assistance is near; they are then fastened by the body and legs to the trees, where they are left for two days without either food or drink. This experiment is sufficient to make them somewhat tractable, and in a little time they become as much so as if they had never been wild; and even if by chance they regain their liberty, they never become so again, but know their masters, and suffer themselves to be retaken without trouble." This proves that horses are naturally gentle, and disposed to be familiar with man; they never seek to quit the abodes of men to recover their liberty in the forests; on the contrary, they shew great anxiety to return to their old habitations, where, perhaps they find but coarse food, always the same, and generally measured out to them with a sparing hand, without considering the strength of their appetites. Custom, however, serves them in lieu of what they lose by slavery. When worn with fatigue, the place of rest is to them the most delicious; they smell it at a distance, can even find it out in the midst of large towns, and in every thing seem to prefer slavery to liberty. The customs to which they have been forced to submit, become a second nature to them; for horses abandoned in the forests, have been known to neigh continually to make themselves heard, to gallop towards the human voice; and even to grow thin and perish in a short time, notwithstanding they were surrounded with a variety of provender. Their manners, then, almost wholly depend on their education, which is accomplished with pains and cares which man takes for no other animal, and for which he is well requited by their continual services.