FOX AND HARE REPItOBATED. 105 



mals. That a well-bred fox-hound may give a 

 preference to vermin, cceteris paribus, I will not 

 dispute : I think it very possible he may ; but 

 this I am certain of — that every fox-hound will 

 leave a bad scent of fox for a good one of either 

 hare or deer, unless he has been made steady 

 from them ; and in this I shall not fear to be 

 contradicted. But as I do not wish to enter 

 into abstruse reasoning with you, or think it 

 anywise material to our present purpose whether 

 the dogs we call fox-hounds were originally de- 

 signed by nature to hunt fox or not, we will 

 drop the subject. I must at the same time beg 

 leave to observe, that dogs are not the only 

 animals in which an extraordinary diversity of 

 species has happened since the days of Adam. 

 Yet a great naturalist tells us, that man is 

 nearer, by eight degrees, to Adam, than is the 

 dog to the first dog of his race ; since the age of 

 man is four-score years, and that of a dog but 

 ten. It therefore follows, that if both should 

 equally degenerate, the alteration would be eight 

 times more remarkable in the dog than man. 



The two most necessary questions which re- 

 sult from the foregoing premises, are — whether 

 hounds entered at hare are perfectly steady af- 

 terwards to fox ; and whether steadiness is not 

 f3 



