BRIEF HISTOEY OF THE HORSE. 19 



will last three times the life of the ^American horse. The 

 wild rover of the plains lives to twice his age. The Arabian 

 often lives to thirty and even fifty years, with his vigor but 

 little impaired. The Indian pony has been known to live 

 fifty and sixty years. The American or English horse will 

 not average fifteen. 



The history of in-and-in breeding, and the crossing of dif- 

 ferent races, is the history of disease and deterioration. The 

 evils arising from these practices are untold and unimaginable. 

 It was never designed to be so. While there is no law of in- 

 cest in the brute creation, it is unquestionable that great evils 

 result both from mingling the blood of members of the same 

 family, and, also, that of the separate and distinct races, the 

 same as in the human family. The pure races have ever been 

 superior to the mixed. There is an awful curse resting upon* 

 the amalgamation of the races in the human family, and it ap- 

 plies to man in his mismanagement of the brute creation. It is 

 assigned in the Bible, by Ezra, the prophet, as the' cause of the 

 banishment and captivity of the Jews, " and as a great tres- 

 pass in the sight of the Lord," and one that must be put 

 away to bring again the favor of the Lord. And he says, 

 "When I heard this thing, (the mixing of the holy race 

 with other races,) I rent my garments and my mantle, and 

 plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat 

 down astonished." And so will every intelligent physiologist 

 sit down astonished at the folly and ignorance, and, more so, 

 of the gr^at wickedness of those who would 'thus subvert 

 ITature's laws and destroy the great ground-plan of creation 

 and Providence by an intermingling of the different races in 

 either man or beast. God, in his wisdom and goodness, after 

 an experiment and a failure of one race upon the earth, sent 

 them out again, different races of all animate creation, to 

 fill the earth, and yet to be kept entirely separate from each 

 other, and giving to each a law of instinct or reason to govern 

 them in their habits and propensities ; and when these laws 

 are obeyed, blessing and prosperity attends ; but when dis- 

 regarded, the consequence is a blighting curse. Our object 



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