AGRICULTURE AND THE HOESE. 363 



somehow finds his place, standing next to man, the 

 partner of his fortunes and his fate, and performing an 

 important part in all the drama. I have been so struck 

 with the place assigned the horse in all the stirring in- 

 cidents of chivalrous personal history, that I remember 

 always the touching lines, which, in the Introduction to 

 the Betrothed, tell the vision w^hich descended on the 

 *' Noble Maringer : " — 



" Thy tower another banner knew, thy steed another rein ; 

 And stoop them to another's will thy gallant vassal train ; 

 And she, the lady of thy love, so faithful once and fair, 

 This night, without thy father's hall, she weds Marstettin's heir." 



Towers, horse, vassals, and lady-love, all join to make 

 this significant picture. Tell me what other animal 

 could perform his part there. But not in deeds of 

 war and chivalry alone has the horse endeared himself 

 to man. I have said he seems to belong by right to the 

 highest civilization, and to find there his most favoring 

 and congenial home. Not, however, to this sphere alone 

 is his genius confined. Obedient to surrounding cir- 

 cumstances as no other animal seems capable of being, 

 his frame and temperament alike conform to the neces- 

 sities which he meets. The pride of the race-course, to 

 which he is led often when he is but two years old, 

 prematurely developed by protection and care into all 

 the nerve and vigor of mature life, restless, impatient, 

 and beautiful, he finds an elephantine, stolid, patient 

 brother leaving the pastures of Holland and the Clyde 



