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THE first reflection that arises, is, the good
sense of the Captain; who was unwilling to impose
his horse for a racer; not being qualified for the
course. Because, as an old lean beast, attempting
a trot, he was respectable enough; but going out
of his nature, and affecting speed, he would have
been contemptible. The great secret of preserving
respect, is the cultivating and shewing to the best
advantage the powers that we possess, and the not
going beyond them. Every thing in its element is
good, and in their proper sphere all natures and capacities
are excellent. This thought might be turned
into a thousand different shapes, and cloathed
with various expressions; but after all, it comes to
the old proverb at last, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, Let
the cobler stick to his last; a sentiment we are
about more to illustrate in the sequel to this work.

The second reflection that arises, is, the simplicity
of the Captain, who was so unacquainted with
the world, as to imagine that jockeys and men of
the turf could be managed by reason and good sense;
whereas there are no people who are by education

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of a less philosophic turn of mind. The company
of horses is by no means favourable to good taste
and genius. The rubbing and currying them, but
little enlarges the faculties, or improves the mind;
and even riding, by which a man is carried swiftly
through the air, though it contributes to health, yet
stores the mind with few or no ideas; and as men
naturally consimilate with their company, so it is
observable that your jockeys are a class of people
not far removed from the sagacity of a good horse.
Hence most probably the fable of the centaur,
among the ancients; by which they held out the
moral of the jockey and the horse being one beast.

A third reflection is, that which he exprest, viz.
the professional art of the surgeon to make the most
of the case, and the technical terms used by him,
I have to declare, that it is with no attempt at wit,
that the terms are set down, or the art of the surgeon
hinted at; because it is so common a place
thing to ridicule the peculiarities of a profession, or
its phraseologies, that it favours of mean parts to
indulge it. For a man of real genius will never
walk in the beaten path, because his object is what
is new and uncommon. This surgoen does not appear
to have been a man of very great ability; but
the Captain was certainly wrong in declining his
prescriptions; for the maxim is, unicuique, in arte
sua, perito, credendum est; every one is to be trusted
in his profession.

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