498 
.TfeROME BUCK. 
creation; the eagles of Rome were only glorified for carrying 
to ultima thule the science of law and of arms, through the irre¬ 
sistible genius of Csesar and the stalwart prowess of the Roman 
soldier. We almost question the absolute supremacy of our civil¬ 
ization and hesitate over our marvellous achievements in science, 
art and philosophy as we dubiously contrast them with the bold, 
sweeping and consummate triumphs of former civilizations. We 
have not gone beyond the deftness and grace of the chisels of 
Phidias and Praxiteles, or the pencils of Apelles and Zeuxis. We 
have not surpassed in military genius and energy the matchless 
swords of Alexander or of Ctesar. Modern philosophy with the 
tubes of Galileo has not swept the stars with a much more certain 
gaze, than the astronomers of old, nor gone beyond in profounder 
depths of metaphysics the rhapsodies that Plato taught on the 
porches of the academy. Yet in all their untrammeled reaches, 
in all the soaring liberality of their educated and refined natures, 
no such divine light illuminated the most glorious of their 
achievements, as that which emphatically exacts from us our 
fervid sympathy and highest appreciation. Not for us alone ! 
The conquest of Bucephalus by Alexander was not under the 
benign teaching of your motto, for the glory was all Alexander’s 
and none for the horse. Neither can we find place for the pom¬ 
pous Icilius under its liberal scope : the. marble manger for his 
horse was but an expression of the wealth, grandeur and vanity 
of the Consul. At a more recent period, however, a horse achieved 
the glory of martyrdom for exhibiting the bright traits of a keen 
intelligence. Captain Banks in 1609 with his horse ascended the 
dome of St. Paul’s in London, to the astonishment of the be¬ 
holders, and subsequently performed at Rome such startling feats, 
that it was decreed by a less intelligent body of envious brutes, 
that the horse and its owner should perish at the stake as en¬ 
chanters. Who would rather not die with such an intelligent and 
affectionate animal, than live an age and tolerate the ignorance 
and superstitious society of his bifurcated inferiors, with the un¬ 
enlightened faith of the poor Indian 
Who thiuks admitted to that equal sky, 
His faithful dog shall hear him company. 
