Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-01-03
The Consciousness Of Dogs

parted friends munificent benefac-
tion.
The consciousness Of Dogs.
From the Quarterly Review
A dog feels anger precisely as
we do, and after provocation is
sometimes vindictivc and sometimes
placable, according to his individ-
ual character. He is susceptible of
hatred of the bitterest kind. He is
so overwhelmingly jealous, that his
life becomes burden in the pres
ence of favored rival. His envy
continually leads him to eat what
he does not want, lest another ami
NAL should take it, and so illustrate
the fable of the dog in the manger.
Gluttony holds out to him tcmpta-
tions under which even his honesty
sometimes succumbs, but, on the
other hand, from drunkenness he is
nobly samapcipated. A dog pen-
toned blythe Rev. Thomas Jaffer-
son ("0kH Dumb Companions"
having once been made so drunk
with malt liquor that he was unable
to walk up stairs, ever after declin-
ed to taste the pernicious beverage,
and crowlcd and esna"lcd at the
sight of q. pewter pot. Again, as to
love, Don Juan was cold and un-
cntcrprising character compared to
q dog; and as to the maternal atfec-
tion, the mother dog feels it with
heroic passion, starving herself to
death rather than forsakc her off
spring. Gratitude may be almost
said to be dogs leading principle,
supplying first the spring of allegi-
ance to his master, and ever after
rcconciling him with true magma
nimity to take evil from the hand
from which he has accepted good.
Regret and grief he feels so deeply
that they often break. his heart.
Fear is passion which dogs exhib.
it with singular variation, some
breeds and individuals being very
timorous, and others perfect models
Of courage, the latter characteristics
and fortitudc seeming to be more
enthusiastically canine. n grey
hound has been known, after break
ing his thigh, to run on till the
course was concluded. AS to hope,
no one can observe the dog watch
ind for his masters step, as in
Landseer's picture of Expectation
without admitting that he knows
the sentiment rs well as we. Pride
in a successful chase may be wit
messed in every dog, and even in
the quickencd hcart-beats of a grey
hound when caressed and praised.
That dogs have personal vanity ap-
pears from the fact that they are SO
manilestcdly detected and demoral-
lied when dirty and ragged by long
exposure, and recover their self-rc-
spcct Immediately oil being washed
and combed. Chivalry and magma
nimity may nearly always be calcu-
lated upon in dogs, and wife-beat
ing isSan offence to which the four
footed beasts never descend. The
stories are endless of big dogs gen
crously overlooking the insults of
small ours, or taking them into the
water and giving them good duck
ing as punishment for their i'm
per,inence, and then helping them
mcrcifully back to land. Sense of
property, bifurcating into covetous-
ness and avaricc, is common to all
dogs. The kennel, rug, collar, wa
ter basin, or bone once devoted to
his use, no dog can see transferred
to another without Indignation
Frequently he "covets his neigh
boris house," and attempts to es-
consc himself in it surreptiously,
and almost universally he covets his
neighbours bone, and purlcins it if
he dare. Even from avarice he
cannot be wholly exonerated, OBJ
serving his propensity to bury his
treasures. Shame, after transgress-
ing any of the arbitrary rules i'm
posed upon him, a dog displays
with ludicrous simplicity; but of the
deeper sense Of violated modesty
which in human beings accompan-
les the commission of sin, the dog
evidently knows nothing whatever.
Humor, so far as it can proceed
without language, the dog catches
readily from a humorous master,
and also the enjoyment of such
games as he can understand. AS n
baby crows with glee at 'bo-peep,"
so a dog barks with delight at Ego
fetch" Makc-belicve runs and false
starts, romps and tickling; throwing
a ball for him to catch on the grass,
or stick to fish out of a lake, all
supply him with pleasure analogous
in their nature to that which men
and boys find in blind-man's-buff
and prisoners base, lordly cricket
and lady-like croquet. Lastly, faith
in a beloved superior is perhaps the
most beautiful and affecting of all
the attributes of a dog.