118 THE HOUSE AND HIS EIDER. 



#n acceleration of pace, its violence is increased, the 

 domination of the tyrant at every stride is innnitesimally 

 diminished in consequence of the nails, which have to 

 bear the whole brunt of the battle, becoming looser and 

 looser, until, by a jump on hard ground, or some other 

 violent concussion, the expansive power of the foot bursts 

 the impaired fetters that have been restraining it, and 

 the poor animal, thus suddenly emancipated from his shoe, 

 leaves it either buried in mud, or, with every nail in its 

 socket, glittering on the grass behind him. 



Now, under the system of half-nailing, the battle we 

 have just very faintly described does not take place. 

 The foot can't struggle against nails which don't exist ; 

 and accordingly, just as the pliant reed remains erect 

 after the storm that in its immediate neighbourhood has 

 torn up by its roots the sturdy oak, so does the half- 

 nailed shoe, by allowing the horse's foot to expand, per- 

 form by gentleness what violence has failed to effect; 

 and therefore it remains, throughout a severe run, hard 

 and fast, where Vulcan placed it. 



The Greeks and Eomans did not shoe their horses, 

 but, for long journeys, were in the habit of protecting, 

 by leathern sandals, strengthened by iron, and orna- 

 mented with silver or gold, their feet, to the substance 

 and shape of which they paid great attention. 



" The first thing," wrote Xenophon more than 22CO years ago, 



