As a proof of this truth, let us take two sister
hound bitches, and ward them both with the same dog; let us
suppose one bitch to have run in the pack, and the other by some
accident not to have worked at all, it will be found that the
offspring of her who has never worked, will be much superior to
the offspring of her who has run in the pack.
All I have now to ask of my brother jockeys is, that for the
future, when speaking of these Horses, they will, instead of the
phrase HIGH-BRED, say only well-bred, and that they will not even
then be understood to mean any thing more by it, than that they
are descended from a race of Horses, whose actions have
established their goodness: and that I may have leave to prefer my
opinion of the mechanical powers of a Horse, to all their opinions
concerning blood, which is in reality no more than a vain chimera.
If these things are so, have not we and our fore-fathers been
hoodwinked all our days by the prevalence of a ridiculous custom,
and the mistaken system, when by consulting our own reason and
understanding, this mist of error had fled before it? If this
mechanical power was considered as it ought to be, it would excite
a proper emulation amongst all breeders: and when the excellence
in the breed of Horses was found to be the effect of judgment, and
not of chance, there would be more merit as well as more pleasure
in having bred a superior Horse.
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