l^^ BREEDING AND REARING 



ther does it appear, a prio7^i, easy to substantiate any phy- 

 sical or physiological reason why breeding- among lineal 

 kindred should of necessity prove deteriorating to the future 

 progen}^ The same organization, the same constitutional 

 sympathies, the same aptitudes, when not defective, would 

 tend, under union, to produce a perfect similitude. But facts 

 are infinitely more to our purpose than the most specious ar- 

 guments. 



We are assured, that the Arab horses of high blood are 

 bred in and in ; and we know that no people in existence 

 pay more attention to the improvement of their horses than 

 they do ; and as these horses have m.aintained their high 

 character for ages, it forms a strong presumption in favour of 

 this system. Mr. Bakewell, whose name will ever rank 

 high as a breeder of cattle, reared his valuable stock wholly 

 from consanguinity: in fact, his important improvements were 

 all founded on this intercourse among lineal kindred, or their 

 affinities. Mr. Meynell, who was no less celebrated as a 

 sportsman than as a close observer of many subjects connected 

 v^^ith the rural economy of the animals around him, bred all 

 his fox-hounds in this manner ; and those adventurous gentle- 

 men who have followed them, can bear testimony to their 

 excellence. It might not, perhaps, be an erroneous con- 

 clusion to draw, that the prejudices against breeding from 

 near relationship in animals, are less the effect of reason or 

 experiment than of a received prejudice of very long stand- 

 ing, founded originally on philosophical arguments, connect- 

 ed, not with brutes, but with the political and moral economy 

 of the human subject. 



lating effects of an early departure from chastity, which unreserved fa- 

 mily communication led to, was prevented. It is, however, clear, from 

 history and from philosophical investigation, that such aversion is nei- 

 ther instinctive nor necessary, but an acquired regulation of passion, 

 implanted by education, and made general by refinement. 



Sir W. C— N observes that, according to Varro, this aversion has 

 really occurred even in animals,— Equus matrem ut saliret adduci non 

 posset, De Re Rustira, lib. iii, c. 5 ; but the ingenious Baronet candidly 

 acknowledges that .subsequent experience has not justififd the assertion. 



