IN OTHER ANIMALS. 225 



If this be the case the dog, by the possession and exhi- 

 bition of such ' noblest feelings,' must be considered as a 

 very embodiment of the religion of love and charity. Cowper 

 also compares favourably for the dog the watchful love of 

 his dog Beau with his own feelings towards God : 



But chief myself I will enjoin, 



Awake at duty's call, 

 To show a love as prompt as thine 



To Him who gives me all. 



A striking feature in the dog's love for and worship of 

 man is, as we have seen, its utter forgetfulness of self, 

 its self-renunciation amounting frequently to self-sacrifice. 

 The dog is often ready at any moment to give up its very 

 life not only to save the life of its master or its master's 

 child, but simply in order to obey some of his trivial behests, 

 such as the guarding of property. The animal not only 

 works and fights but dies for man, and not always, or even 

 generally, for a master or friend who has been kind to it, 

 who has earned its devotion, but frequently, if not generally, 

 for some master or man most unworthy of such heroic self- 

 sacrifice. Now this sort of self-sacrifice has been described 

 as the highest achievement of human virtue, as the very 

 essence not of morals only, but of religion the giving up, 

 that is, not only of one's own interests and pleasures, but of 

 one's own life for the good, real or supposed, of others. 



Another of the moral virtues involved in the dog's love 

 and worship of man is its practice of returning good for evil, 

 of repaying evil with good, of giving faithful service for 

 cruel neglect. Such a practice includes much more than the 

 mere forgiveness of enemies or injuries, for to the passive 

 virtue of forgiveness is added the active one of benevolence. 

 The dog or lamb licking the hand of the slayer in the very 

 act of slaying is the most affecting of all incidents, admits 

 even sarcastic Pope; and it is certainly one of the most 

 familiar, one that has repeatedly been celebrated in verse 

 and story. Hood exclaims, and may well do so 



Alas for the rarity 



Of Christian charity 



Under the sun ! 



