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his great incumbrances) are as eafy as pofTible : 

 and that the weight he carries, or draws, be 

 proportioned to his ftrength. But depend upon 

 it, he receives no incumbrance from nature. 

 It is a maxim among all true philofophers, 

 that nature has given nothing in vain : and 

 there can be no reafonable doubt, but that 

 nature has given the horfe his tail to balance, 

 and affift his motions. That this is the cafe, 

 feems plainly from the ufe he makes of it. 

 When the animal is at reft, his tail is pendent : 

 but when he is in violent adtion ; he raifes, 

 and fpreads it, as a bird does in the /ame 

 fituation. Would the fwallow, or the dove 

 be affifted in their flight by the lofs of their 

 tails ? or the greyhound in his fpeed by dock- 

 ing him ? For myfelf, I have no doubt, 

 but if the experiment were tried at New- 

 market, which I fuppofe it never was, the 

 horfe with his long tail, however the literati 

 there might laugh at him, would not in 

 the leaft be injured in his fpeed ^ and might 

 anfwer better, in all his fudden turns, to the 

 intention of the rider. 



Befides, his tail probably affifts him even 

 in his common exertions j and balances his 



S 2 body. 



