19 i PKOIJANDUM EST. 



deceived, and in wliicli lie so often deceives himself, 

 as in the horse. Dealers are often, much oftener than 

 is supposed, deceived themselves. Respectable dealers 

 do take every precaution in their power not to get an 

 unsound horse into their stables. They cannot, how- 

 ever, with all their precaution, at all times pre- 

 vent this. But they will not in such a case risk 

 their character by selling such a horse to their cus- 

 tomers. A horse may be purchased in the country 

 from the breeder apparently sound : he may have hi- 

 therto been so ; and yet before he may have been at 

 work one week he may be the very reverse. Some 

 hidden internal cause that the most practised eye 

 could not detect may have long existed, the effects of 

 which only become apparent on the animal being put 

 to work. Here no blame can possibly attach to the 

 dealer: he has bought him with every warranty of 

 soundness : has travelled him perhaps a hundred 

 miles home : has had him several days in his stable, 

 and found him all he expected : he has every right to 

 think him a sound horse ; as such he sells him : still 

 such a horse may deceive both the dealer and pur- 

 chaser when put to the test of work and change of 

 treatment. Vicious as well as unsound propensities 

 in the horse frequently lay dormant for a very consi- 

 derable time : they also may be only called forth on 

 change of treatment. A really vicious horse in the 

 stable is easily detected and to be avoided ; but 

 there are tempers and dispositions in horses, as 

 well as in men, of which we never get the slightest 

 intimation till some hitherto untried provocation 

 calls them forth. This probably never has oc- 

 curred in the stable of the dealer. If a horse is 

 intended for harness, which is a description of work 

 that more than any other calls forth his vicious 



