DOMESTICATION. 239 



fore previous to any individual experience, to anticipate the 

 effects of a gun in bringing down a bird.* 



Suggestive, however, as is the formation by man of such 

 special canine instincts as we liave now considered, we have 

 in them only, as it were, small details of the modification 

 wdiich human agency has produced in the psychology of the 

 dog. It is, indeed, not more true that man has in a sense 

 created the remarkable structure of tlie greyhound or the 

 bulldog, than that he has implanted the no less remarkable 

 instincts of the pointer or the retriever ; but we sliould gain 

 a very inadequate conception of tlie profound influence which 

 he has exercised in moulding the mind of tliis animal were 

 we to confine our attention to such special cases as these. 



If we contrast the psychology of " the friend of man " 

 with tliat of any of the wild breeds, we see at once, not only 

 that the animal has liad many of its natural instincts sup- 

 pressed and many artificial instincts imposed, but also that it 

 has acquired, as Sir J. Sebright has observed, "an instinctive 

 love of man." But the general affection, faithfulness, and 

 docility of the dog, are too proverlual to need special exposi- 

 tion. We have merely to observe that these qualities, so unlike 

 anything with which we meet in w^olves, foxes, jackals, and 

 wild dogs generally, can only be attributed to prolonged 

 contact with, and selection by, his human masters ; so that 

 as the domestic dog is at present constituted these artificially 

 imposed qualities usually lead the animal to entertain higher 

 affection and faithfulness towards man than towards its own 

 kind. It may not be superfluous in this connection again to 

 point out that among wdld animals we do not unfrequently 

 find a disposition to associate wdth members of other species, 

 even when no actual benefit arises from the association ; and 

 in this accidental or useless proclivity w^e may distinguish 

 the germ which in the case of the dog has been cultured into 

 what w^e see — amply justifying the remark of the old writer 

 quoted by Darwin, "A dog is the only thing on this earth 

 that luvs you more than he luvs himself." 



Not only affection, faithfulness, and docility, but likewise 

 all other emotional qualities of the dog which are useful to 

 man have been developed by man to the extraordinary 

 degree which we observe. It would be superfluous to cite, 



* Handhuch der Physiologie, Bd. II, Theil II, pp. 282-3. 



