2 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



to treat. The description of the horse has been 

 deemed a subject not unworthy of the best and ablest 

 writers of antiquity ; nor indeed has it been considered 

 beneath the notice of inspiration itself : for grand 

 and sublime as have been the allusions to him by 

 ancient and modern authors, they all fall short of, and 

 are lost in, the majestic language applied to him by Job 

 (ch. xxxix.) : " He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth 

 in his strength : the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He 

 swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage, neither 

 believeth he (for joy) that it is the sound of the 

 trumpet." The horse has also given birth to many beau- 

 tiful similes. Juvenal compares a degenerate person 

 of quality to a broken-down race-horse ; and TibuUus 

 elegantly introduces an old worn-out racer to shew the 

 transition of all human glory. The tongue of an empty- 

 pated fellow has been humorously compared to a race- 

 horse, as going faster for the less weight it carries. 



As to Homer and Virgil, they put even a poet's 

 licence to the stretch when they touch on this subject. 

 Each of them makes his horses of heavenly extraction ; 

 and the former takes as much pains to trace the pedi- 

 grees of his horse as he does those of his heroes. Twice 

 he compliments Greece on the beauty of her women 

 and her horses ; and makes those of Achilles immortal, 

 after having stood still and wept for the death of his 

 friend Patroclus. In his description of the coach- 

 horses of Diomed, he descends even to their clothing 

 in the stable ; which seems to have been ornamented 

 in a manner suitable to the tinsel and tawdry taste 

 of an Asiatic Prince. Neither has Virgil been behind- 



