HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 297 



and we will find that they lead a precarious and wretch- 

 ed life of perpetual warfare with the ftill more favage in- 

 habitants of the foreft, with which they are obliged to 

 difpute the pofleffion of their uncultivated fields, and, not 

 unfrequently, to divide with them the fruits of their la- 

 bours. — From hence we may conclude, that the attention 

 of mankind, in the earlieft ages, would be engaged in 

 training and rendering this animal fubfervient to the im- 

 portant purpofes of domeftic utility; and the refult of 

 this art has been, the conqueft and peaceable pofleflion of 

 the earth. 



Of all animals, the Dog feems moft fufceptible of 

 change, and moft eaGly modified by difference of cli- 

 mate, food, and education; not only the figure of his 

 body, but his faculties, habits, and difpofitions, vary in a 

 furprifing manner: Nothing appears conftant in them 

 but their internal conformation, which is alike in all ; in 

 every other refpect, they are very diflimilar : They vary 

 in fize, in figure, in the length of the nofe and (hape of 

 the head, in the length and direction of the ears and tail, 

 in the colour, quality, and quantity of the hair, &c. To 

 enumerate the different kinds, or mark the discrimina- 

 tions by which each is diflinguifhed, would be a talk as 

 fruitlefs as it would be impoffible ; to account for this 

 wonderful variety, or inveftigate the character of the pri- 

 mitive Hock from which they have fprung, would be 

 equally vain. Of this only we are certain, that, in every 

 age, Dogs have been found pofTefTed of qualities moft 

 admirably adapted for the various purpofes to which they 

 have been from time to time applied. — We have feen, in 

 the hiftory of the Cow and the Sheep, that thofe animals 

 which have been long under the management of man, 

 never preferve the ftamp of nature in its original purity 



