A ROUGH KINDNESS MAY ALARM. 219 



should ; it is new to him : he will equally avoid a hand 

 being placed there the first time it is done, because 

 that is new to him also. This shows, what we must 

 of course know, he does not resist the saddle because 

 it is a saddle, but because he never had such a 

 thing on before. He will equally resist every thing that 

 has to be done to him for the first time. The great 

 thing to do therefore (and which is seldom, perhaps 

 never done) is, so to accustom him by gentle degrees 

 to all we shall in future want of him BEFORE we do 

 want it, that, when we do, it shall be as A B C to him, 

 and there will be no after-fight for the mastery. All 

 this should be taught him by the nurse, of whom he 

 has or ought to have no fear : the schoolmaster may 

 finish his education ; but, if properly brought up, he 

 will have no occasion to use severity ; so even his 

 lessons will rouse no angry feelings ; and where they 

 have never been brought forth, there will be no vice. 



The great thing with a colt is never to do any thing 

 that really alarms him. Now I have said he will be 

 alarmed by every thing that is done for the first time : 

 so he will to a certain degree. The hand put on him 

 does so, or rather he avoids it ; but the alarm is so 

 trifling, that, distract his attention by a carrot in one 

 Land, he forgets or does not notice the other is resting 

 on him, but quietly discusses his morsel, and then 

 looks for more. Now, if on the contrary (though it 

 might be done in kindness), he had received a good 

 hearty pat on his back, it would perhaps take a week 

 before he would suffer any one to handle him again. 

 He had been alarmed ; at least nineteen out of twenty 

 colts would be by such a thing. Can we then wonder, 

 if, when they are intrusted to men of coarse habits or 

 bad tempers, or, what of the two is worse to boys, 

 that we so often find them wild and unmanageable. 



