82 XENOPHON ON HORSEMANSHIP. 



to find in the works of all sorts of artists, 

 good, bad, and indifferent, the same consen- 

 sus that really is to be found in the writings 

 of the authors. But the works of art have 

 survived to us from different centuries by 

 means of all kinds of accidents, and they were 

 produced for all kinds of reasons. The books 

 have survived, generally, for the reason that 

 they were fittest for survival. The authors 

 lived, none of them, before the classical period, 

 and each of them undertook to describe a 

 horse because he knew the animal himself, 

 and had spent a good part of his life with 

 horses, or because he could copy the words 

 of authors of more practical experience than 

 his own. There can be no question of the 

 vast advantage of the books over the works 

 of art in deciding such a matter as this. 



There would be nothing very surprising, 

 therefore, in the want of agreement in art, if 

 such want there be, upon a type of horse 

 which we can take for the ideal animal. But 

 nobody should thence proceed to argue that 

 there was no such type already determined 

 by judges of horseflesh and agreed upon 

 even by artists. It would be much more 



