The First Race Meetings 33 



for a time as undistinguishable in form and color, 

 as the viewless spirits of the air through which 

 they were passing, and with which, it took no great 

 stretch of a poet's fancy to imagine, they were 

 joyfully gambolling. A deep and strange silence 

 brooded over the crowd. Every eye was intently 

 fixed upon the competitors, as with flanks smok- 

 ing, eyes dilated, nostrils heaving, with sinews of 

 steel they reached the winning chair. Anxiety 

 seemed to have deprived the spectators of their 

 breath, until the goal was past, and the victory 

 won. Then a long shout, or rather a loud 

 murmur of admiration, escaped from the lips of 

 all those, whose hearts, a moment before, were too 

 full for words ; and who, even then, when the race 

 was over, from witnessing the changes and doubt- 

 ful vicissitudes of this truly beautiful contest, were 

 a little bewildered, beside themselves with delight 

 — a sort of cloud, hoverins:, as it were, before 

 their mental vision, rendering them uncertain for 

 a time whether the animated scene around them, 

 the exciting race, the moving figures, had been 

 real all, or only one of those pictured illusions in 

 some wonderful phantasmagoria, which are seen, 

 sometimes conjured up by necromantic art, 

 neither a reality nor yet a dream ! 



