REMARKS on L AP-D OG S. 
69 
LETTER XXV. 
To the fame. 
M A D A M, 
I W I L L now confers, with the fame honefly which always 
directs my pen, that I think a woman of fenfe may enter- 
tain a certain degree of affection for a brute; I do not mean 
a human brute, but a dog, for inftance, which is a faithful ani- 
mal, and preferable to a monkey, becaufe a dog has no vile 
refemblance of the human fpecies, as monkeys have. Moll dogs 
are sycophants, but they are faithful, which is more than 
can be faid of the generality of parafites of our fpecies. They 
are ufeful too in fome few inftances. 
The great fault feems to lie in the degree of efteem in which 
we place fuch objedts ; and the manner in which we exprefs our 
humanity towards them. Add to this, the inconvenience which 
arifes from a great attention to them, either with regard to the 
abufe of our time ; or the inelegance and vexation which arifes 
to ourfelves, or to others. Some animals are of fo nafty and 
mifchievous a kind, that it is the mod: abfurd taste imaginable 
to attempt to render them domeftic. 
But to the honor of lap-dogs, this is not the cafe with them ! 
When under proper discipline, how greatly are they infirm 
mental to the felicity of fine ladies ! and how happy are thefe 
to find an objedt to amufe their idle moments, and perchance 
to preferve themfelves from the danger which always attends 
having nothing to do. But, alas!, the best things may be abm 
fed,. 
