' IT IS NOT THE ROAD THAT HURTS THE HORSE.' 203 



state of brittleness of the hoof: intelligence alone 

 can decide the degrees. Ni tanto, ni tan poco. The 

 advice offered by a ' Cavalry Officer ' is about as good 

 as any, and the excellent remark of ' Impecuniosus,' 

 that ' it is the shoe, and not the o^oad that hurts, the 

 horse,' contains the gist of the whole thing in fewer 

 words than any other writer has been able to put it. 

 Unfortunately, he did not arrive at the point of 

 doing away with iron altogether; but he went on 

 cutting it down in every dimension, until he found 

 that the less of it there was the better he got on ; 

 and then he imparted the result of his experience 

 to a public that had not sufficient capacity to take 

 it in. 



The more simple the means offered, the less 

 reliance a horsey public is inclined to place in them. 

 There is always existing a latent hope that some 

 extra-scientific invention may spring up, which will 

 conquer all difficulties. There is no use in waiting 

 for it. Nature cannot, and will not, be superseded 

 by the puny intellect of man, when it is a question 

 of treating a living structure, which is so admirably 

 constructed as to make the very idea of improving 

 its construction ludicrous. Everyone may give up 

 all hopes on this score ; and the best thing to be 

 done is to travel on the ' back-track,' and meet 

 Mother Nature at the point where they failed to 

 detect her finger-post. The travel on the back- 

 track necessitates only the inversion of weeks to 

 unfold the errors of centuries; and thrift is always 

 on the right side. What more can be asked for ? 



