ADDKESS OF MK. LORING. 



23 



The beautiful description which Virgil gives of a 

 good steed in his day is just as true in our own : — 



** Choose with like care the courser's generous breed, 

 And from his birth, prepare the parent steed ; 

 His color mark, select the glossy bay, 

 And to the white or dun, prefer the gray. 

 As yet a colt he stalks with lofty pace, 

 And balances his limbs with flexile grace : 

 First leads the way, the threat 'ning torrent braves^ 

 And dares the unknown arch that spans the waves. 

 Light on his airy crest his slender head — 

 His body short, his loins luxuriant spread ; 

 Muscle on muscle knots his brawny breast, 

 No fear alarms him, nor vain shouts molest. 

 O'er his right shoulder, floating full and fair. 

 Sweeps his thick mane, and spreads its pomp of hair ; 

 Swift works his double spine, and earth around 

 Rings to his solid hoof that wears the ground." 



Now we have this animal as the natural product of 

 our farms. I know not how it has come to pass — but 

 it is a fact, that the farmer's horse in New England is 

 peculiar to himself, and is moreover peculiarly an 

 American institution. He may be descended from the' 

 thorough-bred, for anything that can be said to the con- 

 trary ; but the farther he is removed from that rather 

 equivocal class of animals, the more truly does he 

 become a trotter. I look upon him as one result of 

 that social and civil equality which in our own country 

 makes one man's time as valuable as another's, and 

 which authorizes the farmer's boy to take the road from 

 the squire, or the parson, or the doctor, whenever his 

 colt can do it. Every man in this country who can 

 keep a horse, w^ants a good one, and when he has got 

 him^ he wants to avail himself of his horse's powers. 



