DOGS: 



THEIR NATURAL HISTORY, ETC. 



CHAPTER I. 



.INTRODUCTION ORIGIN OF THE DOG. 



IT is in far remote ages of " The Earth and Animated 

 Nature" that we have to seek for traces of the origin of this 

 noble and generous animal, which, while some have placed 

 the lion, and some the horse, as the first of quadrupeds, has 

 enjoyed the especial privilege and well-merited honor of 

 being, par excellence, the FRIEND OF MAN. This has adhered 

 to him in adversity, since the fall, and through all vicissi- 

 tudes. I should be disposed to award to this animal the next 

 successive place to man in the scale of, at all events, moral 

 being. True that, in physical formation, the various tribes 

 of Simiae and Orans would appear to approximate the most 

 closely to humanity ; but in intellectual development I think 

 they will be generally conceded to be inferior to our noble 

 friend, THE DOG. 



So nearly akin is the intelligence of the dog to reason, 

 that we are sometimes puzzled to account for the actions 

 which result from it. As Pope says, when apostrophizing 

 the elephant 



" 'Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier ! 

 Forever separate, yet forever near." 



Essay on Man. 



But Pope, among the many poets, has also furnished a very 

 remarkable illustration, from its beauty, its celebrity, and, 

 above all, the wideness of its scope, of these high pre- 

 rogatives of the dog, of their universality, and also of their 

 repute I allude to that far-famed passage in the " Essay on 

 Man" 



