BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 61 



sessed at its birth, and these qualities it retains till 

 its dying hour, in spite of any change of climate 

 or kind of food it may be made to experience. The 

 same thing may be said of every other kind of dog. 

 The English bull dog. displayed the same uncon- 

 querable obstinacy on the arena of ancient Rome > 

 as he does at this day in the island which gave him 

 birth: and the Newfoundland dog of the present 

 day is equally gentle, equally attached to his mas- 

 ter, and alike firm in his defence in every part of 

 Europe as in America. In sho'rt, the universal ex- 

 perience of mankind incontrovertibly proves, that 

 the same individual dog continues the same in re- 

 gard to all its essential characteristics in every re- 

 gion of this globe, and under every different system 

 of management. He may be rendered fatter or 

 leaner, diseased or sound, and these variations of 

 management will produce a temporary change in 

 his appearance ; but no evidence was ever known 

 of a dog of one kind being converted into one of 

 another sort. The terrier continues to ferret out 

 the lesser animals with silent assiduity ; the lap dog 

 to bark at every thing that moves ; the pointer re- 

 tains his quick sense of smelling; the greyhound 

 searches, for his prey by the eye in every region 

 alike ; so that there is no reason to doubt that every 

 kind of dog, considered individually, retains the 

 same faculties unchanged throughout the whole 

 course of its life, to whatever changes of food or 

 climate it may be subjected. 



Gr 



