rse now. He wasn't always, but he is now, and his usual
stand is close to our proprietor's usual stand. That's the way we have
come into communication, we "dumb animals." Ha, ha! Dumb, too! Oh, the
conceit of you men, because you can bother the community out of their five
wits, by making speeches!

Well. I mentioned to this Horse that I should be glad to have his opinions
and experiences of you. Here they are:

"At the request of my honorable friend the Raven, I proceed to offer a few
remarks in reference to the animal called Man. I have had varied
experience of this strange creature for fifteen years, and am now driven
by a Man, in the hackney cabriolet, number twelve thousand four hundred
and fifty-two.

"The sense Man entertains of his own inferiority to the nobler animals--and
I am now more particularly referring to the Horse--has impressed me
forcibly, in the course of my career. If a man knows a horse well, he is
prouder of it than of any knowledge of himself, within the range of his
limited capacity. He regards it as the sum of all human acquisition. If he
is learned in a horse, he has nothing else to learn. And the same remark
applies, with some little abatement, to his acquaintance with dogs. I have
seen a good deal of man in my time, but I think I have never met a man who
didn't feel it necessary to his reputation to pretend, on occasion, that
he knew something of horses and dogs, though he really knew nothing. As to
making us a subject of conversation, my opinion is that we are more talked
about than history, philosophy, literature, art, and science, all put
together. I have encountered innumerable gentlemen in the country, who
were totally incapable of interest in any thing but horses and dogs--except
cattle. And I have always been given to understand that they were the
flower of the civilized world.

"It is very doubtful to me, whether there is, upon the whole, any thing
man is so ambitious to imitate as an ostler, jockey, a stage coachman, a
horse-dealer, or dog-fancier. There may be some other character which I do
not immediately remember, that fires him with emulation; but if there be,
I am sure it is connected with horses or dogs, or both. This is an
unconscious compliment, on the part of the tyrant, to the nobler animals,
which I consider to be very remarkable. I have known lords and baronets,
and members of parliament, out of number, who have deserted every other
calling to become but indifferent s