218 USEFULNESS OF ANIMALS TO MAN. 



there is one creature, that seems designed by its 

 natural habits to be the servant and dependant of 

 man ; and of all that fall under his dominion, not 

 one receives an equal portion of his care, or is 

 more exempt from a life of exhaustion in his 

 service. The dog is fed with him, housed, and 

 caressed ; associates with him in his pleasures, is 

 identified with and enjoys them with his master ; 

 living with him, he acquires the high bearing and 

 freedom of his lord ; feels he is the companion and 

 the friend ; deports himself as a partaker of the 

 importance and superiority, we might almost say of 

 the sorrows and pleasures, of the man ; is elated 

 with praise, and abased by rebuke ; submissive 

 when corrected, and grateful when caressed : his 

 anxiety and tremor when he has lost his master, 

 and, with him, himself, is pitiable ; when deserted 

 by his lord, he becomes the most forlorn of animals, 

 a never-failing victim to misery, famine, disease, 

 and death. His ardour may excite him at times, 

 until overpowered by fatigue ; but he is not gene- 

 rally stimulated by pain or menace to attempts 

 beyond his natural powers : view him in all his 

 progress, his life will be found to be an easy, and 

 frequently an enjoyable one ; and though not 

 exempt from the afflictions of age, yet his death, if 

 anticipated, becomes a momentary evil. When in 

 a native state, he is a wretched creature, a common 

 beast of the wild, with no innate magnanimity, no 

 acquired virtues ; has no elevation, no character to 

 maintain, but passes his days in contention and 



