7B INTRODUCTION. 



It may indeed be conceded, that in the social con- 

 dition of nations long congregated and civilized, 

 necessarily under the impulses of utilitarianism, 

 dogs do not obtain that universal consideration 

 which is granted to other animals in many respects 

 their inferiors ; and it is true that various tribes of 

 the south-east abhor their presence, and view them 

 only as scavengers, little better than the jackal and 

 hyaena. 



But when the intellectual endowments of the 

 domesticated races of dogs are permitted to weigh 

 in the scale, — when we begin to consider the facul- 

 ties which the bounty of Nature has bestowed upon 

 them, — the sincerity and disinterestedness of their 

 attachment, — the sagacity, strength, velocity, cou- 

 rage, and perfect obedience which they proffer to 

 man, — we cannot refuse them our admiration and 

 affection. To what other species could we look 

 for voluntary association with our fortunes ? Which 

 of them would, like the dog, lend us the full use of 

 senses so acute as his ? Which can rejoice in our 

 joy, be vigilant and bold in our defence, obedient to 

 order, faithful in our adversity, understand our least 

 words and signs, and die on our graves from pure 

 attachment? These qualities, we all know, dogs 

 possess. Here, then, we find the source of that 

 consideration which is granted them by all men 

 near a state of nature ; and although conceded by 

 them with niggardly hands, the wild man of the Old 

 World, the stoical hunter of the New, the half- 

 frozen Esquimaux, and the savage of Australia, 



