6 THE HISTORY AND ART 



for the purpofes of war : and that Pharaoh, when 

 he purfued the people of Ifrael, made ready his cha- 

 riot, " and took fix hundred chofen chariots ; and 

 . " that the Egyptians purfued after them, all the horfes 

 " and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horfemen." 



This account being given almofl in the beginning 

 of the oldeft hiftory of the creation, and clearly and 

 circuraftantially related, it would be but a fruitlefs la- 

 bour to attempt to fearch elfe where, in order to fix the 

 epoch in which the horfe was firfl made fubfervient to 

 the will of man: becaufe, without making over nice 

 diftinctions, or refining too fcrupuloufly, as many 

 have done, in hopes of afcertaining a fadf, for which 

 no other proofs can be brought than thofe which are 

 cited above ; and which are, in authenticity and priority 

 of time, fuperior to all ; the faireft conclufion, and 

 moil rational, will perhaps be, that the ufeful qua- 

 lities which the horfe poffefles for the fervice of man, 

 were known and. called into pra(?tice in the earlieft 

 times of the world, and are almoll coeval with man- 

 kind. And I am the more induced to hazard this opi- 

 nion, not only upon the aflurance of the above-named 

 authorities, but likewife (which is flill a fironger, tho' 

 but a prefumptive proof) becaufe, that neither in the 

 facred writings, nor in any other hiftoiT-, is the origin 

 of taming the horfe mentioned and afcertained ; but all 

 hiftorians, and even Mofes himfelf, fpeak of ir, as of 

 an animal, whofe fervices were well known, both be- 

 fore and at the time when they wrote, and mention 



them 



