34 THE AllT OF TAMING HORSES. 



was conscious of the amount of his strengtli, his owner 

 would have no business with him in that vehicle : such 

 light reins and harness, too— if he knew, he could snap 

 them asunder in a minute, and be as free as the air we 

 breathe;" and, " That horse yonder, that is pawing and 

 fretting to follow the company that is fast leaving him — 

 if he knew his strength, he would not remain long 

 fastened to that hitching post so much against his will, 

 by a strap that would no more resist his powerful weight 

 and strength than a cotton thread would bind a strong 

 man." Yet these facts, made common by every- day 

 occurrence, are not thought of as anything wonderful. 

 Like the ignorant man who looks at the different phases 

 of the moon, you look at these things as he looks at her 

 different changes, without troubling your mind with the 

 question, " Why are these things so? " What would be 

 the condition of the world if all our minds lay dormant ? 

 If men did not think, reason, and act, our undisturbed, 

 slumbering intellects would not excel the imbecility of 

 the brute ; w^e should live in chaos, hardly aware of our 

 existence. And yet, with all our activity of mind, we 

 daily pass by unobserved that which would be VN'onderful 

 if philosophized and reasoned upon ; and with the same 

 inconsistency w^onder at that which a little consideration, 

 reason, and philosophy, would make but a simple affair. 



Third — He will allow any object, however frightful in 

 appearance, to come around, over, or on him, that does 

 not inflict pain. 



We know, from a natural course of reasoning, that 

 there has never been an effect without a cause ; and wo 

 infer from this that there can be no action, either in ani- 

 mate or inanimate matter, without there first being some 

 cause to produce it. And from this self-evident fact we 

 know that there is some cause for every impulse or 



