HORSE. 121 



next to the dog and the elephant, the most docile and affec- 

 tionate. His noble form, his graceful ease, his strength, 

 and above all, his activity and usefulness to man, render 

 him a principal object of our attachment, curiosity, and 

 care ; and teach us to regard him as an animal whose wel- 

 fare is in some measure connected with our own. Yet, 

 though he is often pampered with food, and flattered by 

 attendance, he is much more commonly ill-treated, even 

 while in youth and vigour ; and when his services are over, 

 he is criminally neglected. 



After carrying an unfeeling or unthinking master, on 

 the road or in the chace, till his strength is decayed, he is 

 sometimes doomed to pass the remainder of his days in a 

 drudgery to which his powers are now unequal, and is left 

 to sink under the load of years and oppression. Yet surely 

 humanity to such a faithful servant is rather a duty than 

 an act of favour ; and whoever is wanting in this essential 

 quality to the animal that has long ministered to his plea- 

 sure or convenience, will probably be found to pay little 

 regard to the closer ties that connect him to kindred and 

 country. 



To form an adequate idea of this noble animal, we must 

 not contemplate him in a domestic state, beautiful as he 

 appears ; but in those wild and extensive plains where he 

 ranges without control, and riots in all the luxury of un- 

 cultivated nature. In some parts of Africa, where the 

 perennial verdure of the fields supplies his wants, and the 

 genial warmth of the sky invigorates his native spirit, he 

 appears in all his grandeur. There his enemies are few, 

 and most of these no match for him in the combat : he 

 seeks his safety, however, in society, and the troop unites 

 for self-defence, not for annoyance. 



Though the horse is found in almost all countries, and 

 is now perfectly naturalised in America, to which he was 

 not indigenous, it is evident that the colder climates do 

 not suit his constitution ; for in them he becomes not only 

 ill-shaped, but diminutive. It is chiefly in warmer or 

 temperate latitudes that all the beauties of his form, and 



