my own groom to put on the side saddle, and I asked the gentleman to
mount his fine English horse, and to ride out, and see if she were not
easily managed. We had a long ride over mountains, and through little
streams, and crossing deep torrents by the unsteady bridges made of
trunks of trees, and he said he never saw an animal so full of spirit
and good-temper as my mare. I never touched her with the whip, but spoke
gently to her; and I can truly say, that for the year and a half of my
riding her every day, she never brought me into danger, nor ever
disobeyed me. You may say, "But this was a particular sort of horse, not
like others." I have only to answer you, that the bad, vicious horse I
spoke of before, was bred in the same place, lived in the same stable,
and the only difference between them was the different usage that they
had received.

The horse is one of the most sensible and most affectionate of
creatures. You see, every day, how they will obey the man who drives
them, going on, stopping, moving to the right or left, and turning any
corner, all without the driver going near them. They have learned the
meaning of his words, or they could not do this; and is it not dreadful
that a creature able to understand, and most willing to obey the voice,
should be beaten and tortured as horses are? Why does a horse go as fast
as he can when he is cruelly whipped, and his poor mouth wounded by the
hard bit? Because he is trying to get away from the man or boy who
treats him so. Ah, when God brought his beautiful creatures to the first
man, to be named, and gave them into his care, there was no appearance
of man ever becoming so cruel, or the animals so miserable as they now
are! Yet the Lord loves mercy and judgment, and hates tyranny and
wrong, as much now as he did then: and we may be quite certain of this,
that every cruelty committed is an offence in his sight, and will be
terribly punished, if it be not repented of, and left off; for when a