bF HDliSEMANSHIP. ^J 



at full fpeed, and without faddle or bridle, will be in- 

 clined to think it was meant to reprefent the facredu bite 

 horfes defcribed by Tacitus. 



Nevertheiefs, if we may believe Virgil and others, 

 who pretended to prognollicatc the innate properties of 

 horfes by the colour of their fkins, and other marks, 

 the white fliould always be rejefled, as having few 

 qualities which can render them pleafmg or fcivice* 

 able. Some commentators, however, aflert, that by 

 the words color determinus albis, Virgil did not mean vii'.k 

 ty/i/f horfes, but thofe of a faint pale colour, fomewhat 

 bordering upon the cream colour, or whitifli dun : for 

 otherwife, as Servius obferves upon this palTage, the 

 poet would contradi(5l himfelf, inafmuch as that in 

 other parts of his poem he commends this colour, and 

 fays, that Turnus's horfes " furpaffed the winds in 

 " fwiftnefs, and excelled fnow in the whitenefs of their 

 " coats," which are exaiflly the praifes bellowed upon 

 the horfes of Rhefus, king of Thrace, by Homer. 

 Claudian alfo, Plautus, Horace, Statius, and PalUdius, 

 join in celebrating it ; the laft approves, and recom- 

 mends it in a Stallion ; and it muft be prefumed that 

 they all fpoke according to the fancy and opinion of 

 the times in which they wrote ; and whatever might 

 be the prevailing tafte, as to colour, it is certain from 

 experience, that there are good and bad of all. Never- 

 theiefs, independent of the whims of fancy, and the 

 abfurd refinements of philofophy, the white colour w^as, 

 from the earlieft times, fet apart as the moll beautiful 



Vol. I. O and 



