ON BREEDING. 
“ Ignem que vomentes 
Ambrosiae succo saturos praesepibus altis 
Quadrupedes ducunt;” 
and imagines the sun rode along the sky in a chariot drawn by 
swift horses, to communicate his light and warmth to mankind. 
Virgil, in his “ poetic flight,” soars even beyond this, by sup¬ 
posing some of them to be composed of different materials from 
other animals. In consequence of their immense speed, he calls 
them u air-born racers,” from an idea that mares have conceived 
by the western wind, and propagated their kind without the assist¬ 
ance of the male: 
“ IlIcC 
Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum, stant rnpibus altis, 
Exceptant que Jeves auras ; et sagpe sine ullis 
Conjugiis, vento gravedae (mirabile dictu!)” &c.; 
from whence Tasso has evidently borrowed the birth of “ Ray¬ 
mond s horse Gierusalem,” Canto 7, and thus beautifully describes 
him: 
“ Volta fapertabocca incontro I ? ora 
Raecagliae i semi del fecondo vento, 
E de tepidi fiati (o meraviglia),” &c. 
The sacred writings speak of the horse as one of the noblest 
animals of the brute creation, celebrated for beauty, speed, dig¬ 
nity, wantonness, natural fierceness, tameableness, courage, 
strength, and adapted for burden, draught and war: 
“ 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 tear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from 
the sword,’ 7 &c. &c. 
This bold, energetic, and sublime description excels every other, 
either ancient or modern; and the nearest approach to it is that 
ot Shakespeare, that intimate and exquisite judge of nature 
in all its forms : it deserves attention, if it only indicate the vast 
stretch of the poet’s imagination: 
“ He’s of the colour of nutmeg, and of the heat of ginger— 
It is a beast for Perseus; he is as pure as air and fire, and 
The dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, 
But only in patient stilness, while his rider mounts him :— 
He is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts.” 
Nothing can be more surprising than the* exactness with which 
the horse accomplishes every thing that is required of him— 
“ Nil actum reputans si quid superesset agendum.” 
