for ever put an end to the dangerous vice of running away.
By the use of the principles of astronomy, I have invented a mode of taking the exact altitude of any horse, at two observations; and am at present at work on a Hippodromometer[1], to ascertain the velocity of his course in the very art of riding.
But while I boast, and, I trust, with reason, of these discoveries, I must candidly confess that a rigorous attention to theory has sometimes betrayed me into practical errors. When my horse has been pulling earnestly one way, my own intention being at the same time to go another, I have pulled strongly at right angles to the line of his course; expecting, from the laws of compound motion, that we should then proceed, neither in the line of his effort nor of my pull, but in an intermediate one, which would be the diagonal of the parallelogram, of which our forces were as the sides; but have always found that
- ↑ From Hippus a horse, dromos a course, and metrein to measure.
