256 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
all-round improvement in temper, a disposition of 
the people to mix freely instead of separating into 
well-defined groups, each with some famous fight- 
ing-man, wearing a knife as long as a sword, for 
its centre; also instead of wild and whirling words, 
dust raised, and blood shed, great moderation in. 
language, good humour, and reasonableness in 
argument. 
In the same way we may see that our dogs 
grow less and less quarrelsome as they become 
more conscious of their powerlessness to inflict 
injury. Their confidence, and with it their friend- 
liness towards one another, increases; the most 
masterful or truculent cease from bullying, the 
timid outgrow their timidity, and in their new- 
found glad courage dare to challenge the fiercest 
among them to a circular race and rough-and- 
tumble on the grass. 
Now all this, from the point of view of those 
who make toys of sentient and intelligent beings, 
is or should be considered pure gain. Moreover, 
this undoubted improvement could not have come 
about if the muzzle had been the painful instrument 
that some dog-owners believe or say. It seems to me 
that those who cry out against torturing our dogs, 
as they put it, do not love their pets wisely and 
are bad observers. Undoubtedly every restraint 
is in some degree disagreeable, but it is only when 
an animal has been deprived of the power to 
exercise his first faculties and obey his most impor- 
tunate impulses that the restraint can properly 
