132 HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN AND 



Horses. 



Although the committee would not unduly magnify their of- 

 fice above that of other committees appointed for this occasion, 

 still they cannot but feel a litte enthusiasm, in view of the dig- 

 nity and nobleness of the subject-matter assigned to them. It 

 is evidence of the cultivation and intelligence of this commu- 

 nity, that hardly a man can be found among us, whose generous 

 feelings are not excited by the view of a noble horse, and whose 

 indignation does not boil when a greater brute is guilty of cru- 

 elty towards him. 



We believe that, of all the beasts of draft and burden, the 

 horse is, on the whole, the most useful ; and that, if it were an- 

 nounced to man that all the animals which the Creator has giv- 

 en him, save one only, should be taken away from him, and 

 blotted out from the catalogue of useful beasts, and if the liber- 

 ty were given him of retaining the one he most prized, that one 

 would be the horse. What other beast of burden combines in 

 itself so many useful properties 1 In certain parts of the world, 

 the camel and the elephant are, in some points, his superiors ; 

 and every where the patient ox is exceedingly valuable. Their 

 great strength is a powerful auxiliary to man. But when we 

 consider the great variety of uses and properties of the horse, — 

 his docility, his strength, his hardiness, and the combination of 

 these qualities which he possesses, in some degree, in common 

 with the animals just mentioned, (with his speed, in which he 

 excels them,) we cannot but award him the palm of general su- 

 periority. 



He is endeared to us, too, by his moral qualities. Though he 

 be less fleet than a locomotive steam-engine, it will be long be- 

 fore the latter will distance him in our affections. When the 

 Creator cursed the ground, he left woman to man to wipe off 

 that sweat of the face in which he was thenceforth to eat his 

 bread ; and he also left him the horse, that her duty, in that re- 

 spect, might be less laborious. And as woman is the noblest 

 type of human life, so, of the brute creation, the horse is wor- 

 thiest to share with her in alleviating and lessening the toils of 

 man. 



