lOb A CLOSE THING. 



(we will say) takes only sixteen feet six inches each 

 stride ; he consequently loses two hundred and ninety- 

 three times six inches in going the mile, or about one 

 hundred and forty-six-feet (for we need not go into 

 fractional parts). This is equal to something more 

 than nine strides only : so in fact, if he strikes nine 

 times oftener than the other in two hundred and 

 ninety-three strides, he loses nothing by his shortened 

 stride : if he strikes oftener than nine times more than 

 the other in the same distance, he gains by the quicker 

 repetition of his strokes more than he loses by the 

 diminished length of his stride. The reason why one 

 horse loses a race and the other wins it is, we must 

 allow, generally speaking, because the losing horse 

 does not go over the entire ground in the same time 

 as the winner, and this would of course be the case 

 supposing that each started precisely at the same 

 spot and at the same moment. Then, though the race 

 might be won by a head only, consequently the 

 difference of time might not be the sixtieth part of a 

 second, still the fact would be that the nose that 

 caught the judge's eye first would have gone over 

 the ground in less time than the other. This is, how- 

 ever, a case that perhaps never occurred, or ever will ; 

 for in point of fact, if two horses started at the same 

 spot, and one got the start by half a second, and won 

 by the sixtieth part of one, the loser would have 

 actually gone over the ground in less time than the 

 winner ; or supposing the loser had started half a 

 length only behind the winner, and been beat by a 

 head, he would have gone over a greater length of 

 ground in less time than the winner ; and such cases 

 often occur with losers. 



But, without defining things so closely as this, we 



