ENGLISH IDEAL OF THE HORSE. 
99 
which allows every rebellious impulse to be restrained by the 
slightest pressure, which forces the head of the animal to approach 
his chest. In this position, the bit bears upon the bars, the most 
sensitive part of the. horse’s mouth: an infant could guide him 
with a silken thread This system of elastic curves, which succeed 
and correspond to each other over the whole extent of the body, 
from the top of the head to the extremities of the limbs, had 
been imagined only to soften to the horseman the jar of the shock, 
and to convert the movement of the gallop into a gentle swaying. 
There was the secret of the exquisitely mild reactions of the Arab 
Horse, of the grace of his gait and the sureness of his foot. 
The Britannic genius has experienced the necessity to ameliorate 
these forms, and to approach them to the type of that ideal 
beauty which its ardent imagination caresses (the right angle), 
type on whose pattern it had already cut the step and costume 
of the women of its country. The Englishman has spent mil- 
lions on millions, and two centuries of efforts to obtain the won- 
derful result which is called the race-horse. 
I would give something handsome to illustrate my opinion by 
the aid of an image representing a stylish horse, with a concave 
chest ; the head of a she goat, an angular crupper, adorned with a 
rat’s tail, and mounted by a hideous jockey, who should be sepa- 
rated from his saddle by a respectable distance, and making a 
hideous grimace expressive of the atrocious reactions of his 
steed. 
This marvel of Britannic perfection, which recalls to all those 
who have yawned over geometry, certain charming details of the 
square of the hypotenuse, has then atrocious reactions, a hard 
mouth and a treacherous foot. 
For this last reason it is forbidden to run elsewhere than on a 
soil perfectly smooth, not slippery, and carefully graveled. Those 
beasts work three or four times a year, three or four minutes each 
time. They are besides fit neither for hunting, for war, or for 
pleasure riding. Steeds of this species claimed a special race of 
grooms. 
By the aid of superior chemical procedures, the Englishman 
has attained to create the jockey, an intermediary race between 
