r
myself that once I can ride I shall be a sort of flying man. [16] At
present when I race I am quiet content if, with a fair start, I can beat
one of my rivals by the head, or when I sight my game I am happy if, by
laying legs to the ground, I can get close enough to let fly javelin or
arrow before he is clean out of range. But when once I am a horseman
I shall be able to overhaul my man as far as I can see him, or come up
with the beasts I chase and knock them over myself or else spear them
as though they stood stock still, for when hunter and hunted are both
of them racing, if they are only side by side, it is as good as though
neither of them moved. [17] And the creature I have always envied," he
continued, "the centaur--if only he had the intelligence and forethought
of a man, the adroit skill and the cunning hand, with the swiftness and
strength of a horse, so as to overtake all that fled before him, and
overthrow all that resisted--why, all these powers I shall collect
and gather in my own person when once I am a rider. [18] Forethought I
intend to keep with my human wits, my hands can wield my weapons, and my
horse's legs will follow up the foe, and my horse's rush overthrow him.
Only I shall not be tied and fettered to my steed, flesh of his flesh,
and blood of his blood, like the old centaur. [19] And that I count
a great improvement on the breed, far better than being united to the
animal, body and soul. The old centaur, I imagine, must have been
for ever in difficulties; as a horse, he could not use the wonderful
inventions of man, and as a man, he could not enjoy the proper pleasures
of a horse. [20] But I, if I learn to ride, once set me astride my
horse, and I will do all that the centaur can, and yet, when I dismount,
I can dress myself as a human being, and dine, and sleep in my bed, like
the rest of my kind: in short, I shall be a jointed centaur that can be
taken to pieces and put together again. [21] And I shall gain another
point or so over the original beast: he, we know, had only two eyes to
see with and two ears to hear with, but I shall watch with four eyes and
with four ears I shall listen. You know, they tell us a horse can often
see quicker than any man, and hear a sound before his master, and give
him warning in some way. Have the goodness, therefore," he added, "to
write my name down among those who want to ride."

[22] "And ours too," they all cried, "ours too, in heaven's name!"

Then Cy