Dogs. 9 



murder. Many years after, I shot a dog of my own (a 

 magnificent blood-hound mastiff) because he was an irre- 

 claimable sheep-killer ; but the revolver I did it with 

 instantly became so hateful that I could not bear the 

 sight of it, and never fired it afterwards. Even now, if 

 he covild but be raised from the dead, how gladly would 

 I welcome him, how securely would I rely for perfect for- 

 giveness on his noble canine magnanimity ! No, these 

 creatures are not common brutes, they are our most trust- 

 ing friends, and we cannot take away their lives without a 

 treacherous betrayal of that trust. 



A word came under my pen just now by accident which 

 belongs quite peculiarly to the canine nature. It does not 

 belong to all dogs ; there are little breeds which seem to 

 be almost destitute of it, but all the nobler breeds are 

 magnanimous. As we are told to go to the ant to learn 

 industry, so we may go to the dog for an example of mag- 

 nanimity. The finest touches of it in his nature are not 

 so much in the absolute insensibility to offence as in his 

 courteous willingness to attribute offences which he cannot 

 possibly overlook to some pardonable mistake of yours, or 

 blameable error of his own. Even when most severely 

 punished he never seems to doubt the justice of the pun- 

 ishment, but takes it in the finest possible temper. . . . 



And pray observe that with all this submissiveness, with 

 all this readiness to forget your severity and to bask in the 

 first gleam of the sunshine of your clemency, there is not 

 the faintest trace of snobbishness in his nature. The dog 

 is faithful to his master even when he gets hardly any- 

 thing out of him. It is said that every dog is an aristo- 

 crat, because rich men's dogs cannot endure beggars and 

 their rags, and are civil only to well-dressed visitors. But 

 the truth is that, from sympathy for his master, the dog 



