As churchman wrangle not with jarring spite, 

 Nor stateman-like caressing whom I bite ; 

 View all the canine kind with equal eyes, 

 I dread no mastiff, and no cur despise : 

 True from the first, and faithful to the end, 

 I baulk no mistress, and forsake no friend. 

 My days and nights one equal tenour keep, 

 Fast but to cat, and only wake to sleep : 

 Thus stealing along life I live incog, 

 A very plain and downright honest Dog. 



William Hamilton. 



Buffon's Word for the Dog *o ^> "^ 



(From his His to ire Nature lie) 



I T may be said that the dog is the only animal 

 whose loyalty will stand trial ; the only one 

 who always knows his master and the friends of 

 the family ; the only one who, when a stranger 

 comes, knows it ; the only one who knows his own 

 name and recognises his master's voice ; who 

 does not trust himself; who, when he has lost his 

 master, cries after him ; who, on a long road which 

 he has only followed once, remembers and recovers 

 the way ; finally, the only one whose natural 

 talents are plain and whose education always turns 

 out well. George Louis Leclerc Buffon. 



80 



