POG. 289 
variety of human actions. It is recorded of a 
Doo' belono'ino; to a nobleman of the Medici fa- 
mily^ that it always attended at its master's table; 
changed the plates for him, and carried him his 
wine in a glass placed on a salver, without spill- 
ing the smallest drop. 
Plutarch relates, that, in the theatre of Mar- 
cellus, a dog was exhibited before the Emperor 
Vespasian, so well instructed as to excel in every 
kind of dance : he afterwards feigned illness in so 
exquisite a manner as to strike the spectators with 
astonishment; first shewing symptoms of pain, 
then falling down, as if dead, and suffering him- 
self to be carried about in that state ; and after- 
wards, at the proper time, seeming to revive, as 
if waking from a profound sleep ; and then sport- 
ing about and shewing all the demonstrations of 
joy. 
But of all the educational attainments by which 
the Dog has been distinguished, that of learning 
to speak seems the most extraordinary. The 
French academicians, however, make mention of 
a Dog in Germany, which could call, in an intel- 
ligible manner, for tea, coffee, chocolate, &c. 
&c. The account is too curious to be omitted 
here, and is from no less a person than the cele- 
brated Leibnitz, who communicated it to the 
Royal Academy of France. This Dog was of a 
middling size, and was the property of a peasant 
in Saxony. A little boy, the peasant's son, ima- 
gined that he perceived in the Dog s voice an in- 
distinct resemblance to certain words, and, there- 
