PRELIMINARY IDEAS. 343 



instances the arrangement of the parts is different. In this respect, 

 it is plain that the type of a handsome draught-horse approaches as 

 near perfection, in its way, as that of a fine race-horse. Both satisfy 

 in the same degree, although in a different way, the requirements of 

 the true connoisseur, for both are the expressions of a perfect adap- 

 tation to the end desired. 



Proportions are then ^roocZ or bad, perfect or defective ; the subject 

 in which they are found is well formed, correct in his lines, has a hand- 

 some form, beautiful symmetry, beautiful lines ; or he is in two pieces, 

 inharmoniously constructed, ivanting inform and in symmetry. 



The Agreeable, the Beautiful, and the Good. — "But," 

 Bourgelat^ says, " it is just as certain that all eyes have not the power 

 to judge well, though, as it is a fact that all men indiscriminately 

 believe that they have the right of judging. However, the decisions 

 formed upon the knowledge of certain established and demonstrated 

 rules are the only ones which should be held as the law ; for every 

 judgment which has for its foundation only fancy, prejudice, inclination, 

 a purely customary and imperfected notion of the thing, is only a self- 

 conceited and often false opinion, denied by some, accepted by others, 

 and sometimes even soon abandoned by him who has conceived it." 



Thus the distinction between the agreeable and the beautiful in 

 things pertaining to the horse has for a long time, as we know, been 

 very clearly established ; between that which pleases the eye and that 

 which signifies energy, vigor, a perfect adaptation of the motor to its 

 end; between that which is self-conceit, prejudice, mode, and that 

 which is reason or demonstrated truth, science. 



What, then, are the qualities which impress the laity, — that is to 

 say, the mass of people, ignorant of the facts of which we speak ? 

 Elegance of form, gracefulness of attitude and movement, roundness 

 of the lines, indicating an easy, graceful action, and implying the 

 absence of effort in the movements ; vivacity, mobility, a certain 

 gentle look of distinction in the physiognomy, which admits the pre- 

 dominance of moral perfection over the purely physical instincts. 

 The animal which performs a laborious work contracts his muscles, 

 stiffens his spine, extends his members, and shows under his skin a 

 multitude of angular projections, straight or broken lines, w^hich sug- 

 gest vigor, energy, power, but which always indicate hard labor. 

 Hence it is that we dwell, in preference, unknown to ourselves, on 

 the spectacle of this energy in the state of rest, for as soon as it 



1 C. Bourgelat, Trait6 de la conformation ext6rieure du cheval, 5e 6d., p. 194. 



