588 
YERTEBEATA. 
THE EACE-COUHSE. 
part whicli the liorse plays in war, and in farther reflecting npon his temper, which makes him 
the intimate associate of man, and on his instincts, which in many cases surpass reason, we readily 
catch the thi-ead of association by which the imaginative Greeks were led to mount the poet who 
would scale the giddy heights of Parnassus upon the winged Pegasus, and, amid the superstitions 
of the Middle Ages, created for the heroes of chivalry horses endowed with wings and the gifts of 
enchantment. The same impulse that led poets to deify heroes, caused them to confer similar 
and often greater powers on their companion, the most heroic of animals. The cart-horse may 
be more useful than the war-horse, as the plowman may be more useful than the warrior, but 
what minstrel has ever chanted the praises of these humble drudges ? The love of chivalrous 
deeds is inherent in human nature, and he who tells their story will always have listeners. Cer- 
vantes, with a fine perception of the feelings of mankind, though his purpose was to ridicule the 
extravagance of chivalry, never made either Don Quixote or Rosinante contemptible. In the 
midst of all their misadventures there is a certain dignity which commands our respect, even 
while our sides arc bursting with laughter. With Sanclio and his ass it is otherwise : these are 
presented in tlie full breadth of their native meanness and vulgarity. And this portraiture, as it 
reflects the human heart, has for centuries received the sanction of mankind. The warrior has 
always captivated the jDopular imagination, and the war-horse is the beau ideal of his race, as well 
in the sacred page as the common sense of mankind. 
It is not to be supposed, however, that it is in war alone that the horse commends himself to 
mankind. On the "Turf" he creates a new world, w'ith its own peculiar atmosphere, its own dia- 
lect, its own codes, its own literature. Nowhere can we find a more exciting spectacle than the 
race-course, especially in England, where princes and nobles produce their favorite steeds to con- 
tend for the prizes, and themselves enter into all the mad enthusiasm of the scene, often risking 
thousands of poimds on the chance of a single race. Under the saddle the horse imparts to his 
rider an exultant emotion like that we feel in dreaming, when we seem to be flying. The young 
sidered, this animal has been one of the chief instruments of human progress and human civilization. So miich is 
almost confessed in the statement that in the coniiict betvreen Cortez and the Mexicans the horse made the essential 
ditference; for it gave civilization the ascendency over barbarism. The fact is striking and well put, but it is to the 
credit of this noble animal, and affords an additional testimonial to the great work it has done in its association with 
man. A recent writer has given us the "History of Man upon the Seaf a " Historoj of Man upon tTie Hors^' would 
be a theme hardly less exciting ; at least we think it would be more so than the " JSistory of Man witlhout the ^bm," . 
which would be little more than the history of barbarism. 
