PUTTING THE SADDLE ON THE RIGHT HORSE. 5 



kick the first time he is put in harness ; he does, 

 and lames or scarifies hinsself. Case the third. 



" What an unlucky brute that is," exclaims the 

 owner ; " he is always getting into some mis- 

 chief." Now luck, good or bad, had nothing to do 

 in either case: mismanagement and want of proper 

 precaution brought on each catastrophe." 



^* Hov7 very unfortunate you are with all your 

 horses, James," cries the cara sposa ; '' they cost 

 you as much in surgeon's bills as in their keep ! " 

 The owner and the lady are both right in what 

 they say, though their correctness is so in a different 

 way from what they mean. The horse is an unlucky 

 brute to belong to one who knows little of the 

 management of horses; the gentleman is unfortu- 

 nate, in trusting to that management. Perhaps 

 some of my readers may recognise such a case. 

 The ill-luck is their not knowing how to ma- 

 nage better. This they will never know, so long 

 as they hold so erroneous an idea as to the nature 

 of their ill-luck; for while any man can flatter 

 himself that he is managing anything as well as 

 it can be managed, he would conceive it not only 

 to be an act of supererogation, but of absolute 

 folly, to attempt to manage it better. And there 

 is nothing hypothetical in the idea, that if a thing 

 is done as well as it can be done, it cannot be 

 done better ; this conviction is very rife amongst 



B 3 



