490 
OX BREEDING. 
dom, and thus agriculture became almost totally neglected. 
Lastly, priestcraft and the Inquisition finished what remained, 
and became the last gulph in which the Spanish race was swal¬ 
lowed up ; for the government, by increasing the number of 
cloisters, gave the few husbandmen that remained a distaste of 
agriculture, and produced an indolence destructive to morals and 
the prosperity of the inhabitants; when they should have given a 
check to this prejudice, and by attaching honours to the farmer's 
confession, have tried to rouse the vanity of the nation. 
To bring this subject home to our own country, we find that the 
art of husbandry was at a low ebb until the fourteenth centuiy, 
at which time it began to be practised in the midland and south¬ 
western parts of England. The breed of our domestic animals 
soon shewed the good effect of the increased culture ; yet it 
seems not to have been cultivated as a science until the latter 
part of the sixteenth century, since which time many valuable 
improvements have been made in the condition of cattle, and 
horses in particular. Therefore, in attempting to meliorate the 
breed of horses of any country, as improved flowers and fruits 
are the necessary produce of improved culture, it must be the 
place of him 
“ Whose care 
'Tends the courser’s noble breed, 
Pleas’d to nurse the pregnant mare, 
Pleas’d to train the youthful steed,” 
first to improve the nature of the soil. This forms one of the 
first principles of improvement. And, as much of the success 
of the planter is found to depend on the skill or good fortune in 
adapting his fruits to the soil, so the selection of that breed 
which is best adapted to climate and soil forms the second 
disideratum of breeders. 
“ Nee vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt.” 
The next general principle to be attended to, is to obtain 
beauty of form. This principle, however, does not apply to the 
common acceptation of the adjective beautiful; nor does it agree 
with the opinion formed by the elegant and ingenious author of 
the “ Essay upon the Sublime and Beautiful/' who appears to 
have yielded too much to the love of system, when he refuses to 
allow proportion to have any share in the beauty of animals. 
His signification is applied very correctly to the Bard of Avon's 
description of a beautiful female — 
“ O, she doth teach the torches to burn brigJit! 
Pier beauty hangs upon the cheek of night, 
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear: 
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear !” 
