GOOD STYLE 21 



trary, to judge from the pictures we have of him, was as 

 singularly awkward and ungainly. He sat on his crotch, 

 leaned forward, with the thigh not far from perpendicu- 

 lar and the leg thrust back at almost a right angle. This 

 he could do with the plains pony, whose barrel was far 

 from as well rounded as that of the Thessalian chunk; 

 and he got a goodly part of his grip from his calf and 

 heel. The contrast between the statue of Alexander, or 

 one of the Parthenon riders, and any one of Catlin's pictures 

 is striking ; but we must remember that the former are 

 the production of the ablest Greek sculptors, in the high- 

 est bloom of art, under the personal direction of Phidias ; 

 while the latter pretend only to convey the idea of the 

 savage as he was ; and though the old-time Indian was 

 the equal, probably the superior, as a mere rider, of the 

 Greek, it is the latter whom we must select as a model if 

 we wish to preserve any semblance of beauty in eques- 

 trianism. And we may no more properly banish the idea 

 of beauty from our habits of riding than from any other 

 act of our daily life. As a rule, clever performance is as- 

 sociated with what commends itself to the eye ; what we 

 call style is often solely able performance ; but no one can 

 watch the ungainly fad of swinging the legs or raising 

 the elbows without a desire to send the rider to school- 

 to the Elgin Marbles. 



