A CHAPTER ON DOGS. 



moment the gentleman pulled off his small-clothes, in the pocket of which he had placed 

 the franc, the dog barked at the door as if desirous to go out. The door was open- 

 ed, the dog caught the breeches, and rushed away to his rightful master. Shortly after- 

 wards arrived, all deshabilh, the owner of the breeches, trembling for a purse of gold that 

 lay in the same pocket with the important franc. The dog is not always upon the side 

 of the aggressed. There is no weapon of defence which cannot be converted into a weapon 

 of attack, and so it is with an animal that can be formed to any thing at the pleasure of 

 his master. Highwaymen have accordingly taught him to aid them in their violence, and 

 pickpockets to filch from counters, and seize reticules in the streets. 



Edwin Landseer happily called the Newfoundland dog ' a Distinguished Member of the 

 Humane Society;' and he has richly earned the tribute that has been paid to him by that 

 happy genius. His element is water, and his business to rescue those who are not at home 

 in it as himself. This propensity of his nature is sometimes carried to a laughable excess. 

 There was a Newfoundlander at Paris that would not even suffer that an}^ one should 

 bathe. He promenaded along the banks of the Seine, plunged in after the swimmers, and 

 encumbered them with his help. While he M'as allowed to go at large no one could enjoy 

 the luxury of a bath without being forcibly hurried back to land. Hence his ofBcious 

 zeal requires no stimulus when the danger is real. Nor is it a mechanical impulse. There 

 have been instances in which he has summoned assistance when he has been insuflBcient by 

 himself, or when no one was at hand to recover the object of his care. He counts his own 

 life nothing in his generous efforts. He will make an attempt to carry a rope from a sink- 

 ing vessel to the shore, though the sea rages to a degree that rendei's it impossible for him 

 to stem the tide. 



There is no sacrifice of which a dog is not capable on behalf of his master. The dread 

 of fire is overwhelming with animals, and yet, (as we have already seen,) he has been 

 found occasionally to brave the flames. It Libourne, in France, in 1835, one of the towns- 

 men gave an old suit of clothes to dress up an effigy. His dog hajipened to be by when it 

 was burnt, and taking it for his master, he jumped upon the fire again and again to tear 

 it away, biting those who attempted to retain him, and would have been burnt to death 

 unless his master had appeared. 



Devoted to his master in life, the dog mourns him in death. There are few fields of 

 battle which do not present him watching and moaning by the side of a master that has 

 fallen in the fight. Wordsworth has consecrated a poem to the fidelity of the animal who 

 was found whining over the skeleton of a traveller who had periyhed in the mountains of 

 Cumberland three months before: — 



' How nourished there through such long lime 

 He knows, who gave that love, sublime ; 

 And gave that strength of feeling great 

 Above all human estimate.' 



Still more affecting is the fate of a dog related by Daniel in his ' Rural Sports.' He be- 

 longed to a magistrate who was thrown into prison during the French Revolution. De- 

 nied admittance to the dungeon, he waited day after day at the prison gate, till he won 

 upon the affections of the jailer. Put out every night, he returned every morning. He 

 attended his master through the scenes of his trial and death, and accompanied him to his 

 burial-place. At the end of three months he refused to eat, and began to dig up the earth 

 which separated him from the being he loved. His strength declined as he approached the 

 body> he shrieked in his exertions to complete his task, and expired in the midst of his 

 convulsive efforts. 



Much has been written to demonstrate that the dog can even attain to the compr 



