WAE-H0ESB3.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[WAE-HOilSES. 



pillar ; others were frightened out of the course 

 by the horrible statue ; and not a few were 

 wrecked on that fearful rock. Some were 

 destroyed on the spot; others who escaped 

 without serious injury, were derided by the 

 spectators on account of their want of skill ; 

 and the fragments with which the course was 

 covered, rendered almost every step perilous." 

 The conqueror in such a race, says Pausanias, 

 well deserved the crown which he received, 

 and the honours which were bestowed upon 

 him. 



The moral as well as the physical character- 

 istics of the horse, have, from the earliest 

 times, formed the subjects of poetical admira- 

 tion and enthusiasm. This is especially the 

 case whpu he is viewed as mingling, undismayed, 

 in the heat of the fray — pawing the ground, 

 distending his nostrils, dilating his eyes, and 

 erecting his ears when he hears the braying 

 of the trumpet, or the clashing of arms at no 

 great distance from where he is standing. As 

 the war-steed alone, he is thus sublwiiely de- 

 picted in the Book of Job : — " Hast thou given 

 the horse strength ? Hast thou clothed his 

 neck with his beautiful mane? Canst thou 

 make him afraid as the grasshopper? The 

 glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in 

 the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength. He 

 goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh 

 at fc'i", and is not affrighted. Neither turneth 

 he his back from the sword. The quiver 

 rattleth against him, the glittering spear aiil 

 the shield. He swalloweth the ground with 

 fierceness and rage : neither believeth he that 

 it; is the sound of the trumpet. He sayeth 

 among the trumpets ha! ha! and he smelleth 

 the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains 

 and the shoutings." 



Job was an inhabitant of that country from 

 which our English breed has been so much 

 improved by the importation of horses from 

 the desert ; and this description of the animal, 

 under the influence of a noble excitement, is 

 not less remarkable for its accuracy than for 

 its lofty poetical tone. In the nineteenth 

 verse of the Scriptures, the Hebrew word is 

 translated as signifying "thunder;" but it 

 also signifies the mane of the horse. Accord- 

 ingly, we have substituted the natural feature 

 of the .animal for the hyperbolical and un- 

 meaning attribute of "thunder," with which 



his neck is said to be clothed, but which is 

 quite inappropriate, if not altogether absurd, 

 in the significance of its application. 



In estimating the qualities necessary for 

 war-horses, much depends upon natural dispo- 

 sition. Those of a fretful temper being pro- 

 verbially soft, and not generally to be depended 

 upon, would be ill-suited for the " tented 

 field;" and this does not seem to have escaped 

 the observation of our greatest of dramatists. 

 Such horses are made by him to symbolise 

 false friends. Thus he makes Julius Csesar 

 exclaim — 



" Hollow men, like horses, not at hand, 

 Make gallant show, and promise of their mettle ; 

 But when they should endure the bloody spur. 

 They fall their crest, and, like deceitful jades, 

 Sink in the trial." 



Homer, on the other hand, always speaks of 

 the horse with admiration, and considers him as 

 by nature invested with great dignity. In his 

 conception, an additional respectability is con- 

 ferred, even upon his princes and his war- 

 grooms, by the titlf^s which he bestows upon 

 them of " horse-tnmers" and " horse-whippers" 

 — epithets which, however honourable in days 

 of remote antiquity, are, in ours, associated only 

 with the persons and the mean employments 

 of grooms of the stable and horse-jockeys. It 

 was the practice of ancient poets, as well as 

 of people generally, to dilate upon the beauty 

 and majesty of their horses ; to invest them 

 with attributes of the loftiest description, and 

 to place them in situations in accordance with 

 these high ideas. In this, it must be confessed 

 they were, to a great extent, justified, not only 

 by the noble shape and gallant appearance of 

 the animal, but by his singular disposition, 

 and, consequently, high price ; his being the 

 friend and, as it were, the attendant of princes ; 

 the terrible, yet graceful, accompaniment ot 

 war ; and never seen, as in modern times, 

 degraded to the familiar, yet far more useful 

 purposes of draught in our streets, and hus- 

 bandry in our fields. In Grecian fable, as 

 well as in Grecian mythology, he is also repre- 

 sented in the most imposing situations and 

 attitudes. Proserpine is carried ofl" by Plautus 

 in a chariot drawn by four horses. Neptune, 

 swift as light, strikes the earth with his trident, 

 and the first-born horse rushes forth from its 

 I centre. Aurora ushers in the light of the 



