ADVICE TO SOME OF MY SENIOKS. 393 



flowers, and of the fossil world, whicli latter as yet 

 proves that but little of the true histor}^ of the earliest 

 state of the universe, has been handed down to man. 



In advising not only the rising generation of 

 sportsmen I would also counsel many of my seniors, 

 to leave off the exciting pursuit of animals on foot or 

 on horseback, when they feel their nerves as well as 

 their tempers failing them. Really, some men of my 

 acquaintance make the pursuit of pleasure, for they 

 do not get it, a trouble to themselves and a terror to 

 their dependents, as well as an uncomfortable scene 

 to their friends who happen to be with them. They 

 ride or shoot in an irritable phrenzy, under which it 

 is impossible for them to be happy, while their horses 

 and dogs, as well as their servants are spurred, 

 whipped, and sworn at, when a particle of the day's 

 pastime seems to go wrong, for it need not go wrong ; 

 the semblance of error is enough to establish in a 

 nervous and irritable temperament such as I describe, 

 a temporary insanity. Horses' eyes have been knocked 

 out in these humours, dogs have been shot, while 

 curses and kicks were bestowed on their friends and 

 serving men. If old gentlemen were wise when they 

 arrived at this impossible pitch for active pleasure, 

 and had anything to fall back upon, which some of 

 them perhaps have not, they would at once seek a 

 quieter pursuit, or at least one wherein nothing alive 

 could suffer by tlie demon phase to which a long 

 and a spoiled life had brought them. Unless some of 

 these persons in the situation to which I am alluding, 

 do change, age will at last take them out of their 

 saddles, and seat them in an arm chair, whence the 

 link of their wilful lives will be for a time continued, 

 by their casting such missiles as may be at hand at 



