38 THE HISTORY AND ART 



putting it into their mouths. By looking back into 

 antiquity for the pra<5lices of pad times, and the 

 origin of many cuftoms defcended to us, we every 

 where find the greateft plainnefs and fimplicity in their 

 firfl flate; and the more ancient, the ruder and fimpler 

 they were. The ftile of architecfture, the fafhion of the 

 habits and drefles of early times, the methods of pre- 

 paring food, and many articles befide, are convincing 

 proofs of this afTertion. By degrees light broke in, 

 and men advanced progreflively from one improve- 

 ment to another. In difcufling this fubjeA, it is cu- 

 rious to obfervc, that in ancient Greece, many of the 

 terms appropriated to navigation, were alfb ufed in 

 horfemanfliip. The word xsXyjc or keles, which lig- 

 nifies a runner, ferved likewife, as Suidas fays, to de- 

 note light failing vefTels, and fwift horfes. Homer 

 calls fliips, horfes of the fca, and the pilot, the coach- 

 man, or driver of the velTel. Pindar calls a bridle 

 an gnchor; and in this fenfe Neptune may properly 

 be called the inventor of the horfe, which implied no 

 more than a lliip. Thefe little obfervations, among 

 many others which may be found in the Greek 

 and Latin writers, are only offered to the reader, 

 as an argument, that bitts and bridles were ufed 

 in the moft diftant ages, but at what exa<5l pe- 

 riod to fix their origin, or even to defcrite their 

 ihapes and proportion, is a talk by no means eafy 

 to perform ; inafrauch as that there is fcarce any 

 track left to follow, and where mention is made 



of 



