THE rOLES MAY MEET. Ill 



at his fences with one than without one. In illus- 

 tration of this, I must again allude to the demi-per- 

 pendicular pole. We will suppose that we wanted 

 the fore-wheels of the carriage to rise so as to get 

 over any obstacle on the road, would the pole rising 

 up in the manner I have described in the remotest 

 way contribute to raise the wheels ? Not at all : the 

 pole only would rise, the wheels would remain dead 

 on the ground. We will say by way of hypothesis 

 that the carriage is a living object : the four wheels 

 correspond to the legs of a horse, the body to his 

 body, and the pole to his head and neck : the driving 

 seat is the fulcrum from which we act. If we wished 

 to induce the carriage to elevate its forepart, should 

 we take out the pole-pin, when by so doing we could 

 affect nothing but the pole itself? I humbly conceive 

 we should rather take care that the pole was retained 

 in its proper place ; than, by acting on its extremity, 

 the carriage, finding it could not lift up its pole alone^ 

 would lift up its foreparts altogether. Now I con- 

 sider we act in a very similar manner on a horse, and 

 that a loose-necked one, with or without a martin- 

 gal, bears a close affinity to a carriage with or with- 

 out a pole-pin. In fact, if I may use the expression 

 without having a pun added to my other sins, our 

 great object is to keep both ihm' poles in their proper 

 places. 



I have attempted giving something like an ocular 

 demonstration of what I mean, by scratching with my 

 pen in a rough way the parts of three horses, which 

 from the downward inclination of their bodies, may 

 be supposed to be either coming over a drop-leap, 

 descending a steep declivity, or tumbling on their 

 knees, whichever the Reader pleases to imagine, for 



