1 



28 THE HISTORY AND ART 



How well their driver's meaning underftand. 

 Come at his call, and go at his command ; 

 Left to themfelves, and trufled with the reins, 

 His voice, with furer pow'r their fpeed reftrains* 

 Patient of toil, their Heady courfe they fleer, 

 Watch every accent, and obedient hear. 

 Govern'd by diftant founds, they clofe, divide, 

 And flop, or run, the voice their only guide.^ 

 To the left hand one tone diretSts their flight, 

 A difF'rent* cadence wheels them to the right. 

 Though free, not wild, they own fuperior fway, 

 With willing minds, and equal fleps obey^ 

 And fpeed the rattling carriage on its way. 

 Then wonder not, that Orpheus drew along 

 The favage herd, enraptur'd at his fong !. 

 Lo ! here a greater prodigy is found ! 

 And brutes more docile to a ruder found. 



Libya, mentioned above, bred horfes which were 

 fwift even to a proverb *. Its inhabitants are reported 

 to have been the firft who taught Greece the method 

 of coupling horfes in a chariot. They were confidered 

 as moft fkilful horfemen, fuperior to other nations, 

 and never fought but on horfeback. 



It may now, perhaps, be time to quit thefe regions, 

 in order to follow our fubjedl, and examine what re- 

 ception it found, and what progrefs it made, when in- 



■^ Ju>:ta Lydium currum curnre. Plutarch. 



troduced 



