144 TEETH. 



appears, as it were, resting to draw breath for a mightier effort than she 

 has hitherto undertaken. Months have, heretofore, separated the advent 

 of single pairs ; but, from this date, these appearances are to be reckoned 

 by numbers and by years. The foal, to the point of its present necessi- 

 ties, has been provided for. It has teeth sufficient to support and to 

 maintain its growth. 



Nature has now to render perfect the body, before the teeth. Accord- 

 ingly, between the first and the second year the alteration in the general 

 aspect is very marked. All the helplessness and pretty ungainliness of 

 infancy disappears by the expiration of the time mentioned. The ani- 

 mal's frame then suggests something of those beautiful proportions which 

 it is soon to display. Its body, however, still needs maturing ; and no 

 one, less wanting in common sense than a racing man, would think of 

 subjecting the youthful and tender form to the hardest of all actual work. 



The very aspect of the creature should denote it to be unsuited for such 

 performances. It must, to foreigners, read as strange intelligence, that 

 the nobility, who patronize the EngUsh course, applaud the contests 

 between two-year olds ; while the bumpkins, who breed horses for the 

 general market, allow the quadruped to enter the third year before the 

 colt is given over to the breaker. Alas, for the hardihood or want of 

 sensibility displayed by the most exalted, when prompted by the greed 

 of gambling 1 



Nothing in the above sketch is more striking than the contrast pre- 



