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barbarity to look like a horse ; and an old horse cannot 

 be forced to exhibit the mouth of a colt. That at- 

 tempts are made to disguise the teeth, and that such 

 attempts occasionally impose upon the buyer, is not 

 denied ; but all of such practices are shallow in the 

 extreme, and so easily detected, that the person de- 

 ceived by them is not an object of pity. If people 

 will presume to judge before they have learnt to re- 

 cognize, their temerity is more to be blamed than its 

 consequence is to be commiserated. No one goes to 

 buy a horse unwarned of the dangers that will sur- 

 round him ; and if in his conceit he rather prefers to 

 hazard these than to seek protection, what right has 

 he to murmur at a result which it needed no conjurer 

 to foretel ? Is there any market in the world where 

 ignorance is secure from imposition ? The world is 

 not yet so honest that the affairs of the horse mart are 

 a subject worthy of its special wonder ; and it may 

 be doubted if the principles which regulate the con- 

 duct of the horse dealer, are not those which influ- 

 ence the transactions of the most honourable traders. 

 There are men of the highest character living by the 

 sale of horses ; and it is creditable to humanity, that 

 after all of a certain class have been unscrupulously 



