" INCIDIT IN SCYLLAM QUI VULT/' ETC. 33 



well with his new one. But we will suppose the 

 new one does intend in every particular to treat 

 and use him as he has been used and treated be- 

 fore ; surely a person might say, " In such a case 

 I may venture to buy without better advice than 

 my own." Certainly you may, and possibly — I 

 will say probably — the horse will suit you; and 

 if so, you would do little harm in buying ; but, 

 should you want to sell, very probably you would, 

 even under these favourable auspices, lose half 

 your money ; for this reason — though the horse 

 may have done his work honestly enough, he may 

 be but a brute after all. His former purchaser 

 may have bought him of a dealer who behaved as 

 well as could be asked of him, — namely, selling a 

 sound, quiet animal ; but, depend on it, he got from 

 the kind of customer to whom he sold, sixty for 

 what was only worth thirty. The owner tells you, 

 as a friend, true enough, "I am no horse-jockey " 

 (upon which I dare say he much piques himself) ; 

 '• I do not want to make money by my horse ; and 

 though I ran the risk of how he would turn out, and 

 have proved him a good horse " (mem. qucere), " I 

 only want what I gave for him." Nothing can be 

 fairer than all this. Still, though your friend is 

 " no horse-jockey," you w^ill find, if you want to 

 sell, as he would if he had wanted to sell (unless 

 he had found you, or some other knowing as little), 

 that you are done clean out of thirty ; the only dif- 

 D 



