THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



his day ? Does he not make Priam put, witli Ids own hands 

 his own horses to the car in which himself and the herald 

 demand the body of Hector? Is he not blamed, indeed, for 

 dwelling upon the description of Juno's chariot, whilst his 

 reader expects him to lead him into the thickest of the 

 battle ?— 



" For why should Homer deck the gorgeous car, 

 Wlien our raised souls are eager for the war? 

 Or dwell on every wheel, when loud alarms, 

 And Mars, in thunder, call the host to arms ? " 



But is he not so minutely faithful to this part of his subject, 

 that, at the funeral games of Patroclus, he represents Menelaus 

 borrowing one of the horses of Agamemnon (iEthe, by name, 

 I think) to put to his chariot with his own ? Has not the 

 sublimest poet that ever dipped pen into ink immortalised the 

 coachman in song ? Allow me, then, to propose that we drink 

 a bumper to " Success to the Road ! — and to all who patronise 

 and support it." ' 



' With all my heart,' said the host. 



' And with all mine,' said Mr. Warburton, uncle to the 

 host, and who was one of the party. 'In my younger days 

 I was always an inside passenger whenever I chanced to travel 

 by a stage-coach ; but now I pay extra for the box-place, or a 

 front seat on the roof, for the purpose of hearing the shrewd, 

 and often witty remarks of the coachman to those whom he 

 has occasion to address, either in his calling or otherwise. 

 But a friend of mine thus accounts for this shrewdness, as 

 well as quickness and suitableness of reply : — " It is the 'pace. 

 tJtat does it" said he — "the increased pace at which they 

 travel, and quickness of their changes of horses on the road, 

 which are every day becoming more extraordinary. Philo- 

 sophers tell us," added he, " that wit consists in quickly 

 assembling our ideas, and putting them together in an instant." 

 Now, as analogy is but the resemblance between things, with 

 regard to circumstances or effects, may there not be some- 

 thing akin to analogy betwixt putting ideas together quickly, 

 and taking one set of horses from, and putting another set to, 

 a coach in little more than sixty seconds of time ? Certainly, 

 as far as my experience has gone, the faster the coach, the 

 more sharp and ready has been its coachman with all his 



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