78 INTRODUCTION, 
It may indeed be conceded, that in the social con- 
dition of nations long congregated and civilized, 
necessarily under the impulses of utilitarianism, 
dogs do not obtain that universal consideration 
which is granted to other animals in many respects 
their inferiors ; and it is true that various tribes of 
the south-east abhor their presence, and view them 
only as scavengers, little better than the jackal and 
hyena. 
But when the intellectual endowments of the 
domesticated races of dogs are permitted to weigh 
in the scale.—when we begin to consider the facul- 
ties which the bounty of Nature has bestowed upon 
them,—the sincerity and disinterestedness of their 
attachment,—the sagacity, strength, velocity, cou- 
rage, and perfect obedience which they proffer to 
man,—we cannot refuse them our admiration and 
affection. To what other species could we look 
for voluntary association with our fortunes? Which 
of them would, like the dog, lend us the full use of 
senses so acute as his? Which can rejoice in our 
joy, be vigilant and bold in our defence, obedient to 
order, faithful in our adversity, understand our least 
words and signs, and die on our graves from pure 
attachment? These qualities, we all know, dogs 
possess. Here, then, we find the source of that 
consideration which is granted them by all men 
near a state of nature; and although conceded by 
them with niggardly hands, the wild man of the Old 
World, the stoical hunter of the New, the half- 
frozen Esquimaux, and the savage of Australia, 
