HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



SECTION I. 



ANTIQUITY OF THE HORSE NATURAL HISTORY CLASSIFICATION SPE- 

 CULATIONS OV HIS ORIGIN HIS SPURIOUS PROGENY. 



X HE transcendeut consequence of the Horse, to man in eveiy possi- 

 ble stage of human existence, has been the invariable theme of writers 

 on the subject, from the earliest records of literature. Indeed it is 

 impossible to conceive any other, out of the vast variety of animals 

 destined by nature to human use, which can, with the least prospect 

 of success, dispute with this favourite, the palm of his master's predi- 

 lection and attachment. Throughout all those revolving ages, which 

 the magical jjower of letters enable us to call up in review, there 

 is not one, in which that axiom does not stand self-evident. It is an 

 attachment of a truly rational nature, and to a most worthy object. 

 The very idea of being supported at ease, by an auxiliary and bor- 

 rowed animal power, and of being safely borne from place to place, 

 at will, Avith a pleasant and gentle motion, or with the rapidity of 

 lightning, must have impressed the minds of the first discoverers of 

 the mighty benefits, with ineflPable delight. Such sentiments and 

 feelings have been incessantly echoed down to us from the primitive 

 times. 



The general beauty, the harmony of proportions, the stateliness 

 and delicacy, of the superior species of this paragon of brute animals, 



could 



