BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 35 



only, it is our boimden duty to qualify ourselves 

 for either task, where a want of knowledge would be 

 certain to cause injustice, inconvenience, and suffer- 

 ing to any person, or any thing subject to our 

 control. If suffering in any case arises from our 

 ignorance, we are the cause of it as much as if 

 we designedly inflicted it, the only difference being 

 (and I allow it to be great as regards our estimate 

 of persons), in the first instance the fault is that 

 of the head, in the latter the crime is that of the 

 heart ; but the effect is the same to those who suffer 

 by it. 



My attention in this essay has been particularly 

 directed towards the horse, as being the noblest and, 

 in accordance with his pretensions, the most ill-used, 

 or rather the most abused animal under the control 

 of man. Some one may ask, can w^e call that animal 

 ill-used, or abused, in the possession of which, and 

 in the care of whom, fortunes are sometimes spent ? 

 Certainly not, while his looks and energies can con- 

 tribute to the vanity or pleasures of man ; but when 

 those fleeting attributes are gone, what is his 



