The Horse took youth, and hence young men are high-mettled and impatient of restraint; the Ox took middle age, and accordingly men in middle life are steady and hard-working; while the Dog took old age, which is the reason why old men are so often peevish and ill-tempered, and, like dogs, attached chiefly to those who look to their comfort, while they are disposed to snap at those who are unfamiliar or distasteful to them.

Damon, a senator of Syracuse, was by nature hot-mettled, but was schooled by Pythagore'an philosophy into a Stoic coldness and slowness of speech.

They deemed me fairly settled, As though just ferried o'er the Styx, But I was tougher mettled.