70 THE HISTORY AND ART 



the article of breeding; it Ought to be preferred. Vir* 

 gil *, Hot lefs a philofopher, than poet, advifes 

 breeders to be fcrupuloufly nice in the choice of the 

 Wiare, inafmuch as that fhe is far more important, 

 and their hopes mull more immediately depend upon 

 her. The breeders of mules, knowing the fuperiority 

 of the female, always chufe that the nobler animal 

 fliould be of that fex, and therefore make the afs 

 the flallion ; for a creature begot by an horfe Upon si 

 fhe-afs, is a viler animal than the mule, which is the 

 offspring of a mare by an afs ; and the intimacy and 

 union between the mother and its young in all ani- 

 mals, both duting geftation, and for a long time after 

 the birth, is fo clofe and ftridl, that it mull be fuppofi^d 

 to inherit, in the fulleft manner, every quality and 

 every property of the body whence it proceeds. 



We are told by Pliny, that the Romans ufed to geld 

 their horfes, efpecially thofe which they employed up* 

 on common and domellic occafions. They likewife 

 ranged them into diiTerent clalTes, and diftinguilhed 

 them by denominations expreffive of their various qua* 

 lities and charaders Itinerant were the horfes upon 

 which they travelled, Sarcinarii thofe which can-ied bur-^ 

 dens, To/ut'arii and Gradarii horfes whofe paces had been 

 formed and improved by art, particularly amblers, Fe^ 

 jiedi hunters, Celes, or the race-horfe, and Cantberii, 

 which was a general name for an horfe ufed upon many 



-Corpora pracipue mat rum kg-at. Georg. 3. 



different 



