384 Life and Immortality. 



stranger to his nature. Does his master want him to go out 

 for a walk, and he prefers to stay at home, he stays at home, 

 and his master is compelled to go out without him. But if 

 he wants to go for a walk, he makes his master go with him, 

 and even to take the direction he prefers. Duchie is the 

 name of a Skye terrier whose history is given in a work on 

 the latter breed of dogs by Dr. J. Brown. So completely 

 had this little animal domineered over her mistress, that 

 the latter could not even choose her own dinner, but was 

 obliged to have whatever the dog preferred. It is related 

 that for a half of a winter's night she was kept out of bed, 

 because Duchie had got into the middle and refused to 

 move. Certainly, no better example of tyranny could be 

 adduced. 



That so-called brutes possess, in common with ourselves, 

 a Conscience, that is, a sense of Moral Responsibility, and a 

 capability of distinguishing between right and wrong, may 

 seem a very strange assertion to be made, especially to those 

 who have never studied the ways of the lower animals. Ani- 

 mals which are placed under the rule of man, and those, like 

 the dog, which belong to his household and are made his 

 companions more particularly, would naturally be expected 

 to show the strongest development of the principle. Con- 

 science, in their dealings with man, constitutes their religion, 

 and they often exercise it in a way which would put many a 

 human being to the blush. This feeling it is that induces 

 the dog to make himself the guardian of his master's property, 

 and often to defend that property at the risk of his life. 

 However hungry may be the dog that is placed in charge of 

 his master's dinner, nothing would, as a rule, tempt him to 

 touch a morsel of the food, for he would rather die of starva- 

 tion than eat the food which belongs to his master. Often 

 have we seen field-laborers at work at one end of a large 

 field, while their coats and their dinner were at the other 

 end, guarded by a dog. Not the least uneasiness did they 

 seem to manifest about the safety of their property, for well 



