xiv INTRODUCTION 



the jjlaii of the book it was impossible to ignore the fact that many books 

 had ah-eady been written on the subjects which it was proposed to 

 treat in a single volume. The subsequent pages indicate that the chief 

 existing works on the horse have been consulted and the value of their 

 teachings acknowledged. But the promoters of the present work had before 

 them the constantly -repeated request for a treatise on the horse which 

 should meet the requirements of a large class of readers whose time and 

 patience are limited, and who are not disposed to undertake the task of 

 wading through a small library of books in order to get the information 

 which they want. 



In this connection we may recall a story told of an Eastern potentate 

 who determined to acquire something of all the knowledge which was 

 extant. His learned men accordingly made a vast collection of the most 

 advanced works which the world contained. The king, staggered at the 

 sight of the accumulated books, demanded if it were not possible to reduce 

 the contained wisdom of the volumes to a smaller compass. The learned 

 men agreed that it might be done, and the command was given to proceed 

 with the work. 



Laborious attention to the business before them enabled the philosophers 

 to submit to the monarch a few volumes which they assured him contained 

 an epitome of all that was really true of the sciences in the world. The 

 monarch essayed to study the new tomes, but soon became wearied. 

 Another command then went forth to prepare one book in which all the 

 knowledge should be represented as far as it was real. This also was done 

 at the king's order with no better result than the issue of a final mandate 

 to the wise men to formulate a single word in which the science of the 

 universe should l)e expressed. Wisdom was justified of her children in this 

 case at least. In a moment of inspiration the learned men saved their 

 reputations and their lives by giving his majesty the one word "Perhaps!" 

 How perfectly the two short syllables conveyed to the wise men their 

 estimate of the scientific works which they had had to study and condense, 

 only themselves could say. How far the word might be applied to much 

 that has been written since let the masters of modern science tell us if they 

 will, and it remains for the reader to decide how much of the Eastern 

 monarch's craving for the mere results, without the necessity of following 

 the steps in the process, mental or physical, by which they were obtained, 

 still remains in the world. The present authors do not promise to epitomize 

 by the summary method of the Wise Men of the East, but they venture to 

 claim that they have succeeded in compressing a large amount of valuable 

 information within limits which could not be contracted without the 

 omission of facts that could not well be spared. 



