XXIV 



THE GREAT DOG-SUPERSTITION 



No person can give a careful and loving study to 

 animal life for a long period without meeting with 

 species exhibiting aptitudes of which a great deal 

 might be made in a domestic state, and which, 

 together with their beauty and cleanly habits, 

 seem specially to fit them for companionship with 

 man in a greater degree than those which we now 

 possess. For it is an undoubted fact that some 

 animals are more intelligent than others, slight 

 differences in this respect being perceptible even 

 among the species of a single group or genus. We 

 measure the animal mind by ours ; and looking 

 down from the summit of our mountain the earth 

 beneath us at first seems level ; but it is not quite 

 level, as we are able to see by regarding it atten- 

 tively. Even more important are the differences 

 in temper, ranging from the morose and truculent 

 to the placable and sweet ; more important, 

 because compared with this diversity in disposition 

 that which we find in intelligence is not great. 

 There are also animals solitary by nature, and 

 almost or quite incapable of any attachment 



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