THE SIRE. 113 



inferior specimens of the best families. These people 

 cannot be persuaded that a name does not make a 

 horse. But they will find this out to their cost after a 

 few years of silly experimenting in a direction in which 

 experimenting has already been conducted to a demon- 

 stration. I would here reiterate the truism, that a pedi- 

 gree does not make a horse ; and that a string of noble 

 names is of no account in breeding, unless a noble 

 animal stands at the end of it. Look at the horse 

 before you pay any attention to his pedigree. A wise 

 man may have a fool for a son ; and a great horse 

 improperly crossed will often get a foal in no sense 

 worthy of him. Those who expect, that, because a 

 stallion happens to be half-brother to Dexter, he will 

 necessarily get colts that will grow up to rival Dexter, 

 represent in their mental structure a most unhappy 

 cross themselves. The rule is, that the foal will re- 

 semble the immediate parents ; the exception is, that 

 he will resemble the remote ancestor : and those who 

 breed to a poor specimen of a family, expecting that the 

 colts will be like the founder of the family, and not like 

 the immediate sire, are breeding in the face and eyes 

 of this prime maxim. Select a stock-horse who is great 

 in himself and his ancestry, and not noble only in his 

 parentage, and you will be following the rule which the 

 law of nature and the evidence of all observation 

 indorse as correct and imperative. The moment that 

 this law is apprehended and obeyed by the people, a 

 great many stallions — great only in the greatness of 



