12 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



wholly pastoral. With their mode of life the horse might 

 not have been compatible. It can prove no more than that 

 the horse is not, in the earHest records, to be found together 

 with flocks and herds any more than the same animal is at 

 the present day. But it is argued that Job, who is described 

 as an earthly prince, " the richest man of all the East," did 

 not possess a single horse. This also is by no means proved. 

 Such ample property, in flocks and herds, would to one man 

 be rather a pest, without equal means to defend them. Had 

 Job one half the animals he is described as owning, he must 

 also have had a large tract of land on which to pasture them. 

 Flocks and land necessitated soldiers to defend them, yet 

 not a single soldier is mentioned among Job's retainers, 

 nor a single arm spoken of as among his property. 



How is this omission to be accounted for ? Were those 

 days blessed with ignorance of armies ? This cannot be 

 believed, for the captains are spoken of, and in the same 

 passage the horse is mentioned. But the animal is alluded 

 to only in connexion with men trained to warfare. He was 

 evidently not then associated with the uses of peace. Those 

 who attentively peruse the description of the horse given in 

 the book of Job will at once perceive that it is a fierce, 

 half-broken creature, of which the poet speaks. The pas- 

 sage has been much admired, but no one could now long be 

 possessed of such an animal without deeply repenting when 

 he had acquired it. It was a semi-wild brute, employed 

 only in the deadliest strife ; and as Job is then described, 

 a man surrounded by the good things of this life, and 

 basking in the sunshine of peace, of course neither captain 

 nor horse are introduced as constituting part of his pos- 

 sessions. 



The Romans are described to have exported horses from 

 England after Julius Caesar first invaded the country. 

 This, to people who assume the docility of the beast must be 

 represented by the refinement of the man, may appear pre- 

 posterous. But the two states are by no means co-existent. 

 A nation may be far advanced in civilization, as the Chinese, 

 and yet the animals in their possession be comparatively 

 mean or worthless. That the horses in Julius Caesar's 

 army were not possessed either of uncommon power or 

 dociUty, is proved by that general often gaining a battle 



