QUALITIES OF THE HORSE. 3 



employed the horse, were the great centres of antique civil- 

 ization ; and it may safely be asserted, that, without him, 

 the human race could not have reached its present state 

 of refinement, or have been able to contend against the 

 numerous obstacles to comfort and happiness which have 

 surrounded it ; indeed, it has been said, that next to the 

 want of iron, the want of horses would have been, per- 

 haps, one of the greatest physical barriers to the advance- 

 ment of the arts of civilized life. 



Doubtless, what might be termed the moral qualities 

 of the horse, had largely conduced to make him so serv- 

 iceable in all ages, but by far the largest share must be 

 attributed to those of a physical kind. Strength, speed, 

 endurance, and astonishing alacrity have endowed him 

 with his most useful characteristics, and given him the 

 pre-eminence over all other dom.esticated animals ; and 

 these qualities again depend upon a marvellous adaptation 

 of the organs and textures of which he is composed to 

 the most varied requirements. 



Cuvier has somewhere said of the horse, that but for 

 the space of bare gum between the incisor and molar 

 teeth which affords space for the insertion and action of 

 the bit, it would never have been subjected to the power 

 of man. Far rather with truth may it be said, that but 

 for the horse being endowed with a hoof which covers 

 and protects the most beautiful and delicate of structures, 

 and which being solid and a slow conductor of heat and 

 cold, fits it for travelling in snow and ice during the winter 

 of northern regions, and in the burning sands of tropical 

 climates, he would scarcely have proved himself worth 

 the trouble of domesticating. Aieans could have been 



