spring in his gallop; for a horse, when he is turned to
the right, naturally leads off with the right foot, and when turned to
the left, with the left foot.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 54: From the treatise, "On Horsemanship." Translated by J.
S. Watson. Mahaffy says this treatise on the horse "shows an insight
into the character of horses which would do credit to a modern book."
Most readers of the treatise who are familiar with horses have
remarked how true it all is of the horse as we know him to-day. One
commentator has remarked that the book reads as if it might have been
written by some educated man professionally attached to racing
stables.]

[Footnote 55: The ancients did not use the stirrup; nor did they have
a saddle in the modern sense of the word.]

PLATO

Born in AEgina of aristocratic parents about 427 B.C.; died
in Athens in 347; originally called Aristocles and surnamed
Plato because of his broad shoulders; a disciple of Socrates
and a teacher of Aristotle; was the founder of the Academic
school; in his youth a successful gymnast, soldier, and
poet; traveled in Egypt, Sicily, and Magna Graecia; arrested
in Syracuse by Dionysius, the tyrant, and sold as a slave in
AEgina, where he was released and returned to Athens;
revisited Syracuse in 367 and 361; lived afterward in Athens
until his death, which occurred at a marriage feast.[56]

I

THE IMAGE OF THE CAVE[57]

After this, I said, imagine the enlightenment or ignorance of our nature
in a figure. Behold: human beings living in a sort of underground den,
which has a mouth open toward the light and reaching all across the den;
they have been here from their childhood, and have their legs and necks
chained so that they can not move, and can see only before them; for the
chains are arranged in such a manner as to prevent them from turning
round their heads. At a distance above and behind them the light of a
fire is blazing, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a
raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the
way, like the screen which marionette-players have before them, over
which they show the puppets.

I see, he[58] said.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying vessels,
which appear over the wall; also figures of men and animals, made of
wood and stone and various materials; and some of the passengers, as
you would expect, are talking