132 THE STUD. 



convince them of what I had failed to do, I would 

 eat him ; and I should have no fear of being 

 called upon to perform such a gastronomic feat. 



If, for instance, a horse had started off from 

 being improperly left standing by himself in 

 harness, no catastrophe had happened to hurt, 

 or materially to have alarmed him, and he had 

 been stopped without accident, I should have no 

 fear of such a horse — any high-spirited one would 

 do the same thing : he might safely be purchased, 

 for it is our fault if we leave him unheld. But 

 if, in his fright, any thing had broken, so as to 

 hurt or alarm him, then would he be quite unsafe 

 in any hands but those of a coachman, not be- 

 cause he started off, but because he got a fright 

 or injury as its consequence. 



Again, should a horse become so excited by a 

 crowd of horsemen galloping by him, we will say 

 at a trotting match, coming from a race, or what 

 not, if he was pulled up or stopped without ac- 

 cident, he need not be feared; we should only have 

 to keep him away from such extraordinary excite- 

 ment in future. His act was not the result of fear, 

 dislike to harness, or vice of any sort ; but the 

 effect of a cause without which he never w^ould 

 have attempted it, and without which there is no 

 reason to suppose he will ever attempt it again. 



In another case a horse may have run away 

 from high mettle, having bad hands over him, or 



