10 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
a very great capacity it is,a very noble gift indeed, — 
nobler than much cleverness. Several animals are 
cleverer than the horse in the way of intelligence; 
not one is so amenable to discipline.” This is 
true, unless an exception should be made in favor 
of the elephant. But Mr. Hamerton omits to state 
— except perhaps by implication — the very respect 
in which the superiority of the horse to all other 
dumb animals is most important and most striking, 
namely, the fineness of his nervous system. All the 
great achievements of the horse; all his wonderful 
flights of speed and feats of endurance; all his ca- 
pacity for being guided, restrained, quickly turned, 
and stopped, for being urged to the limit, and beyond 
the limit, of his strength, —all, in fact, that is glo- 
rious in him springs from the sensitiveness of his 
nervous organization. In this respect no other dumb 
animal that I know of will bear comparison with the 
horse. Mr. Hamerton well says, in contrasting the 
horse and the ass: — 
“J have never yet seen the donkey which could be 
guided easily and safely through an intricate crowd 
of carriages or on a really dangerous road. The de- 
ficiency of the ass may be expressed in a single word, 
—it is deficiency of delicacy. You can guide a good 
horse as delicately as a sailing-boat; when the skil- 
ful driver has an inch to spare he is perfectly at his 
1 Mr. Hamerton adds that the horse is not observant except of 
places. But this is a great mistake. A strange footfall in a stable 
will be noticed in a moment by all the occupants of the stalls. A 
lively horse observes the least movement of his groom or rider, and 
his curiosity is extreme. On strange roads horses always drive 
better than on familiar roads. They are more alert and go faster, 
so as to see what is coming next. 
