ON THE HORSE IN GENERAL. 83 



indeed, to allow them fouls ; but with the abfurd 

 and cruel condition, that thefe fouls were 

 placed in brute bodies, by way of abafement 

 and punifhment, for crimes committed in a 

 pre-exiftent ftate. Again, many both of the 

 ancients and moderns, have readily acknow- 

 ledged the rationality of beads, but have found 

 themfelves under great anxiety how to difpofe 

 of their fouls after death; whether they were 

 to be admitted indifcriminately into thofe 

 ethereal regions, already fo accurately and 

 geographically chalked out, or whether it were 

 neceffary, by an additional ftretch of the human 

 imagination, to provide them with quarters 

 more fuitable to the apparent inferiority of 

 their condition. For my own part, I do not 

 hold good with thefe fanciful fpeculations in 

 terra incognita futur a ; which, I conceive, have 

 ever had the word pomble effect upon the 

 morals and happinefs of mankind. Provided 

 we take ajuft and generous care of the bodies 

 of our Horfes in the prefent world, our duty, I 

 apprehend, is performed; we may very fafely 

 confide their fouls in the next, to the good 

 keeping of all-fumcient nature. If by the 

 term inftincl, we mean to convey any other 

 idea than that of an inferior degree of reafon, 

 we have only contrived a veil to obfcure the 

 face of truth. 



The God of Nature has placed the whole 



g 2 animal 



