Ill 



MECHANISM OF HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



" I concede that walking is an immeasurably fine invention, of 

 which old age ought constantly avail itself. But in some respects 

 saddle leather is even preferable to sole leather. 



" You may be sure that Bacon and Sydenham did not recommend 

 it for nothing. One's hepar — or, in vulgar language, liver — a ponder- 

 ous organ, weighing some three or four pounds, goes up and down 

 like the dasher of a churn in the midst of other vital arrangements, 

 at every step of a trotting horse. The brains also are shaken up 

 like coppers in a money-box 



" In all forms of active exercises, there are three powers simulta- 

 neously in action — the will, the muscles, and the intellect. In walk- 

 ing, the will and muscles are so accustomed to work together, and 

 perform their duties with so little expenditure of force, that the 

 intellect is left comparatively free. But in riding I have the addi- 

 tional pleasure of governing another will, and my muscles extend 

 to tips of the animal's ears and to fore-hoofs, instead of stopping at 

 feet and hands, 



" Now in this extension of my volition and my physical frame into 

 another animal, my tyrannical instincts and my desire for heroic 

 strength are at once gratified. When the horse ceases to have a will 

 of his own and his muscles require no special attention on your part, 

 then you may live on horse-back as Wesley did, and write sermons 

 or take naps, as you like. The Autocrat, 1S5S." 



In the act of horse-back riding, man follows the 

 motions of the movable basis which supports him. 

 Each time the animal upon which he sits alters its 

 position, at the instant when its feet, carried forward, 

 meet the soil and are thus forced to support the 



