CAUSES AND ACTS. 257 



if they thought it was a bee or a wasp. Now the 

 sensible thing to do would be to remain quiet, when, 

 after the insect had taken his promenade over our 

 countenance, he would take himself off. It would be 

 more sensible in the horse not to hurt his heels or hocks 

 against a carriage ; but as in both cases neither the 

 man nor horse do act sensibly, the result is, the man 

 gets stung and the horse hurt, which in the latter case 

 probably leads to the passenger being hurt also. The 

 horse, finding he is hurt by something, tries most 

 energetically to knock it away, and, finding that he 

 cannot do this, he then tries to run away from it. 

 All this is set down as vice, when it is only fear. 

 Having been thus hurt by a carriage behind him, the 

 animal, as a matter of course, will kick at or run 

 away from the same object of his hurt and alarm the 

 next and probably every time he finds it behind him. 

 He is then a confirmed kicker, but not a vicious horse : 

 call him a frightened one, and we should be much 

 nearer the truth. Nothinof can more show that it is 

 not inherent vice than the fact that many horses will 

 kick in single harness, and go quiet as lambs in 

 double, and sometimes vice verstl. This clearly proves 

 that the animal kicks from having been hurt or 

 alarmed by being placed in one of these situations; 

 for, if it proceeded from vice, he would equally show 

 it in both. 



People are frequently led into great difiiculty and 

 danger from a circumstance that naturally may induce 

 them to feel confident that they will neither meet 

 with the one nor the other, which is, a horse (as it is 

 termed) taking "kindly to harness." There is no 

 circumstance more likely to lead to danger, and for 

 this reason : if a horse, on being first put in, shows 



VOL. II. s 



