276 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



years, he is able to see that it was a mistake to go 

 so low in the first place, to have contentedly taken 

 base metal, dull-witted barbarian that he was, 

 when he might just as well have taken gold. For 

 the baseness of the metal shows in spite of much 

 polishing to make it shine. Polishing powders 

 we have, but not the powders of projection ; and 

 the dog, with all his new propensities, remains 

 mentally a jackal, above some mammalians and 

 below others ; nor can he outlive ancient, obscene 

 instincts which become increasingly offensive as 

 civilisation raises and refines his master man. 



How did our belief in the mental superiority of 

 this animal come to exist ? Doubtless it came 

 about through our intimacy with the dog, in the 

 fields where he helped us, and in our houses where 

 we made a pet of him, together with our ignorance 

 of the true character of other animals. All animals 

 were to us simply " brutes that perish," and 

 " natural brute beasts made to be taken and de- 

 stroyed," with no faculties at all resembling 

 ours ; and when it was discovered that the dog 

 could be made to understand many things, and 

 that he had some feelings in common with us, 

 and was capable of great affection, which sometimes 

 caused him to pine at his master's loss, and in 

 some instances even to die of grief ; and that in 

 all these things he was, or seemed to be, widely 

 separated from other domestic brutes, the notion 

 grew up that he was essentially different, an 

 animal set apart for man's benefit, and, finally, 



