sufficient to expose the shallowness of their advisers, and 

 enable them to throw off their thraldom ; assert their legitimate 

 influence : and promote the comfort, usefulness, and durability 

 of their horses. 



Previous to the adoption of an opinion it is always wise 

 to ascertain, how far the habits and occupation of the person, 

 offering it, may have qualified him for arriving at just 

 conclusions upon the subject ; and when we apply this test 

 to the opinion of the smith, such as he is usually found 

 in country villages, we shall perceive, that his qualification 

 to advise upon the horse's foot is remarkably small. With 

 an education scarcely embracing the first rudiments of in- 

 struction, he is apprenticed at a very early age ; his work 

 from the commencement of his career is laborious and 

 fatiguing ; and the amount and duration of it are carefully 

 apportioned to his increasmg strength ; so that the end of 

 each succeeding day is made to repeat the same tale of 

 fatigue of body, and disinchnation to exert the mind ; still 

 he finds in the course of time, that he has gained some 

 considerable knowledge of his art ; he can point a nail, 

 forge a shoe, and fasten it to the foot tmthout wounding 

 the quick ; but what this quick is, against the wounding of 

 which he has received such special and repeated cautions, 

 no one in the forge has been able exactly to inform him ; 

 yet he has learnt enough to know, that it is somethuig to 

 be avoided in driving a nail, and his having acquired the 

 knack of doing so, most probably stands him in stead of 

 anatomical knowledge for the remainder of his life ; and, as 

 far as the practice of his art is concerned, m the way in 



