48 DOGS 



THE FAITH OF DOGS 



The correspondence you publish on the reasoning powers 

 of animals prompts me to write to you of the fine saying 

 many years ago of a man in Colyton, Devonshire. He 

 had a breed of mastiffs, and was greatly attached to all his 

 dogs. One of them died. He was much distressed. A 

 few days later a friend met him, and, finding him still 

 very despondent, said : " Why do you go on grieving? 

 After all, it was only a dog. ' ' The old man replied : ' ' Only 

 a dog ! Do you know that it has pleased the Almighty 

 to endow the dog with two of His own most divine attri- 

 butes unchanging constancy and unpurchasable love." 



JAS. EALPH. 



June 20, 1909. 



DOG-PAIN 



In the comments contained in your issue of June 23 

 on the first chapter of Mr. Robinson's book, the writer 

 apparently assents to the author's dictum that animals 

 do not suffer pain, since they do not know that they 

 suffer. Experience shows that they do dread pain, often 

 connecting it with certain causes which they ingeniously 

 avoid. It also shows that they not only feel pain as 

 human beings do, but are less able to endure it, not seeing 

 beyond it. I have, however, in mind an instance in which 

 a dog of ours quietly submitted to a cutting operation, 

 which it evidently felt would lead to immediate relief, 

 which was the case. Mr. Robinson's argument applies 

 equally to an infant who does not know when a pin has 

 been allowed to run into him, but loudly proclaims the 

 fact. 



N. 



June 30, 1906. 



NOTE. The problem of natural suffering has been so 

 fogged with medieval anthropomorphism that it is an 

 arduous task to put daylight into it. Every living creature 



