109 



is the regular advance on practicable ground, 

 and stiffening into point at that distance which, 

 under the direction of experience, his sagacity 

 will instruct him to take a due measure of; and 

 to which, with most intelligible meaning, he will 

 hereafter direct you to look, with cool unflut- 

 tered confidence, for the spring of the game 

 before him ; and with your attention undis- 

 tracted by the gaping indecision of a dog who 

 has yet to learn, from better experience, and 

 the due superintendence of his teacher, the 

 true scale of distance. 



With a view to extreme perfection, indeed, a 

 dog should perhaps never be taken upon this 

 rough kind of beat, until he has got so far for- 

 ward in his mathematics as to have a tolerable 

 notion of this scale: for it is obvious that he 

 never will acquire this excellence here; and the 

 boldness with which he here presses to the 

 enjoyment of a close approach, will lead him 

 elsewhere to the marring of many a fine point, 

 that would have been, if it had been managed 

 with delicacy. At least, he should never be 

 taken upon it until he has been so far practised 

 in the business of quartering as to have acquired 

 a perfect cross, under command, in advance 

 upon the wind ; with a clear conception of its 

 meaning, evinced by the bearing of his nose for 



