36 THE HISTORY AND ART 



At the firlt appearance of thefe new horfemen, the 

 people who faw them were greatly flruck and amazed 

 at the ftrangenefs of their figures ; and having, per- 

 haps, but an imperfed view of them, and that imdet 

 the influence of fear and wonder, might think them 

 to be a new fpecies of creatures, compofed of two 

 different natures, half-human, and half-brute. 



This is at once the fabulous and real account of the 

 faft. Ignorance, and its companion Credulity, might 

 impofe fo much upon the minds of thofe who firfl faw 

 thefe half-men, and half-horfes, as to make them think 

 they were a new fpecies of creatures ; as the Indians 

 imagined the Spaniards to be, when they firfl beheld 

 them mounted upon horfes, and believed them to be 

 deities. Poetry and fable adopted the opinion, and 

 made a proper ufe of it ; and whether we view it in a 

 literal or figurative fenfe, we mufl confefs the juflnefs 

 of the notion ; but the fabulous explanation of it is fo 

 flriking and beautiful, that it always has been re- 

 ceived, and prevails at this day. The Centaur is the 

 fymbol of horfemanfliip, and explains its meaning as 

 foon as it is beheld : for there is fuch an intelligence 

 and harmony between the rider and the horfe, that 

 they may, almofl in a literal fenfe, be faid to be but one 

 creature ; the horfe underflanding the Aids of his rider, 

 as if he was a part of himfelf, and the rider equally 

 confulting the genius, powers, and temper of the horfe, 

 juflifies the allegory; and may almofl be faid, in the 



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