The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 09Stevenson, Robert Louis
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The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 09
Stevenson, Robert Louis
English literature -- 19th century
The civilisation, the manners, and the morals of dog-kind are to a great
extent subordinated to those of his ancestral master, man. This animal,
in many ways so superior, has accepted a position of inferiority, shares
the domestic life, and humours the caprices of the tyrant. But the
potentate, like the British in India, pays small regard to the character
of his willing client, judges him with listless glances, and condemns
him in a byword. Listless have been the looks of his admirers, who have
exhausted idle terms of praise, and buried the poor soul below
exaggerations. And yet more idle and, if possible, more unintelligent
has been the attitude of his express detractors; those who are very fond
of dogs, "but in their proper place"; who say "poo' fellow, poo'
fellow," and are themselves far poorer; who whet the knife of the
vivisectionist or heat his oven; who are not ashamed to admire "the
creature's instinct"; and flying far beyond folly, have dared to
resuscitate the theory of animal machines. The "dog's instinct" and the
"automaton-dog," in this age of psychology and science, sound like
strange anachronisms. An automaton he certainly is; a machine working
independently of his control, the heart like the mill-wheel, keeping all
in motion, and the consciousness, like a person shut in the mill garret,
enjoying the view out of the window and shaken by the thunder of the
stones; an automaton in one corner of which a living spirit is confined:
an automaton like man. Instinct again he certainly possesses. Inherited
aptitudes are his, inherited frailties. Some things he at once views
and understands, as though he were awakened from a sleep, as though he
came "trailing clouds of glory." But with him, as with man, the field of
instinct is limited; its utterances are obscure and occasional; and
about the far larger part of life both the dog and his master must
conduct their steps by deduction and observation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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