usually experienced by riders while they continue on the backs of their horses, I have never yet met with or been informed of one, who received any sensible delight from the circumstance of being violently projected from the saddle. But here, Sir, from my passionate fondness for the mathematics, I enjoy a manifest advantage. From the concussions, repercussions, and every other kind of compound motion which can be generated consistently with the due support of the centre of gravity, I enjoy, I will venture to say, at least as much satisfaction as any other rider: and at the time of being thrown off, or, in more proper language, projected from the horse, I experience a peculiar delight in recollecting that, by the universal laws of projectiles, I must, in my flight through the air, describe that beautiful conic section, a parabola.
After some accidents of this nature, I have been fortunate enough, notwithstanding the violent re-action of the ground in consequence of the strong action of my skull against it, to
