SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 261 



to the late Prince Albert when he says that he 

 "spoke no slander; no, nor listened to it," as 

 almost as high praise as can be given to man, 

 yet one must never, as a business man, forget 

 the fundamental law of self-preservation. If 

 we do not look out for ourselves no one will 

 look out for us. We may -be pretty sure of that. 

 And it is a poor kind of charity which buys 

 the damaged goods of another at the price of 

 sound ones because we do not want to hurt his 

 feelings by letting him know that we have dis- 

 covered the flaws which he doubtless knew all 

 about. There is a golden mean in all things, a 

 safe and honest middle ground, in which honest 

 and upright principles do not yield to, but only 

 apply, sound business sense. (We must inform 

 ourselves thoroughly as to the character of the 

 stock we are about to purchase, and finding 

 flaws, unjustly attributed defects, or any other 

 things that would make our purchases unpro- 

 ductive of profit, we must strictly keep away 

 from them. We need not go away and tell 

 everybody about them, nor even whisper them 

 to the quiet night air ; lest like the man who 

 had in an unhappy moment learned that King 

 Midas had the ears of an ass under an injunction 

 of the deepest secrecy, could not contain it, 

 and thinking to lift the burden from his heart 

 without divulging it to the world whispered it 

 to the reeds by the river bank, only to hear the 



