THE HORSE AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 9T 
sion of the minor sex. I know a superb volume to be written with 
the two words antipathy, sympathy. 
I have read in a book of fables that, in order to put to flight the 
most famished bear, it was sufficient to play some air upon a drum 
made of horse-skin. Let us follow the fortune of the horse in its 
different phases, and the corresponding picture of the different 
phases of humanity will unfold itself before our eyes. 
The Horse is a conquest of the Hog, one of the pivots of the pa- 
triarchal tribe. 
The tribe once become conqueror, and its tents deserted for the 
palaces of Babylon, it passes from the patriarchate to barbarism. 
The victorious horde immediately needs to organize itself, to im- 
plant itself solidly upon the soil of the conquered country. It 
commences by ennobling the service of the' Horse, which has been 
good for half in its victories. The ennobling of the horse is, prop- 
erly speaking, the constitution of the feudal system. The first 
functionary of the state, after the king, is called constable (chief of 
the stable) ; then comes the marshal (physician of the horse) ; then 
the great ecuyer (first foot-servant of the horse), and the rest in 
order. I regret being here obliged to mention that from our an- 
cestors, the Germans and Scythians, derives the singular habit of 
clipping the mane and tail of our horses. The German horse 
were long a subject of expense to the Italian, after which the 
parts changed. 
The apogee of the Horse’s splendor tells of the fine days of feu- 
dal nobility and of chivalry. The horse’s name stands in the 
songs of poets beside that of the noblest heroes. 
One ‘day this fortune declines. The brave Bayard is struck 
with a cannon-ball ; gunpowder has killed the horse and the feu- 
dal system at the same blow. The spirit of examination rises and 
protests ; the dawn of popular liberties stains the horizon. 
How, with the same facility that the war-horse has told us of 
past times, barbarism and the patriarchate, Abraham and Semira- 
mis. Home and Athens ; he will tell us of present times, and per- 
haps if we question well, of the future. Let us see how it goes 
now in England and France. In what country of Europe does the 
blooded horse still enjoy the most brilliant part ? It is England ! 
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