No better picture, portraying the noble qualities of the dog could be given than that by Buffon. And why this close observer of nature should say--“Without having like man _the faculty of thought_,” has always seemed strange. It sounds like a misprint, or an error in translation. Thought is the exercise of the mind--reflection, meditation, consideration, conception, conclusion, judgment, design, purpose, intention, solicitude, anxious care, concern, etc. Who is there, even with ordinary acquaintance with the animal, that has not witnessed some if not all these attributes of “_thought_?” Most writers on the subject have shown a desire to give the human animal some distinguishing quality or faculty above all others, but their line of demarcation between man and the rest of animal creation has not been altogether successful, as man can not claim by the high authority that he is the only species that has the something called “_spirit_,” which is necessary in order “_to think_;” for the sacred book teaches that man and beast are alike in this, but the _spirit_ of man goeth upward, while the _spirit_ of the beast goeth downward to the earth, and which in anti-bellum days constituted a knotty text for Southern theologians who taught that “_niggers and dogs_” have no souls. An eminent Scotch clergyman, who has made a study of natural history believes that dogs are possessed of the same faculties as man, differing only in degrees. He asserts that conscience in man and conscience in the dog are essentially the same things. And Charles Dickens declares that dogs have a moral nature--an unmistakable ability to distinguish between right and wrong, which led him to believe the difference in the dog nature and the so-called spiritual nature in man was imperceptible, and that future existence rested upon like natural foundations. It would be holding conclusions in opposition to all rules of observation to say that dogs and other animals are destitute of the faculty of “_thought_.” When the awful torrents came sweeping down upon Johnstown the terrible waves and debris dashed over housetops and Mrs. Kress was carried away by the wild current in an instant beyond human help, her faithful dog, unmindful of himself, jumped after her, and when he saw her dress come to the surface, seized and carried her to another housetop. Soon this house was demolished, but Romeo kept the head of Mrs. Kress out of water and battled with the raging current and floating timber for more than half an hour before he reached the roof of another house, where she was taken up unconscious with fright and exhaustion. When the dog saw the motionless condition of his mistress he barked and howled and made pitiful demonstrations of grief, for he “_thought_” she was dead; but when she breathed he became delighted and manifested his joy in a way that could not be mistaken.