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 cutting, and burning, of making a boy of fifteen look 

 like a man of twenty. Nature obeys her own laws, 

 and is not yet subjected to human practices. Care- 

 ful rearing, nutritious food, sufficient exercise, and 

 no work does promote development, and of the 

 growth thereby engendered, the purchaser has no 

 reason to be in fear ; for if one part shows maturity, 

 he may be assured, that the other parts are also 

 equally matured. The time the animal has lived 

 is not of half the consequence, that the use which 

 has been made of its life is, to the future possessor. 

 The horse that has a mouth indicating five, and that 

 can be proved to be five, if it has been worked from 

 its earliest year and stinted in its food, has less 

 energy and life than a younger creature forwarded 

 by the fostering care of the breeder. The two animals 

 are not to be compared. Supposing the one to be 

 no more than four, it possesses the vigour and de- 

 velopment of five ; while the other, which is five, 

 may have the decrepitude and constitutional infirmity 

 of twenty. Let not the buyer fear the deceit of the 

 breeder, but without dread accept the mouth as 

 -proof of the age ; if the animal is not in years, he is 

 in development, that which the teeth declare. To 



K 



