CUSTOM PRODUCES COURAGE. 275 



from him round the school with a banner, he hardly 

 notices it : get nearer to the man by degrees, and in 

 an hour or two the horse will walk with the banner 

 fluttering before his face without alarm (so with any 

 thing we wish to accustom him to see). The great 

 mistake people make is in thinking that by doing too 

 much at a time they accelerate what they wish, when, 

 in fact, they retard it by such means. 



If, for instance, we wish to teach a horse to stand 

 fire if we let off a gun, we should alarm him to an 

 extent that it would perhaps take a month to re-assure 

 him, if we even did it then. A more judicious man might 

 let off a small pistol with a little powder in it. This 

 is ten times too much. A flash in the pan is too 

 much, except at a great distance. First burn a few 

 grains of gunpowder so as to show no flash while he 

 is eating his corn in the stable : let him smell that : 

 even this will arouse his attention, but, while it accus- 

 toms him to the smell, will not alarm him. Begin by 

 clicking a pistol twenty yards from him; then put 

 powder enough in not to make more ignition than 

 the light of a rushlight : go on by imperceptible 

 degrees, and in two days he will hear a musket go off 

 without the least fear, and thus by never creating alarm 

 he may in a week be brought to stand by a cannon 

 without wincing. Absolutely hurting or absolutely 

 alarming produce nearly similar results in brutes as 

 the human race. A person that has been pursued by 

 an infuriated ox, has the same dread of an ox as 

 another who has been tossed on his horns ; perhaps 

 more, if the latter was not much hurt ; the anticipa- 

 tions of the former being probably much more terrific 

 than the tossing of the latter ; as, in the ordinary cir- 



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