THE 
CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
AND 
AwmmmAW roil 
THE HORSE. 
EQUUS CAB/ILL US. 
[Plate I. Vol. 2.] 
From the very exalted station which the noble animal, 
the Horse, holds with man, a concise history of the vari- 
ous breeds of horses, may be interesting and worthy of 
attentive perusal; we have accordingly made selections on 
this head, from a variety of authors, eminent as naturalists 
and travellers, and embracing, we believe, almost every 
species known. 
Of all brute animals in a state of association with the 
human race, the Horse occupies the first and most impor- 
tant rank. He forms an indispensable link in the chain of 
Creation: without him, nature’s system and human en- 
joyments had been incomplete. He contributes equally 
to the services, luxuries, and pleasures of man. Whether 
it be laboriously to till the soil, as an associate with the 
patient ox, to carry the heaviest burdens, or to perform 
the longest and most painful journies, the Horse is the 
ready and obedient slave of his master. Nature has en- 
dowed this her favourite animal with a degree of intelli- 
gence and a generous inclination to obedience, which 
render him highly susceptible of education. His form 
and qualities are admirably adapted by the Eternal and 
Unerring Artist, to the particular rank he is intended to 
fill in the scale of being. He is either fashioned to sustain 
heavy burdens, and to endure the coarsest drudgery, or 
endued with that just and beautiful symmetry of form and 
delicacy of skin, which convey to the critical and scien- 
tific view, ideas of perfection, and which are harbingers 
of the highest degree of quadrupedal activity and speed. 
His full eye beams with mildness and generosity, or spar- 
kles with the fire of courage, energy, and action. In war, 
he offers a dauntless front to the greatest dangers, engag- 
ing in the mortal strife and clangor of battle, unappalled, 
and as actuated by an undivided and equal interest with 
A 
his rider. In the field and on the course, he exhibits a 
speed, and power of continuance, a firmness of nerve, a 
strength of muscle and elasticity of sinew, of which no 
other animal of the creation is capable; bearing his rider 
along, over plains, hills, and vallies, as if impelled by su- 
pernatural energy: but all descriptions of the Horse must 
give place to that inspired one of Job, which has elevated 
and delighted the minds of men of all ages and all na- 
tions: — 
“ Hast thou given the Horse strength? Hast thou clothed 
his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a 
grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He 
paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength. He 
goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, 
and is not affrighted: neither turneth he his back from the 
sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering 
spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with 
fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the 
sound of the trumpet. He sayeth among the trumpets, 
ha! ha! and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of 
the captains, and the shouting.” 
Job was a native of those desarts, to which is indigenous 
that fine and delicate model of the horse genus, from his 
superior speed, styled the Courser. These beautiful ani- 
mals are supposed to have originated in the desarts of 
Arabia, of Barbary, and of some other parts of Africa, and 
from those to have migrated to the circumjacent countries. 
Granting this to be supposition, it is confirmed by an 
unbroken evidence of facts during thousands of years, 
recourse being invariably had to those desarts for supplies 
of this matchless race: but there exists no record of suffi- 
cient antiquity to reach the first example of taming the 
horse, since the most ancient histories represent him as 
already inured to the service of man. 
The noblest conquest which was ever made by man is 
that of this spirited and haughty animal, which shares with 
him the fatigues of war and the glory of the combat. 
Equally intrepid as his master, the Horse sees the danger, 
and braves it; inspired at the clash of arms, he loves it, 
