ORACLES OF THE HORSE. 
103 
Adriatic, and the Archipelago, and rushed on death with the same 
impetuosity as on pleasure or the chase? 
I might, for the same cause, ask what has become of those proud 
Gallic horses so terrible in combat, according to Guichardin and 
others, who actively engaged themselves in all affrays, attacking 
each other’s riders, biting each other’s necks, rearing and striking 
out on all sides to enlarge the circle around their own rider. 
Alas ! it is long since these brave times are past into desuetude, 
and the level of discipline has killed in the private soldier all de- 
velopment of courage, devotion, ambition! The French horse has 
had all, all that he needed, to please — all that the Teutons required 
of an accomplished horse, the grace, the tresses, and the pride of 
woman ; the piercing eye, cool blood, and appetite of the wolf ; 
the straight ear, thick tail, and suppleness of the fox. If he and 
his riders have perished for not knowing how to make a sacred 
and worthy use of so many precious gifts, let his ruin be at least a 
lesson for our future. Discite justiciam moniti. Horses and gen- 
tlemen, warned by the avenging voice of revolutions ; learn that the 
duties of individuals are in the direct ratio of their faculties ; that 
the more we can do for the good of our brothers in God, the more 
we ought to do, that idleness and parasitism are real thefts for 
all but the idiot and the paralytic, and henceforth try to conform 
your acts to your principles. For the adoration of grace and form 
is not forever destroyed because the grocer reigns and governs in 
France. Let the horse bear a little longer; the grocer’s reign is 
not eternal ; the grocer will pass as saffron and muscade have 
passed, and with Harmony will return the rivalry of beauty, vigor, 
suppleness : the cavalcades, emblazoned with the escutcheons of 
the series, and endless tournaments of laborers, and quadrilles, and 
eternal feasts ; and the existence of the horse will be only joy, en- 
chantment, intoxication. Then let every noble creature which has 
some intelligence in its brain, some beauty in its form, turn its 
eyes with me toward the happiness of the future, to console itself 
for the miseries of the present. 
I wish to state, in conclusion, two problems on the horse for the 
learned institutes ; 
Why does the horse, so strong a friend of cleanliness, muddy 
the water before drinking ? 
