644 REVIEW — THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 
Clown . ’Tis a quick lie, sir; ’twill away again, from me to you. 
Hamlet. What man dost thou dig it for ] 
Clown. For no man, sir. 
Hamlet. What woman, then 7 
Clown. For none neither. 
Hamlet. Who is to be buried in’t 7 
Clown . One that was a woman, sir ; but, rest her soul, she’s dead. 
Chap. I sets forth, as its bill of fare, “ Suggestions as to the 
best way of buying a Horse ; — Advice of a judicious Friend in- 
dispensable ; — Never buy for yourself; — 'How to choose an 
Adviser ; — What Kind of Horse to choose ; — Different Sorts of 
Dealers, Breeders, &c.” 
There are few more unwelcome commissions — few commis- 
sions which those who undertake them are more likely to break 
down at, either by failure of execution or failure of giving satis- 
faction, than those of purchasing horses for persons not them- 
selves horse-men. Persons of this description view horses in 
the same light as any articles of merchandize made with hands; 
they cannot understand why one or two hundred pounds should 
not for a mathematical certainty command a good horse, much 
less can they understand how it happens that a horse that is 
good in one man’s possession may be good for nothing in an- 
other’s. Such words as management and condition find no place 
in their vocabulary. If the new purchase should not turn out 
what his purchaser expected or assured to himself it would, in 
his heart he blames his agent, probably friend, who has, per- 
haps at much expense of pains and time, procured it for him, 
even supposing good manners should prevent his insinuating such 
disappointment to his friend’s face. The consequence is, dissatis- 
faction on one side, displeasure, disgust perhaps, on the other ; 
ending too often in loss or diminution of confidence or friendship, 
or of both. Let us see what Harry Hieover’s observation has 
taught him on this head. 
“ The office of purchasing any thing for friends is one that a 
sensible man would certainly rather avoid than seek ; for should 
he in point of quality or price, by superior tact or judgment, save 
a friend thirty, forty, or fifty per cent, in the purchase, he would 
first find it difficult to persuade that friend that he had done so, or 
that the friend could not have done as well for himself. Then, 
