MEANING OF THE TERM " BLOOD. '''' 15 



limited by their physical powers, the effect of a 

 proper arrangement of their parts ; and that the 

 operation of the mind, or spirit, has nothing at all 

 to do with it. The hero at the Olympic Games had, 

 and the champion of the British boxing ring may 

 have had, feelings which, from the superiority of 

 their nature, and the fact of their character, inte- 

 rest, and future happiness, being all involved in the 

 event, might have induced them to struggle even 

 to the very verge of life ; but the same sense of 

 honour, and the same spirit of emulation, cannot 

 be ascribed to the race-horse. If his own act- 

 ing powers be unequal to those of others opposed 

 to him in the race, he yields to that superiority, 

 although it must be admitted, that what are called 

 sluggish horses will not try to exert themselves to 

 the utmost, unless urged to it by the spur and 

 whip ; and others, when spurred and whipped, 

 slacken, instead of increasing, their speed. The 

 final result of this discussion then is, that when, as 

 has been previously suggested, we speak of such 

 horses as King Herod, Highflyer, or Eclipse, having 

 transmitted their blood to the past and present 

 generations of running horses, we can only admit 

 that they have transmitted that true formation of 

 parts necessary to enable them to run races at a 

 prodigious rate of speed, and to endure the severity 

 of training for them. 



Although we have spoken in disparagement of 

 horses of the East as racers, upon the same terms 

 with, those of our own breeding, we are willing to 

 allow them the merit of being the parent stock of 



