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merit and excellence ; nay in various regions, and in 

 the moft diftant ages, were fo far from being ftran- 

 gers to the many fervices of which the Horfe was 

 capable, as to have left rules and precepts concern- 

 ing them, which are fo true and juft, that they have 

 been adopted by their fucceflbrs ; and as all art is 

 progreflive, and receives additions and improvements 

 in its courfe, as the fagacity of man at different 

 times, or chance and other caufes happen and concur ; 

 fo that having the Ancient's foundation to eredt our 

 building, it is natural to fuppofe that the flrudure has 

 received many beauties and improvements from the 

 experience and refinement of latter times. 



It is generally fuppofed that the firfl fervice in 

 which the Horfe was employed, was to affift mankind 

 in making war, or in the pleafures and occupations 

 of the chafe. XemphoUy who wrote three hundred 

 years before the Birth of Chnft, fays, in an exprefs 

 treatile which he wrote on Horfemcinfhip, that Cyrus 

 hunted on Horfeback, when he had a mind to exer- 

 cife himfelf and horfes. 



Herodotus fpeaks of hunting on Horfeback as an 

 exercife ufed in the time of DariMS^ and it is proba- 

 bly of much earlier date. He particulatly mentions 

 a fall which Darius had from his horfe in hunting, 

 by which he diflocated his heel : thefe and thoufands 

 of quotations more, which might be produced as 

 proofs of the utility of the Horfe, in remote ages, 

 are truths fo indifputably attefted that to enlarge far- 

 ther upon it would be a fiiperfiuous labour, and fo- 

 reign to my prefent undertaking, 



