138 HORSES AND ROADS. 



raising up in lieu thereof a hideous false deity to 

 whom we bow down, whose behests we blindly obey, 

 and to whose high priest, the knacker, we daily give 

 over as sacrifice animals that are just arrived at, 

 what ought to be, the prime of their lives. 



' Impecuniosus ' remarks: — 'It is, after all, no 

 affair of mine what becomes of my neighbour's 

 horses, but in no way is our ingratitude and hard- 

 heartedness so apparent as in our treatment of dumb 

 animals, and horses especially. A dog cries out if 

 you hit him, and probably sulks ; a horse suffers in 

 silence, and exerts himself the more.' ' We ought 

 to be ready to hail any inventions or ideas which 

 promise to amend the treatment of that essential 

 part of the horse's frame.' ' No foot no horse ' has 

 been long a stable proverb ; but how little the com- 

 fort of the foot has hitherto been consulted ! The 

 ideas on the subject have sprung from wrong roots, 

 so to say, altogether ; or rather let us say they have 

 been built on fanciful and insecure foundations,^ 

 ' Owners of horses too often act as if their inten- 

 tion was to wear out their property as soon as 

 possible. "We should think but little of the com- 

 mon sense of the man who, having bought an 

 expensive watch, knocked it about in every conceiv- 

 able unfair way ; but we think nothing of such a 

 course of action pursued towards a horse — and why ? 

 Because every one does it, I suppose ; at least, I can 

 think of no better reason.' ' Any one, by stating 

 his experience, at the expense of but little trouble 

 and the wear and tear of pen and ink, hardly enough 



