DETERIORATION OF THE MODERN BREED. 59 



intended to benefit the community, by being the 

 means of producing, as well as displaying, the con- 

 stitutional strength of the horse in its very highest 

 perfection. Another cause may have operated in 

 rendering thorougli-bred horses less powerful than 

 they were, or less capable of enduring severe fatigue. 

 During the period of high weights and long courses, 

 horses and mares were kept on in training until 

 after they had arrived at the age of maturity, 

 neither did they begin to work so soon ; whereas 

 now, no sooner have they won, or run well for some 

 af our great three-year-old stakes, than they are 

 put into the stud to produce racing stock, which is 

 perhaps to be used much in the same manner as 

 they themselves have been used, or, we should have 

 rather said, abused. 



But, admittinsr this alles^ed fallins: off in the 

 powers and performances of the British thorough- 

 bred horse, it may be the result of causes uncon- 

 nected with those already noticed. Although there 

 may be no era of greater intellectual brightness 

 than another in the history of any animal but man, 

 yet, as is signified by Plato in the eighth book of 

 his Republic, there have always been periods of fer- 

 tility and sterility of men, animals, and plants ; 

 and that, in fertile periods, mankind, as well as 

 animals, will not only be both more numerous, but 

 superior in bodily endowments, to those of a barren 

 period. This theory is supported by the relations 

 of ancient historians, in the accounts they give of 

 animals which nowhere exist at present, and in 



