LECTURES ON HOUSES. 
65 
the moment he puts his feet in dirt, that moment will he fail. It 
is the good loin, as I said before, that can — and the only point that 
can — compensate for hollowness of back. The horse I quoted as, 
though hollow-backed in the extreme, being an extraordinary 
hunter, had one of the finest of loins ; from which we practically 
learn that, when the loins are good, not length, nor even hollow- 
ness of back, are to be accounted objectionable points. 
It is nonsense to pretend to prescribe that the back should be 
long or short, of this length or that ; although we may, in a general 
way, fall in with the common description of what a back ought to be, 
and say, ‘‘that, to be a good one, it should sink a little below (behind) 
the withers, and then run straight.” The back will be too long or 
too short, or (though, to the observer, of unusual longitude or short- 
ness, still) of the proper length, depending upon the formation and 
dimensions of other parts with which, in structure and action, it is 
connected. A long back would ill accord with short legs, defeating 
their operation — a short back would not require long legs, they 
would do too much for it. We have, therefore, long-backed 
horses and short-backed horses, and yet with backs of proper 
length : because the longitude, whatever it may be, is that which 
is the suitable length for the machine of which it forms a part. A 
very common, but not the less, on that account, reprehensible 
custom among “judges of horses,” is to find fault with a point, 
without any reference whatever to the general or particular con- 
formation with which that point is consorted. Abstractedly con- 
sidered, it may be one of proportion ; but considered correlatively 
with out-of-proportioned other parts in the same frame, it may be 
in the best proportion, or of such proportion as serves to compen- 
sate for faulty dimensions in other parts. A part most faultlessly 
fashioned and proportioned may — placed among certain other ill- 
formed or out-of-proportioned parts — appear itself to be the faulty 
piece in the fabric. In an animal body, as in machines made by 
man’s hands, the great object to be sought for is harmony between 
the constituent members: at the instant we are not hastily to con- 
demn any apparent disproportion, lest, on critical examination, it 
should turn out to have been given for the purpose of compen- 
sation — to make amends for some defective structure elsewhere, 
which may not at first sight have struck our attention. 
[To be continued.] 
