FEAR IN HORSES AS DANGEROUS AS VICE. 209 



the carriage : neither of us was hurt. She was put 

 next day in harness, and went as usual ; but the first 

 carriage that came behind us set her going, and had I 

 not been in the phaeton, a regular runaway would 

 have been the consequence. I pulled her up : she was 

 trembling with terror, and did the same thing several 

 times before we got home. She showed no vice, no 

 attempt to kick : but her terror could not be got over, 

 and I was most unwillingly compelled to sell her. 

 Here was an inestimable little animal in its way spoiled 

 by being once thoroughly frightened. Vice may in 

 many cases be cured, or, at all events, many (though 

 not all) horses may be awed from showing it, because 

 the act is voluntary : but the effects of fear cannot be 

 controlled : they are as involuntary as the start 

 nervous persons give on any sudden alarm : I never 

 knew a horse overcome a thorough fright. 



If, therefore, ill usage or fright, and both, will thus 

 affect matured horses, if either is practised towards 

 young ones, we are in fact teaching them propensities 

 contrary to their nature, which it will probably cause 

 us a world of trouble to eradicate, and which we shall 

 as probably only effect partially after all, for the 

 animal is only prevented practising these propensities 

 through fear ; the germ of them is still in the disposi- 

 tion. This germ, if even natural, should have been 

 gradually extirpated instead of being strengthened, 

 for while the root flourishes, the branches will shoot, 

 somewhere, somehow, or at some time. The reflecting 

 and scientific gardener is aware of this, and acts ac- 

 cordingly; the blundering labourer only lops the 

 branches, and possibly in doing this causes them to 

 burst forth at some season with tenfold vigour. 



VOL. II. P 



