Words I could not distinguish; but there was little chance of
misapprehending the haughty anguish with which he threatened, pleaded,
cajoled. Clear and unfaltering his voice rose and fell. He dealt out
fearlessly, foolishly, to that long-snouted, little-brained,
wild-eyed multitude, reason beyond their instinct, persuasion beyond
their savagery, love beyond their heed.
But even while I listened, one thing I knew those sleek malcontents
heard too--the Spirit of man in that small voice of his--perplexed,
perhaps, and perverted, and out of tether; but none the less
unconquerable and sublime.
What less, thought I, than power unearthly could long maintain that
stern, impassable barrier of green vacancy between their hoofs and
him? And I suppose for the very reason that these were beasts of a
long-sharpened sagacity, wild-hearted, rebellious, yet not the slaves
of impulse, he yet kept himself their king who was, in fact, their
captive.
"Houyhnhnms?" I heard him cry; "pah--Yahoos!" His voice fell; he stood
confronting in silence that vast circumference of restless beauty. And
again broke out inhuman, inarticulate, immeasurable revolt.
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