OF HORSEMANSHIP. 5 



though it appears at the fame time, that the fervices 

 of the horfe were well known, and the Egyptians 

 conflantly availed themfelves of them. In the laft ar- 

 ticle likewife of the Decalogue, where other animals, 

 as the ox and ai^s, are named, no notice is taken of 

 him ; nor is he mentioned upon another occafion, as 

 making part of Job's great riches, who yet fpeaks of 

 him, and defcribes his charadier and wonderful qualities 

 in the mod exalted terms. 



If any reafon can be affigned for the omiffion, in thefe 

 inftances, of an animal fo valued and admired, I am 

 induced to think it may proceed from this caufe : viz. 

 that as in thofe times the fole occupation of men was 

 to tend their flocks and herds (imlefs interrupted by 

 war), and their courfe of life confequently being calm 

 and humble, nor fubje(3: to migration or change, the 

 horfe not being dire<5lly necelTary to them in this ftatc, 

 they did not count him among the animals of which 

 their wealth fo immediately confifted, and of which they 

 flood continually in need ; inafmuch as that his flefh 

 was not ufed for food, nor his blood, nor any part of 

 him, offered up in facrifice : upon this account, there- 

 fore, he, perhaps, was not confidered as an immedi- 

 ate article of private property ; but, being chiefly, if not 

 folely ufed in war in thofe days, might belong only to 

 kings and great men, and have but little, if any fhare, 

 in the occurrences of private life. 



Accordingly we read in the book of Exodus, where 

 the horfe is named for the firft time, that he was ufed- 



for 



