DOG. 



299 



tance, and gives them warning of liis being on duty. 

 It' they attempt to break in upon his territories, he 

 becomes more fierce, flies at them, threatens, rights, 

 and either conquers alone, or alarms them who have 

 most interest iu coming to his assistance ; however, 

 when he has conquered, he quietly reposes upon the 

 spoil, and abstains from what he has deterred others 

 from abusing ; giving thus at once a lesson of courage, 

 temperance, and fidelity. 



From hence we see of what importance this animal 

 is to us in a state of nature. Supposing, fora moment, 

 that the species had not existed, how could man, 

 without the assistance of the dog, have been able to 

 conquer, tame, and reduce to servitude every other 

 animal? How could he discover, trace, and destroy 

 those that were noxious to him ? In order to be 

 secure and become master of all animated nature, it 

 was necessary for him to begin by making a friend 

 of part of them ; to attach such of them to himself, 

 by kindness and caresses, as seemed fittest for obe- 

 dience and active pursuit. Thus the first art employed 

 by man was, in conciliating the favour of the dog ; 

 and the fruits of this art were, the conquest and 

 peaceable possession of the earth. 



The generality of animals have greater agility, 

 greater swiftness, and more formidable arms, from 

 nature, than man ; their senses, and particularly that 

 of smelling, are far more perfect : the having gained, 

 therefore, a new assistant, particularly one whose 

 scent is so exquisite as that of the dog, was the gain- 

 ing a new sense, a new facultv, which before was 

 wanting. The machines and instruments which we 

 have imagined for perfecting the rest of the senses, 

 do not approach to that already prepared by nature, 

 by which we are enabled to find out every animal, 

 though unseen, and thus destroy the noxious, and 

 use the serviceable. 



The dog, thus useful in himself, taken into a parti- 

 cipation of empire, exerts a degree of superiority over 

 all animals that require human protection. The flock 

 and the herd obey his voice more readily even than 

 that of the shepherd or the herdsman ; he conducts 

 them, guards them, keeps them from capriciously 

 seeking danger, and their enemies he considers as his 

 own. Nor is he less useful in the pursuit ; when the 

 sound of the horn, or the voice of the huntsman, ealls 

 him to the field, he testifies hi* pleasure by every little 

 art, and pursues with perseverance those animals 

 which, when taken, he must not expect to divide. 

 The desire of hunting is, indeed, natural to him, as 

 well as to his master, since war and the chase are the 

 only employ of savages. All animals that live upon 

 flesh hunt by nature ; the lion and the tiger, whose 

 force is so great that they are sure to conquer, hunt 

 alone and without art ; the wolf, the fox, and the 

 wild dog, hunt in packs, assist each other, and partake 

 the spoil. But when education has perfected this 

 talent in the domestic dog, when he has been taught 

 by man to repress his ardour, to measure his motions, 

 and not to exhaust his force by too sudden an exer- 

 tion of it, he then hunts with method, and always 

 with success. 



Both the origin and the progressive history of the 

 dog, are matters which defy all investigation ; neither 

 can it be said whether all the varieties now existing 

 are or are not from one original stock. Or even 

 whether the wolf be not a closely allied species, and 

 perhaps identically the same. It is useless, however, 

 to enter upon any investigation upon this question ; 



for the data are too few for warranting a conclusion 

 either one way or another. Dogs appear to be the 

 most obedient of all animals, both to natural circum- 

 stances and to artificial treatment ; and so there is 

 no knowing how far the differences which are 

 observed among them are owing to the one of those 

 causes or to the other. Of those dogs which are left 

 as it were in a state of nature, or which are not bred 

 or trained in any particular way, there are even 

 greater differences than there are among those which 

 are trained and kept with care. So much is this the 

 case, that those who are in the habit of travelling 

 much in the wilder parts of the country, know the 

 different districts as well from the appearance of the 

 dogs as from any thing else. 



Dogs even appear to learn from the general man- 

 ners of those with whom they associate, as may be 

 observed even in common society. Dogs kept by 

 the vicious, whether they are kept for fighting, 

 poaching, or other ruffian practices, or not, are inva- 

 riably vicious dogs ; and, on the other hand, dogs 

 which live vuth persons of mild manners and regular 

 habits, when not chained up, which is a species of 

 slavery to which dogs are very adverse, are always 

 mild. 



No doubt much depends upon the breed when in 

 a state of domestication ; but there is a wonderful 

 disposition to accommodate themselves to circum- 

 stances, in the greater number of the race ; and 

 when we refer to other countries in which dogs are 

 either in a state of nature, or have been neglected 

 and allowed to run wild, we find that they also par- 

 take of the characters of the places where they 

 reside. It is this readiness with which this genus of 

 animals yield to every kind of circumstance, whether 

 that circumstance tend to improvement or deteriora- 

 tion, which renders the progressive history of the dog 

 so utter an impossibility ; for though we meet with 

 wild breeds in various parts of the world, which are 

 savage in their dispositions, and exceedingly difficult 

 to be tamed ; yet these are just as likely to be the 

 descendants of races which were once tame, as the 

 best bred dogs are to be the descendants of races 

 once wild. 



The dog is at all events an old inhabitant of the 

 world ; and perhaps there is no animal more gene- 

 rally distributed. Whether dogs existed in a wild 

 state at any period of European history we have not 

 the means of ascertaining ; but it is certain that they 

 were in Europe at times long gone by, when the state 

 of the country was very different to what it is at 

 present ; for their bones are found in those deposits 

 which contain the remains of the rhinoceros, the 

 tiger, and the hyaena ; and though we cannot form 

 very correct notions of how animals not now found 

 in any but warm countries should have once inha- 

 bited both continental Europe and the islands, yet 

 we have in India an example of the same races of 

 animals living at least in the near vicinity of each 

 other. But there are many links wanted in the chain 

 before we can in a satisfactory manner connect this 

 oldest epoch of canine story in Europe with the 

 present history of the race. 



The uses oi' this race of animals are so well known, 

 that it is needless to mention them ; but still it is 

 doubtful whether they be turned to exactly the most 

 profitable account ; and while the savage and his dog 

 are much more nearly upon a par in point of under- 

 standing, than any other man and any other animal, 



