ATTIC HORSES, OF XENOPHON. 35 



race-course, nowhere in a liunting field, and worse than nowhere 

 in a cavah-y action. 



This, of course, accounts easily enougli for the small use of 

 cavalry by the ancients in action, especially against the favorite 

 tactic of the phalanx, which, while in unshaken order, would 

 have hurled back the charge of Murat's or Milhaud's cuiras- 

 siers, as a rock does the surges. 



We now come to the writings of Xenophon, which, as the 

 animal he describes is evidently identical with the horse of the 

 Phidian school of sculpture, furnish a complete reply to the ar- 

 gument of those, who would insinuate that works of art are not 

 to be construed into copies of existing realities, but are simply 

 expressions of an ideal type ; and who consequently argue, that 

 the horses of the Elgin marbles, like the lions of Rubens, are 

 poetical or artistical fictions ; not, like the Bulls of Paul Potter 

 and the Dogs of Landseer, the present images of the creatures 

 which they represent. 



I have said that Xenophon's instructions are admirable, and 

 the points on which he insists, as well as his reasons for insist- 

 ing on them, precisely tliose which would be required and as- 

 signed by an expert veterinarian to-day. They are, however, 

 the points, as I have observed, of a clever active Gallow^ay or 

 Cob, not of a thorough-bred, a hunter, or even a cavalry charger, 

 much less of a pure Barb or Arab. 



" First," he says, " we will write, how one may be the least 

 deceived in the purchase of horses. It is evident, then, that of 

 the unbroken colt one must judge by the bodily construction ; 

 since, if he have never been backed, he will afford no very clear 

 evidences of his spirit. Of his body, then, we say that it is 

 necessary first to examine the feet ; for, as in a house it matters 

 not how fine may be the superstructure, if there be not sufiicient 

 foundations, so in a war horse there is no utility, no, not if he 

 have all other points perfect, but be badly footed. But in ex- 

 amining the feet, it is befitting first to look to the horny portion 

 of the hoofs, for those horses which have the horn thick, are far 

 superior in their feet to those which have it thin. Nor will it 

 be well if one fail, next, to observe whether the hoofs be up- 

 right, both before and behind, or low and flat to the ground ; 

 for high hoofs keep the frog at a distance from the earth, while 



