3G8 
ON BREEDING. 
forms appear endowed with an increase of strength and beauty, as 
if nature, at this g enial season, took a pleasure in lavishly adorn¬ 
ing the bridegroom and the bride. At this season also a kind of 
impelling principle appears to pervade all their actions; for in¬ 
stead of being mild, placid, and gentle, they become bold, rest¬ 
less, and ungovernable. The strength of the sexual necessity in 
some animals is truly astonishing. 
“ Not only man’s imperial race, but they 
That wing the liquid air, or swim the sea, 
Or haunt the desert, rush into the flame; 
For love is lord of all, and is in all the same.” 
“ A frog,” says Blumenbach, “ will continue to impregnate 
the ova, even after the removal of its head.” The lioness, forget¬ 
ful of her whelps, ranges the plain in quest of her royal lover; 
and the hitherto dormant and lethargic ass swims the wide 
torrent, and wanders miles in quest of a mate. 
“ For love they force through thickets of the wood ; 
They climb the steepy hills, and stem the flood.” 
When the stallion becomes acquainted w ith the horsing con¬ 
dition of the mare*, he becomes impatient and unmanageable. 
Virgil has given an inimitable description of the force of love in 
the horse, in words so expressive, and yet so modest, as not to 
offend the chastest ear : 
a Nonnc vides, ut tota tremor pertentet equorum 
Corpora, si tan turn notas odoradtulit auras? 
Ac neque eos jam fraena virum, necVerbera saeva, 
Non scopuli, rupesque cavae, atque abjecta retardant 
Flumina, correptos unda torquentia montes.” 
“ The stallion snuffs the well-known scent afar, 
And snorts and trembles for the distant mare: 
Nor bits nor bridles can his rage restrain, 
And rugged rocks are interposed in vain: 
Fie makes his way o’er mountains, and contemns 
Unruly torments and unforded streams.” Pope. 
Such is the vigorous and irresistible impulse which Nature has 
planted in animals, in order that the great work of propagation 
might not be left to chance. “ And so salutary is the moderate or 
seasonable performance of this act, that animals are found to be 
improved, both in health and strength, by it; but the line of 
moderation is not to be stepped over w ith impunity : preternatu- 
4 / 
* It is by the touch, ear, and eyes, in part, that these feelings become 
excited in men; but in animals the ear and eyes have little influence, the 
sexual instinct being chiefly brought into operation by the smell; as the 
presence of this influence on the system is always attended by the emana¬ 
tion of a peculiar odour from the body. 
