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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: gray-eyed,[6] or near-sighted, or ungainly, or stiff-jointed, or
deficient in strength, thin-haired, lanky, disproportioned, devoid of
pluck or of nose, or unsound of foot. To particularise: an under-sized
dog will, ten to one, break off from the chase[7] faint and flagging
in the performance of his duty owing to mere diminutiveness. An
aquiline nose means no mouth, and consequently an inability to hold
the hare fast.[8] A blinking bluish eye implies defect of vision;[9]
just as want of shape means ugliness.[10] The stiff-limbed dog will
come home limping from the hunting-field;[11] just as want of strength
and thinness of coat go hand in hand with incapacity for toil.[12] The
lanky-legged, unsymmetrical dog, with his shambling gait and ill-
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