I have often heard it asked whence come the gentleness, the address, the intelligence which, every one is agreed, are to be met with in Arab horses. Are these qualities inherent in the Oriental stock? or are they the result of education? A genial climate is undoubtedly favourable to the development and improvement of the equine race. A rich and noble stock is naturally more apt than any other to yield what is demanded of it, but at the same time something must be done for it in return. The most fruitful soil will produce nothing but briars and thorns if it is not cultivated, and that in a proper manner. Starting from this standing point the Arabs apply themselves with the greatest care and the utmost tenacity to perfect, in their horses, the gifts of nature. A sustained education, daily contact with man, with the other animals, with external objects, that is their grand secret—it is that which makes the Arab horse what he is, an object worthy of our unexceptional admiration. I am aware that this feeling of admiration has not been altogether general. Imperfect knowledge has led many to accuse the Arabs of being ignorant and even of acting like butchers in the matter of horses. They rode them badly, and did not bestow upon them the sort of care so prized in Europe; they abused them from their most tender years, and were constantly drawing blood from the flanks or from the mouth, etc., etc. But truth at length began to dawn, and when it was ascertained that all their horses were intelligent, obedient to the hand and leg, quiet to mount, and inaccessible to fear, there was no choice but to acknowledge that these were great qualities which could only have been produced by a sound and logical education. Our horses, on the other hand, are nothing more than animals more or less tamed. They bear with man as a conqueror who disposes of them, but they have neither confidence nor affection for those who employ them. Slaves of mankind in general, they do not attach themselves to any one man in particular, because no man especially attaches himself to his horse, which is merely tended and valued like any other agricultural product that is sold as soon as possible, or like an article of commerce, or a piece of furniture that is bartered for profit or exchanged from caprice. Our dogs, it may be, are only attached to us because we do not part with them for a price.