ON SHOEING THE HORSE. 
281 
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horses' hoofs shall lie tread down thy streets,” Ezekiel xxvi, 11 
Speaking of the downfall of Tyre, also, “ Arise and thresh, O 
daughter of Zion ; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will 
make thy hoofs brass," Micah iv, 13. There is a remarkable expres¬ 
sion of the prophet Isaiah, who, in foretelling the downfal of Je¬ 
rusalem, uses these words : “ Whose arrows are sharp and all 
their bows bent; their horses* hoofs shall be accounted like flint, 
and their wheels like a whirlwind," chap, v, 28 ; alluding 
to the Roman armies, who but too dreadfully fulfilled this pro- 
also to be remarked, that here the material selected for 
the metaphor or epithet of strength, is harder than brass, and 
such as could in no way be made into shoes. Also, their sculp¬ 
tured figures of horses, on the celebrated columns of Trajan and 
Antoninus, everywhere without shoes, come in strong confirma¬ 
tion of this truth." 
From the combined testimony of Homer and the Holy Volume, 
Mr. Clark resorts to other ancient writers for further proofs of his 
assertions—such as have been “ engaged in rustic occupations 
and in war:" among these we find Diodorus Siculus, Cinnapius, 
Appianus, &c.; also Varro, Columella, and Vegetius. 
Mr. Clark next explains to us what kind of defence was, on oc¬ 
casions, resorted to by the ancients. We shall find it very dif¬ 
ferent from an iron ring with nails inserted into the hoof, as is 
the modern custom. 
“ Though it was certainly not the custom of the ancients to 
shoe their horses, yet they appear at times to have had recourse, 
in difficulties, and in cases of abrasion, to artificial defence, and 
which was probably of the most simple kind. 
“ And w r e have seen by the preceding quotation from Sueto¬ 
nius, that the horses of the Emperor Vespasian were defended in 
some way, as the coachman or muleteer got down to fasten one 
of them, w r hile a petitioner for some favour gained opportunity of 
access to the emperor, who, suspecting the trick, facetiously asks 
the man how much he should get for the shoeing, as c he meant 
to go halves with him it is clear, therefore, some defences on 
that occasion were used : now, the question is, as they could not * 
be nailed shoes, of what description were they ?" 
After culling passages from several Greek and Latin authors, 
bearing more or less upon his subject, our author sums up all the 
information he has been able to collect in the following paragraph :— 
“ It is, therefore, most manifest and clear from all the passages 
formerly quoted, and many others we might quote from Vegetius 
himself, concerning ‘detritis pedibus/ and ‘subtritis pedibus,' 
lib. 2, c. 58; also, ‘animalium unguis asperitate ac longitudine 
vol. IV. Qq 
phecy 
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