FAULTS INSEPARABLE FROM STABLES. 257 



instinct can discover among the cruel invention of centuries by vt^liich 

 its body is surrounded. -The quadruped excites the more anger by 

 seeming to enjoy its wickedness I The groom is infuriated by the con- 

 templation of such depravity 1 Beer and tobacco stimulate his indig- 

 nation. He creeps slyly toward the whip, and commences to lash the 

 culprit. 



Some persons may be inclined to suppose the being who has so recently 

 deserted his post, ought to look indulgently on what he conceives to be 

 the fault of another and of an inferior animal. But the vile always are 

 the pitiless ; for charity is the foundation of all goodness. The lash is 

 plied with energy — the groom, between every blow, lamenting "that he 

 can't step away for a few moments, 'thout the plaguey brute being at its 

 old tricks agin." The thong curls round the quivering and perspiring 

 body. But severity in these cases is useless. The animal has discov- 

 ered a partial solace for its misery; it cannot choose but indulge its 

 pleasurable knowledge at the very next opportunity. 



The stabled horse, however, has not only to stand upon a slanting 

 pavement through the day; it must throughout the night lie upon a 

 similar incline, rendered slippery by a covering of dry and polished 

 straw. Did the reader ever attempt to repose upon a bed slightly out 

 of the horizontal ? The body cannot rest on such a couch. The sensa- 

 tion communicated is, an incessant fear of slipping off. The sleeper is 

 constantly wakened up, with a vivid impression that he is falling, or has 

 fallen, on to the floor. The night is passed in discomfort. But what is 

 the excitability of a human being, when compared with the excessive 

 fear which haunts the most timid of all created lives ? 



Man, when in a bed of the above description, naturally grows rest- 

 less; the bed-clothes are disturbed, and the body laid in an opposite 

 direction. All will not allay anxiety; at last the would-be sleeper is 

 obliged to remain contented with occasionally nudging himself higher 

 on to the pillow. Like man is the horse in many things, even as though 

 the animal studied and mimicked its master. Yet the inflation of pride 

 hails the resemblance as an insult, and regards animals as things created 

 for use, and doomed to be subservient to the caprice of mortal pleasure. 



Precisely as man would behave, did he chance to get upon a slanting 

 bed, the animal conducts itself, only with such difference as the circum- 

 stances enforce. The human being reclines his head upon a pillow. 

 But the horse sinks the head while it slumbers. Man, therefore, nearly 

 touches the board situated at the topmost part of his resting-place. 

 Three feet, or even a larger space, may divide the quadruped from the 

 stable wall which forms the extremity of its couch. The floor on which 

 the creature lies is strewn with straw. That condition, however, rather 



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