"While almost every other quadruped fears man as his most formidable
enemy," says this interesting traveller, "there is one who regards him
as his companion, and follows him as his friend. We must not mistake
the nature of the case. It is not because we train him to our use, and
have made choice of him in preference to other animals, but because
this particular species of animal feels a natural desire to be useful
to man, and, from spontaneous impulse, attaches himself to him. Were
it not so, we should see in various countries an equal familiarity
with other quadrupeds, according to their habits, and the taste or
caprices of different nations; but, everywhere, it is the dog only
that takes delight in associating with us, and in sharing our abode.
It is he who knows us personally, watches over us, and warns us of
danger. It is impossible for the naturalist not to feel a conviction
that this friendship between creatures so different from each other
must be the result of the laws of nature; nor can the humane and
feeling mind avoid the belief that kindness to those animals, from
which he derives continued and essential assistance, is part of the
moral duty of man.
"Often in the silence of the night, when all my people have been fast
asleep around the fire, have I stood to contemplate these faithful
animals watching by their side, and have learned to esteem them for
their social inclination towards mankind. When, wandering over
pathless deserts, oppressed with vexation and distress at the conduct
of my own men, I have turned to these as my only friends, and felt how
much inferior to them was man when actuated only by selfish views."
Of the stanchness and incorruptible fidelity of the dog, and his
disregard of personal inconvenience and want, when employed in our
service, it is impossible to entertain a doubt. We have sometimes
thought that the attachment of the dog to its master was increased, or,
at least, the exhibition of it, by the penury of the owner. At all
events one fact is plain enough, that, while poverty drives away from us
many a companion of our happier hours, it was never known to diminish
the love of our quadruped friend.
The early history of the dog has been described, and the abomination in
which he was held by the Israelites. At no great distance of time,
however, we find him, almost in the neighbourhood of Palestine, in one
of the islands of the Ionian Sea, the companion and the friend of
princes, and deserving their regard. The reader will forgive a somewhat
abbreviated account of the last meeting of Ulysses and his dog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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