120 BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 



from habit, any one who has had opportunity, or 

 has taken the trouble of observing a horse accus- 

 tomed to have his food provided for him, must have 

 seen that if such animal is turned to grass, he makes 

 a very awkward business of getting at the herbage, 

 in fact, stooping is painful to him ; and this shows 

 that making him carry himself handsomely, if he is 

 taught to do so by degrees, and gentle means, shortly 

 becomes as easy and natural to him as going in an 

 unsightly, slovenly manner. It is sophism to bring 

 forward what an animal may do in a state of nature, 

 as a guide for what he is to do when taken from that 

 state ; teaching the horse intended for ordinary pur- 

 poses to do them in a way in which those purposes 

 ought to be performed, is only submitting him to the 

 ordeal of the recruit I have alluded to ; his quantum of 

 inconvenience during it will depend on the patience, 

 good sense, and good temper of his teacher ; it need 

 not be made in any way painful to him, though daily 

 observation and experience oblige us to admit 

 with regret that it is often rendered so in a most 

 unjustifiable degree ; but this does not arise from the 



