292 HORSEMANSHIP. 



Alexander cleared himself by showing, that al- 

 though he was a prince of Macedon, he was de- 

 scended from a family that came originally from 

 Argos ; and the Hellanodics allowed him to start, 

 but he did not win. Themistocles objected to Hiero, 

 King of Syracuse, as a tyrant, and proposed that 

 the magnificent pavilion which contained his race- 

 horses should be pulled down. The objection, how- 

 ever, was overruled, _^and he became a winner ; but 

 we do not wonder, that, in a Grecian assembly, the 

 name of tyrant should have been abhorred. 



The seat of the jockey is one of peculiar elegance, 

 heightened by the almost universal symmetry of 

 his form, or figure, for very few ill-proportioned 

 men are seen in the racing saddle. The good ap- 

 pearance of the jockey is also increased by the neat 

 fit of his clothes ; his appropriate costume to his 

 calling ; the extreme cleanliness of his person, pro- 

 duced by his necessary attention to it during his 

 preparatory course of exercise ; and, though last, 

 not least, his almost affinity with the noble animal 

 we see him mounted upon. Yet for this he is, in 

 great part, indebted to Nature — to the relation 

 that the bodies of animals hold to natures alto- 

 gether external to their own ; and it is most hap- 

 pily exemplified in that of a man to his horse, 

 which appear to have been especially formed for 

 each other. But, as a celebrated moral philosopher 

 has observed, " There is throughout the universe 

 a wonderful proportioning of one thing to another. 

 The size of animals, of the human animal espe- 

 cially, when considered with respect to other ani- 



