising, at the start, that the 

 answer will not, in all points, be full or satisfactory. 

 Indeed, the processes ot Nature are often hidden, and 

 the springs of her influence concealed ; nor can man by 

 searching find them out. Especially is this true in this 

 matter of the causation and reproduction of life. The 

 mists and vapors which geologists tell us swathed the 

 infant world in the creation period swathe all infant life 



