HORSE IN ART AND SYMBOLISM. In Christian art the horse has been considered as a symbol of courage, intrepidity and gen erosity. In an opposite sense this animal has been used as an emblem of luxury. The Bible and the Fathers treat of the horse as emblem atic of both virtue and vice, as all animals have in their nature both good and bad qualifications. Depictions of a horse found in the Catacombs are symbolic of the fleetness of life's course, and the palm wreath sometimes pictured above the horse's head is declared to convey the idea that the palm of victory is not always to the swift. Fairholt tells us that the horse in ecclesiastical art is an attribute of Saint Martin, Saint Maurice, Saint George and Saint Victor, who are represented on horseback; as also is Saint Leon in pontifical robes, blessing the people. Husenbeth informs us that Saint Severus and Saint Quirinus have been depicted with a horse by their side; Saint Elegius (or Eloy), the patron saint of the goldsmiths, has been represented with a horse's leg in his hand, the hoof shod and a hammer in the other hand; this scene is taken from the legend of the saint lifting off, in miraculous manner, the horse's leg and shoeing the hoof, then replacing the leg, when the animal was brought to him as being too unmanageable for any farrier to handle. In Chinese symbolism the horse is an emblem of wisdom. Ancient art gives us many forms of horse monsters. The hippocamelus was a fabulous creature, half camel, half horse. The
hippocampus of the Greeks and Latins was a monster with head and forequarters of a horse to which the tail of a dolphin or some other fish was attached; Pompeii mural decoration displays this creature in paintings as hauling Neptune's marine chariot. The hippocentaur was a fabulous creation with a horse's body and head and bust of a human being, male or fe male. This hippocentaur, or centaur, is often found armed with bow and arrow, in which case it is termed sagittarius or sagittary. In this form it is the ninth sign in the celestial zodiac and represents August in the constella tions. The hippocervus was half horse and half stag. We are told that the hippocervus is a Christian symbol of the pusillanimous man °who throws himself without reflection into'un certain paths and soon falls into despair at hav ing lost himself in them." The hippogryph (or hippogriff) is a fabulous monster depicted as the body of a horse with wings and the head of a griffin; or sometimes it is found with the claws of a lion, some even have a lion's tail. The Greco-Roman artists gave free fancy to this creation as we find them on the wall decora tions of Pompeii. The hippogryph is said to have been a symbol of love. The Greeks also had a hippolectryon which was a hybrid com position of horse and cock. In ornament and composition of the rinceaux of friezes is the hippopod, a monster in form of a man with horses' legs.