BUFFO W FULLER QUOTATIONS. 121 



causes. He is also the one whose nature is most subject 

 to the variations and alterations caused by physical 

 influences : he varies to a prodigious extent, in tempera- 

 ment, mental powers, and in habits : his very form is not 

 constant ;" . . . but presents so many differences that 

 " dogs have nothing in common but conformity of in- 

 terior organization, and the power of interbreeding 

 freely." . . . 



. . . . " How then can we detect the characters of 

 the original race ? How recognize the effects produced 

 by climate, food, &c. ? How, again, distinguish these 

 from those other effects which come from the inter- 

 mixture of races, either when wild or in a state of 

 domestication ? All these causes, in the course of time, 

 alter even the most constant forms, so that the imprint 

 of Nature does not preserve its sharpness in races which 

 man has dealt with largely. Those animals which are 

 free to choose climate and food for themselves can best 

 conserve their original character, .... but those 

 which man has subjected to his own influence which 

 he has taken with him from clime to clime, whose 

 food, habits, and manner of life he has altered must 

 also have changed their form far more than others ; 

 and as a matter of fact we find much greater variety 

 in the species of domesticated animals than in those 

 of wild ones. Of all these, however, the dog is the 

 one most closely attached to man, living like man the 

 least regular manner of life ; he is also the one whose 

 feelings so master him as to make him docile, obedient, 

 susceptible of every kind of impression, and even of 

 every kind of constraint; it is not surprising, then, that 



