^4 THE HISTORY AND ART 



Without this^ clu«, almoft all ancient hiftory will be a la- 

 byrinth of confufion and doubt, not to be believed, or 

 even underftood : as in the inftance before us ; is it not 

 abfurd and ridiculous to be told, that an imaginary 

 deity, who prefided as fovereign of the iea, Ihould 

 have formed the horfe, a land animal, for the ufe of 

 man ? Yet fuch is the account given of this creature 

 by the Greek hillories and traditions ; but the veil of 

 fable in which it is wrapped, being removed, the 

 plain fa(n: will be this : viz. that in Greece in early 

 times, there being few, if any, horfes, fome were 

 brought from Libya, and other parts, and being tranf- 

 ported thither by fea, were faid in the lofty and figu« 

 rative ftile of antiquity, to have been the gift of Nep- 

 tune, the God of the Sea. 



Thus fable ends in hiftot-y, of which it is no more 

 than a gorgeous drefs, and fanciful embelliihment ; 

 and which, like other ornaments, oftentimes overload^ 

 conceal from fight, what they were intended only' 

 to fet off and adorn. 



In following our fubjedV, we are led, in the next place, 

 to confider the fiftitious ftory of the Centaurs^ who are 

 reported to have been the inventors and teachers of 

 Grecian horfemanfhip. Many different accounts are 

 to be found concerning them, in the poets and other 

 mythological writers : the trueft and moll fimple feems; 

 to be this. 



It is faid by many ancient writers, that the Theffa- 

 lians, chiefly thofe who dwelt about Mount Pelion, 



were 



