THE WAY OF THE WORLD. 243 



week. Suppose the purchaser of one of the two or 

 three that have gone well for the twelve months, and 

 are still going on well, should he wish to sell his pur- 

 chase, and the same salesman again undertakes the 

 sale of it, we might naturally suppose that every 

 person would take this proved good watch in prefer- 

 ence to one of the new ones of whose goodness he 

 must run all the risk. No doubt every man of sense 

 would do so : but depend upon it nine persons out of 

 ten would prefer a new one, unless the other was to 

 be sold at a greatly depreciated price : and even then 

 most persons would still take the new one, and con- 

 sole themselves with the idea and common opinion, 

 " If I get a new thing I know the wear of it." Do 

 they ? If they do, they know more than any other 

 person does : at least, it is so as far as regards horses. 

 Now could any reasonable man expect the salesman 

 to take this watch upon his own hands ? or if he did, 

 must he not do so at a very low price indeed in com- 

 parison with its original one ? The horse-dealer in 

 taking back a horse is placed in the same predica- 

 ment indeed in a worse, inasmuch as a watch is 

 worn unseen by the public, and consequently has not 

 been rendered common in its eyes ; but the horse has. 

 If we are offered a second-hand watch, it is a thousand 

 to one that we ever know its former possessor, or that 

 any one will tell us that the watch belonged to Lord 



B ; but let his horse be offered for sale, and 



though My Lord had only driven him twelve months, 

 the salesman of him, be he who he may, will be told, 

 " Why that's Lord B.'s old cab-horse." Anything that 

 has become blaze in London has also become value- 

 less, or at least to a great degree it has become so. 

 A young friend of mine, while on the Peninsula, 



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