INTRODUCTION 5 



bearance — and, above all, their indispensable utility 

 — we cannot be surprised that in aU ages and in all 

 countries they have been objects of admiration and 

 gratitude. If, therefore, the logic of Socrates be 

 admitted, that what is good is beautiful, and that 

 fitness is essential to beauty — the horse must " bear 

 the bell " among the animal creation. Exclusively 

 of his beauty, if he be not the strongest, he is the 

 bravest and fleetest in the forest ; and if custom had 

 not dignified the lion with the title of " king of the 

 beasts," reason would have bestowed it on the horse. 



To some animals Providence has imparted strength, 

 to others subtlety ; some are made dreadful by their 

 ferocity — perhaps, in the first instance, by way of 

 warning mankind from a state of indifference which 

 too great a security might produce : but in the horse 

 is implanted this happy combination of qualities, 

 which render him so particularly subservient to the 

 purposes and uses of man. Were his nature, with his 

 gigantic strength, different from what it is, it would 

 be impossible to tame him ; for education never alters 

 nature. Fortunately, however, it is no less true than 

 extraordinary, that animals which are most timid are 

 hardest to be tamed ; whereas those which, like the 

 horse, are of a bold and generous disposition — having 

 less fear because they have less suspicion — rather 

 solicit than avoid the kind offices of man. 



Frenchmen, generally speaking, are bad judges of 

 animal life : but let us hear what one of them says on 

 this subject.* "Of all animals the horse has the finest 



' " Spectacle de la Nature." 



