12 Systems of Equality. Bk. iii. 



the parents in a greater degree. In the famous 

 Leicestershire breed of sheep, the object is to 

 procure them with small heads and small legs. 

 Proceeding upon these breeding maxims, it is 

 evident that we might go on, till the heads and 

 legs were evanescent quantities ; but this is so 

 palpable an absurdity, that we may be quite sure 

 the premises are not just, and that there really is 

 a limit, though we cannot see it, or say exactly 

 where it is. In this case, the point of the greatest 

 degree of improvement, or the smallest size of the 

 head and legs, may be said to be undefined ; but 

 this is very different from unlimited, or from in- 

 definite, in M. Condorcet's acceptation of the 

 term. Though I may not be able in the present 

 instance to mark the limit, at which further im- 

 provement will stop, I can very easily mention a 

 point, at which it will not arrive. I should not 

 scruple to assert, that were the breeding to con- 

 tinue for ever, the heads and legs of these sheep 

 would never be so small as the head and legs of a 

 rat. 



It cannot be true therefore, that, among ani- 

 mals, some of the offspring will possess the desi- 

 rable qualities of the parents in a greater degree; 

 or that animals are indefinitely perfectible. 



The progress of a wild plant to a beautiful gar- 

 den-flower is perhaps more marked and striking 

 than any thing that takes place among animals; 

 yet, even here, it would be the height of absur- 

 dity to assert that the progress was unlimited or 

 indefinite. One of the most obvious features of 



