in this climate, the blood degenerates; but these reasons cannot
be true, because we see the off-spring of all crosses, and of the
most antient** families, occasionally triumphant over the sons of
the very latest comers, the error then will not be found in the
blood, or in the proper crossing; but the defect will be produced
by the erroneous judgment of mankind, in putting together the male
and female with improper shapes; and while we are lost and blinded
by an imaginary good, the laws of nature stand revealed; and we by
paying a proper attention thereto, and employing our judgment
therein, might wipe this ignis fatuus from the mind, and fix the
truth on a sure foundation. Our observation shews us, that on the
one hand, we may breed Horses of foreign extraction too delicate,
and too slight for any labour; and on the other hand, so coarse
and clumsy, as to be fitter for the cart than the race. Shall we
then wonder these cannot race, or shall we doubt that degrees of
imperfection in the mechanism, will produce degrees of
imperfection in racing! and when we find such deficient, shall we
ridiculously impute it to a degeneracy of that blood, which once
was in the highest esteem, or to the want of judgment in him who
did not properly adapt the shapes of their progenitors!

Shall we confess this, or is the fault in nature? For though most
philosophers agree, that innate principles do not exist, yet we
know for certain, that in the brute creation, whose food is plain
and simple, (unlike luxurious man) the laws of nature are,
generally speaking, invariable and determined. If it should be
asked why the sons of the Godolphin Arabian were superior to most
Horses of their time; I answer, because he had a great power and
symmetry of parts, (head excepted) and a propriety of length
greatly superior to all other Horses of the same diameter, that