CELEBRATED BY AXCIENT WRITERS. lo'S 



tliis, and all the other passages in Scripture in 

 which the horse is mentioned. VirgiFs represen- 

 tation of him, in his third Georgic, is considered 

 as the nearest approach to that of the sacred writer ; 

 and the speech, in the tenth ^Eneid, of the hero 

 Mezentius to his favourite charger, when on the 

 point of sallying forth to avenge the death of his 

 son, is not exceeded, in the pathetic, by any other 

 passage in the poem. Homer is blamed for his 

 too frequent allusions to the horse ; but the his- 

 tory of all wars produces materials for panegyrics 

 on this noble animal. The far-famed Bucephalus 

 is said to have preserved the life of Alexander, by 

 carrying him out of reach of the enemy, although 

 he had received his mortal wound, and dropped 

 down dead immediately on his (Alexander's) 

 alighting from his back. In the battle which was 

 to decide the fate of Persia, on the ground upon 

 which the oreat Nineveh once stood, the merit of 

 the victory was chiefly ascribed, by the Byzantine 

 historians, not to the military conduct, but to the 

 personal valour of their favourite hero, in which 

 his horse bore his share. " On this memorable 

 day,'** says the eloquent Gibbon, '' Heraclius, on 

 his horse Phallas, surpassed the bravest of his war- 

 riors. His lip was pierced with a spear, the steed 

 was wounded in the thigh, but he carried his mas- 

 ter safe and victorious through the triple phalanx 

 of the barbarians." How many -British soldiers 

 have owed the preservation of their lives to the 

 courage and docility of their horses. 



The movement of turnino- beins^ the most diffi- 



