BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 17 



in such opinion I am borne out by far better autho- 

 rity than my own remarks through life — 



" Man spurns the worm, but pauses ere he wake 

 The slumbering venom of the folded snake." 



It may be asked whether we are bound to shew 

 the same attention to a post, or hired horse, as to 

 one of our own ? I will endeavour to shew how far 

 this obligation goes, or, at least, how far I conceive it 

 does ; to assist me in this, I will state personal cases. 

 To the best of my recollection, I never hired a horse 

 to ride in my life, and never to drive but on four 

 occasions ; the first was on a leader having galled 

 his shoulder, so the hired horse went with, and was 

 treated like my own horses, during the three or four 

 days I used him. On another occasion I hired a 

 gig horse to go to a fair, as I did not choose to risk 

 my own getting a cold, or kicked. In the third 

 case, I hired a pair of phaeton horses to go to a 

 pic-nic party of two days' duration ; and the fourth 

 was pretty similar, namely, to go and dine alfresco 

 in Windsor Park. The work on all these occasions 

 was very light, and the horses as kindly, that is 



c 



