268 " NEVER STRIKE BRICK WALLS." 



animal for doing any thing he should not do, the 

 punishment should be made so fully apparent as the 

 result of the act that he cannot by any possibility 

 mistake its being so. This is by no means always 

 the case where the whip or spur are resorted to : at 

 least the punishment does not always deter him from 

 committing the act again : it is a punishment that 

 follows an act: the true thing is, where we can, to 

 make the act itself punish the committal of it if we 

 wish to insure its not being again committed. I will 

 instance this difference. 



We will suppose a horse has that abominable vice 

 of biting people : he gets well flogged for it : this 

 may deter him in some measure from doing so; but 

 if it does, it only prevents his doing it when we keep 

 an eye on him ; it does not cure his inclination to do 

 it ; nor would any thing but finding he actually hurt 

 himself by the act itself. 



A boy quarrelsomely and savagely disposed will 

 strike boys weaker than himself: he gets soundly 

 flogged for it : he will not do so again where there is 

 any probability of his being found out ; but he has 

 the inclination still in him. If, however, he was fool 

 enough to strike a sharp stone wall, depend on it he 

 would feel no inclination to strike walls again. 



I never knew an instance of a biting horse being 

 cured of the vice, and for this reason, we have never 

 hit upon any expedient (at least I never heard of one) 

 that would make him, like the boy striking the wall, 

 hurt himself: if we could find any mode of making 

 him do so, he would be cured at once. A somewhat 

 curious mode of doing this appeared in the public 

 prints ; namely, the giving such a horse a hot roast 

 leg of mutton to seize. Absurd as this appears, it is 



