"A mortal courser match'd th'immortal race."

Now as nothing is more certain, than that no Horses but those of
blood can race in our days, I have long been endeavouring to find
the true reason of this singular instance, and cannot any way
account for it, but by supposing this equality of strength and
elegance might produce an equality of swiftness. This
consideration naturally produced another, which is, that the blood
of all Horses may be merely ideal; and if so, a word of no
meaning. But before I advance any thing more on this hypothesis,
and that I may not be guilty of treason against the received laws
of jockey-ship, I do here lay it down as a certain truth, that no
Horses but such as come from foreign countries, or which are of
extraction totally foreign, can race. In this opinion every man
will readily join me, and this opinion will be confirmed by every
man's experience and observation.

But in discussing this point, I shall beg leave, when speaking of
these Horses, to change the word HIGH-BRED, and in its room
substitute the word foreigner, or of foreign extraction. 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,