FOR PEACE AND WAR. 129 



it is their business to apply, before any uniformity of manage- 

 ment will exist, or a full development of power be attained. 



It is obvious that no one can expect to derive the most advantage 

 from the horse's powers until he has obtained the knowledge of 

 where the source of ability for progression is located. The engine 

 driver can tell whence are derived those powers his skill and educa- 

 tion have taught him to wield at will ; the agents in putting into 

 action for man's exigent service that electric power hitherto the 

 prerogative of Omnipotence, can explain how it is generated and 

 brought into active co-operation with their desires; no trade, 

 occupation, or calling, that its votaries will not understand its 

 principle and action, if we except "Horse Breaking;" and this 

 business, unfortunately, as a general rule, will be found in the 

 hands of those who tax to the uttermost a power concerning 

 which they neither know whence it comes, nor how it operates ; 

 and besides, they, for the most part, indulge in a repulsive species 

 of pretension, which has had the effect of bringing their most 

 important and critical occupation into a disrepute it should not 

 intrinsically merit. 



The fundamental principle of the only practical and en- 

 lightened system is, that the propelling power of the horse I'esides 

 in his hind quarters, and there chiefly in the haunches. 



Perhaps there cannot be found a more ready means of illustrating 

 this proposition than by recurring to the example of the human 

 biped ; the sources of man's propelling powers being situated in 

 his lower limbs, whether he move in his natural and erect position, 

 or whether wc suppose him thrown upon all-fours. In the latter 

 case, the arms being merely employed to sustain the weight of the 

 incumbent figure, which the legs and thighs press forward ; and 

 the heavy structure of man and the horse being so analagous, 

 that if that be true in the case of the assumed incumbent position 

 of the one, it may reasonably be inferred that it is so in the 

 natural position of the other. 



Arguments from analogy, though instructive for illustration, 

 are not sufficiently terse and powerful for the establishment of 

 principles, and therefore attention to an illustration of a stricter 



K 



