She had a fluffy white dog she was extremely fond of, and has written
several chapters on dogs, kindness to animals, the horrors of
vivisection, etc. Read False Hearts and True, The Confessions of a Lost
Dog, and Science in Excelsis, and you will realize how she appreciates
the rights and the noble traits of the brute creation, and how her own
great heart has gone out to her pets. She closes one article, Dogs whom
I have Met, with these words: “One thing I think must be clear: until a
man has learned to feel for all his sentient fellow-creatures, whether
in human or in brute form, of his own class and sex and country, or of
another, he has not yet ascended the first step toward true
civilization, nor applied the first lesson from the love of God.”
Edward Jesse, in his book, now rare and hard to obtain, on dogs, says,
“Histories are more full of samples of the fidelity of dogs than of
friends.” A French writer declares that, excepting women, there is
nothing on earth so agreeable or so necessary to the comfort of man as
the dog. Think of the shepherd, his flock collected by his indefatigable
dog, who guards both them and his master’s cottage at night; satisfied
with a slight caress and coarsest food. The dog performs the service of
a horse in more northern regions, while in Cuba and other hot countries
is the terror of the runaway negroes. In destruction of wild beasts or
the less dangerous stag, or in attacking the bull, the dog has shown
permanent courage. He defends his master, saves from drowning, warns of
danger, serves faithfully in poverty and distress, leads the blind. When
spoken to, does his best to hold conversation by tail, eyes, ears;
drives cattle to and from pasture, keeps herds and flocks within bounds,
points out game, brings shot birds, turns a spit, draws provision carts
and sledges, likes or abhors music, detecting false notes instantly;
announces strangers, sounds a note of warning in danger, is the last to
forsake the grave of a friend, sympathizes and rejoices with every mood
of his master. The collie is the only dog who has a reputation for
piety, his liking to go to kirk and his proper behaviour there being
well known. Whenever Stanislaus, the unfortunate King of Poland, wrote
to his daughter, he always concluded with “Tristram, my companion in
misfortune, licks your feet.” That one friend stuck by in his adversity.
We see inherited tendencies in dogs as in children—what Paley calls “a
propensity previous to experience and independent of instruction”—as
Saint Bernard puppies scratching eagerly at snow, and young pointers
standing steadily on first seeing poultry; a well-bred terrier pup will
show ferocity. The anecdotes of achievements of pet dogs are marvellous.
Leibnitz related to the French Academy an account of a dog he had seen
which was taught to speak, and would call intelligibly for tea, coffee,
chocolate, and made collections of white, shining stones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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