For
perhaps it may appear, that the excellence we find in these Horses
depends totally on the mechanism of their parts, and not in their
blood; and that all the particular distinctions and fashions
thereof, depend also on the whim and caprice of mankind.
If we take a Horse bred for the cart, and such a one as we call a
hunter, and a horse of foreign extraction, and set them together,
the meanest judge will easily point out the best racer, from the
texture, elegance, and symmetry of their parts, without making any
appeal to blood. Allow but a difference in the texture, elegance,
and symmetry of parts in different Horses, whose extraction is
foreign, this principle will be clearly proved, and the word HIGH-
BRED is of no use, but to puzzle and lead us astray: and every
man's daily observation would teach him, if he was not lost in
this imaginary error, particular blood, that, generally speaking,
such Horses who have the finest texture, elegance of shape, and
the most proportion, are the best racers, let their blood be of
what kind it will, always supposing it to be totally foreign. If I
was asked what beauty was, I should say proportion: if I was asked
what strength was, I should say proportion also: but I would not
be understood to mean, that this strength and beauty alone will
constitute a racer, for we shall find a proper length also will be
wanted for the sake of velocity; and that moreover the very
constituent parts of foreign Horses differ as much from all
others, as their performances.
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