SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 293' 



and mental sides of his nature are most prom- 

 inent, and are most developed by education 

 and training. Social intercourse almost inevi- 

 tably develops all the latent elements, and espe- 

 cially does the struggle for existence and the 

 constant attrition of tempers among men tend 

 to bring out all the irascibility natural to them. 

 But among most animals the contrary is true. 

 There are of course notable exceptions, of which 

 the horse in his constant relations with man is 

 most prominent; but most animals live a life 

 under domestication the tendency of which is 

 to make their existence a mere routine of eat- 

 ing and sleeping, and of this no class of animals 

 are better examples than Our cattle. And 

 among cattle the beef breeds, with the tendency 

 to great bulk and great flesh, the influence of 

 which even among men is sedative, are par- 

 ticularly prominent for the placidity of their 

 character. Excitable and violent tempers are 

 utterly foreign to such natural constitutions, 

 though it is perhaps true that all animals, in- 

 cluding these, are capable of being aroused 

 even to violent paroxysms of temper. 



Temper and all mental states, however, are 

 not simply inherent and inherited, but they are 

 largely affected by habit ; in other words, the 

 natural quality is greatly increased by being 

 called into frequent activity, and on the other 

 hand largely weakened by never being exer- 



