O THE DOG. 



guarding and attending on sheep. This seems to be the primi- 

 tive animal of his kind : and we shall be still more confirmed in 

 this opinion, if we attend to the different characters which cli- 

 mate produces in the animal, and the different races of dogs 

 which are propagated in every country ; and, in the first place, 

 if we examine those countries which are still savage, or but half 

 civilized, where it is most probable the dog, like his master, has 

 received but few impressions from art, we shall find the shep- 

 herd's dog, or one very like him, still prevailing amongst them. 

 The dogs that have run wild in America, and in Congo, ap- 

 proach this form. The dog of Siberia, Lapland, and Iceland, 

 of the Cape of Good Hope, of Madagascar, Madura, Calicut, 

 and Malabar, have all along nose, pricked ears, and resemble the 

 shepherd's dog very nearly. In Guinea, the dog very speedily 

 takes this form ; for at the second or third generation, the ani- 

 mal forgets to bark, his ears and his tail become pointed, and 

 his hair drops off, while a coarser, thinner kind comes in the 

 place. This sort of dog is likewise to be found in the temper- 

 ate climates in great abundance, particularly among those who, 

 preferring usefulness to beauty, employ an animal that requires 

 very little instruction to be serviceable. Notwithstanding this 

 creature's deformity, his melancholy and savage air, he is supe- 

 rior to all the rest of his kind in instinct ; and, without any 

 teaching, naturally takes to tending flocks, with an assiduity and 

 vigilance that at once astonishes, and, at the same time, relieves, 

 his master. 



In more poiishfid and civilized places, the dog seems to par- 

 take of the universal refinement; and, like man, becomes 

 more beautiful, more majestic, and more capable of assuming 

 an education foreign to his nature; The clogs of Albany, of 

 Greece, of Denmark, and of Ireland, are larger and stronger 

 than those of any other country. In France, Germany, Spain, 

 and Italy, the dogs are of various kinds, like the men ; and this 



