The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-13
From Once Week.
MAN AND THE HORSE.

/
The contest between mind and matter is IN
telligible enough. There cannot De much doubt
on which side victory will remain in the long
run, sfor it is mere question of weighing,
measuring, calculating, observing, and drawing
conclusions. Earth, sea, air--the more subtle
powers Of nature, such as electricity, heat, and
| so forth--have been pressed into the service Of
man, and rendered obedent to his will. Into
/ these contests neither passion nor feeling en-
ters. 1t is impossible to feel resentment against
a circular storm. An earthquake may inspire
the immediate patients with dread, but these
are mere victims, not combatants. They are
| not engaged in tanning the subteraneous Are
they have not pitted human reason against the
VOLCANOES unreasoning strength. When this is
| TO be done, the philosopher discoverer-eall
him what you will-will no more give way 10
emotion than Watt when he grappled with the
problem of steam, or Dayy when he fought his
successful duel with fre-damp. Whether il be
Newton specializing on the fall Of the apple, or
Agassiz calculating the downward progress of
the glacier, the human champion ia snch strug-
giles knows well that he mast not attribute feel
ing to matter, nor allow such misappfehension
TO disturb the equable play Of his own powers.
Take the other side of the picture. Between
man and his felow-rnan, the contest is in the
main emotional. Ii you want me to CRY, shed
the first tear YOURSELF said the Alsxander
Pope, of Augustin days. Nineteep-twentietbs
of mans life i speak alone of human relations)
deal with mere questions of feeling; aud doubt
IT the twentieth part can altogether be assigned
in an unmixed way to the province of reason.
Have an argument with man you dislike and
see if he viii convince you. Try and bring a
child up according TO the canons Of pure logic
Why IS a constant disputant constant bore 2
What is the meaning of oratory, poetry, muzfc
love, friendship, hatred, compassion, morrning
for those who have gone before US, and that
yearning to reloin them which is stronger than
the grave? All this is pure emotion, and of
such stuff is life made up. IT, then, you would
train child, or ever exercise any inaence upon
! your telow-creatures, you must do so mainly BY
handling those golden harmonies which are al
ways ready in every human heart to,own the
masters touch. M
But there is halfway house; and this t,r;nos
us to our immediate point. There ia such a
thing as a storm which can be taught to love
and dread you; as an electric fash which could
destroy you IN second, and which yet you can
tame to your will--not as Franklin did it, by
sending up a kite, but by caressing aud re.
buking it as you would a froward child. The
thought occurred to me the other day when \,
watched Mr. Rarey in Leicester Square as bsa
lay upon the ground, and lifted to his forehead
the hinder hoots Of wild and savage horse.
whom he had just subdued 10 his will. Not q
blow, not angry word, had passed but there
lay the horse on the litter by his side, obedisnt.
passive, PROSTATE. Not half an hour before, he
would simply have killed half dozen unarmed
men who had been shut up with him in yard,
and endeavored to cast him upon the ground
Mr. Rarey had efectually mastered the animals
nature. He had operated upon matter, bat
apon matter of SO emotional kind that during
the progress of the operation it might be re
garded as mere force (the Kratos or Bia of
Hschylus) under the absolute dominion of ter
ror and wrath.
Now, as far as it is possible to do so in words,
my wish is to make clear to the raader what /
saw myself on the day in question. 1t ia, how
ever, transaction which can only be fully
comprehended If it is seen. In common with
others, had read the little sixpenny book pub
lshad hE -Rnniledre- -eptitied The Iamino Of
was done, was pretty much in the situation
ofthe Bourgeois Gentilhomme when his fencng
master put foil in his hand, and told him that
the whole science Of fencing consisted in kilIns
your adversary, and not being killed yourself I
found at the conclusion of that little work, that
when l wanted to make horse lie down--that
horse being Cruiser or the King Of Oude-aIl
had TO do was to bend his left fore-leg and
slip loop over it, so that he could not get il
down. The next point was to put circingle
round his body, Cruisers body y aud fasten
one end of a long strap around the other fore
leg, Just above the hoof, 1.-THE King of Dudes
hoorD Then | was to place the other end un.
der the cireingle, so as to keep the strap in the
right direction to take a short hold of it with
my right hand to stand on the left side of the
horse to grasp the bit in my left hand to pull
steadily upon the strap with my right to bear
against his shoulder till I caused him to move.
IA soon as | lifted his weight-so l read-my
pulling would raise his other foot and he would
then have to come on his knees.
AT this point, was above all things to be
careful to keep tho strap tight in my hand, so
that he could not straighten his leg il he rose
up. AS ] held him in this position, he would
turn bis head towards me was then to bear
against his side with my shoulder not hard,
certainly not,) but with steady, equal pres
sure. and In about ten minutes he would lie
down. AS soon "a he was down, he would be
completely conquered, and might handle him
as pleased. That no doubt, would be very
pleasant moment, if ever it arrived but could
not help feeling throughout that in all probabn-
ty, before the ten minutes were out either
Cruiser or the Sovereign Of Dude would have
tanned me- in very effectual manner, all straps,
loops, and circingles, to the contrary notwith-
standing.
l can positively AFFIRM that this is precisely
what Mr.. Rarey did !; but although the direc.
tons are as accurately Transcribed from his own
little book as the necessary inversion of the
phrases will permit, affirm, with equal GER
tainty that they would be Of very little use to
any one who had not seen the operation actual.
ly performed. l more than doubt in the case
of any animal of peculiarly savage and vicious
character, There are Rushes as well rs Ober-
Inns amongst the equine tribe,) if any man, not
possessed of Mr. Rarey's own extraordinary
nerve and selfpossession, could carry the ex-
pertinent to a successful issue, even after he
had witnessed one of the great horsetamer,s
struggles and victories. Ordinary horse-tamers,
well-imbued with his method, may succeed
with ordinary horses, and, even so, an incalcu-
liable amount of good will have been worked
but the horse which is miracle of sayagery
and madness will still require the man who is a
miracle of cool courage to bring him TO his
bearings. This, however in no way detracts
from the value of Mr. Rarey's method; the
proved success of which ought to work an en-
tire change in our system of horse breaking. l
simply mean, that as you must call III first
rate surgeon to perform some operation OF Pc
culiar difficulty, so you will always be compelled
to place such horse as Cruiser in the hands
of Mr.. Rarey himself, or his successor--if such
an one may be found--if you would not see the
man torn or mashed to pieces, and the expert
ment failure.
1t is a grand sight when the horse is first
brought in. What snoring, and shriekinz,
and plunging, aud vicious display Of teeth. Let
us suppose the horse at first to be free, or that
he has broken loose from the heac stall or long
halter which had helped 70 Introduce him to
the presence. Avid horse, thofoa ghEy roased
to the top of his bent, under the influences of rags
and fear, is sight which he who has once seen
Al fs&tfo 4.