in sacrifice, as a type of the death of Christ, while the other was preserved alive, and let loose in the wilderness, to denote his future resurrection.

k

The Dog.

The

The watchful guardian of the flock, is next entitled to our consideration. Independent of his beautiful figure, his strength, his vivacity, his agility, he possesses every internal excellence, which in a lower animal can attract the favourable regard of man. A passionate, and even a ferocious and sanguinary temper, renders the wild dog formidable to all animals; but in the domestic state, it gradually disappears, and is succeeded by the amiable sentiments of attachment, and the desire of pleasing. eminent qualities of this animal have been the admiration of all ages. So tractable is his disposition, and so diversified his talents, that the art of training the dog seems to have been among the first invented by man; and, says Buffon, the result of this art was the conquest and peaceable possession of the earth. Without his assistance, how could man have conquered, tamed, and reduced the other animals into bondage? How could he still discover, hunt down, and destroy noxious and savage beasts? The dog, therefore, is necessary to the safety of man, and to his dominion over the lower animals. So convinced were the first generations of men of the necessity and importance of his services, that they sometimes gave his name to their children. Among the Arabians, a man is occasionally called Celb, and a woman Celba; both of which are derived from the Hebrew root (24) Celeb, a dog. A prince

* Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. iv, p. 2. Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, p. 77. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. viii, cap. 61. Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. iv, cap. 40, and lib. vi, cap. 10, 25, and 62; lib. xii, cap. 35; lib. vii, cap. 10; lib. viii, cap. 2.

of Judah bore the name of Caleb, or the dog; and from the same root, the royal Psalmist gave one of his sons the name of Cileab. These may be considered as sure proofs, how greatly the dog was valued among the shepherd kings and people of the east. The patriarch Job refers so familiarly to the dogs of his flock, that we must conclude that animal had been long in the service of the shepherd, before the times in which he flourished. Faithful and affectionate, he watches over the property of his master; and his voice is better heard, and often more regarded in the flock, than that of his owner. The flocks and herds committed to his care, he conducts and protects with singular attention and prudence, and seldom employs force against them, but for the preservation of peace and good order. But this character belongs to him only in a domestic state, and under strict and proper discipline; for in a wild state, and in desert or depopulated countries, he differs not in his manners from the wolf, excepting by the facility with which he may be tamed.

No animal is more "susceptible of impressions, more easily modified by moral causes, and more subject to alterations occasioned by physical influence." In very warm climates, he is liable to degenerate; in a few years he loses his voice, barks no more, but makes a dismal kind of howling noise, and in some countries, becomes perfectly mute; he loses also the elegance of his form, and sinks into an ugly animal with a sharp muzzle, long erect ears, and a long pointed tail. This deformed and mute creature, is of no use to man: destitute of voice, of instinct, and activity, he is no longer qualified to take charge of his flocks, to guard his dwelling, or aid him in the destruction of noxious animals. To these important facts, the prophet Isaiah alludes in terms which cannot be mistaken: "His watch

men are blind; they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough." The prophets and the priests of Israel had become so degenerate, that they could no longer discharge their duty; they were not merely unwilling, they were become incapable of acting a part becoming their station. The incapacity of a degenerate dog is physical ; theirs was moral, but in consequence of prevailing corruption, not less incurable than the other. At once slothful and rapacious, servile and overbearing, they provoked the wrath of Jehovah, and excited the scorn or detestation of his people.

In a wild state, dogs unite in troops to hunt the prey, and often direct their combined attack against the fiercest and most powerful beasts of the forest. When pursued by men, they are known to turn upon them with furious rage, and hunt them in their turn." Their passions, even after they have submitted to the dominion of man, are easily inflamed; and when one opens, the whole pack instantly join in the cry, and begin the pursuit. In this manner acted the Jews, who combined against the life of their Saviour. The fickle and sanguinary multitude that shouted a few days before, "Hosannah to the Son of God," joined with equal promptitude and eagerness in the cry of their leaders, before the tribunal of Pilate, "Crucify him, crucify him." To this circumstance, David in spirit, alludes in the twenty-second psalm, where he describes the sufferings of his Son and Lord: "Dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet."n

m

Isa. Ivi, 10.

Sparman's Voyage, vol. i, chap. 4, sec. 4.

n Psa. xxii, 16.

The dog is naturally a beast of prey, and the food which he prefers, is the flesh of animals. Hence, the law of Moses commanded: "Neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts; ye shall cast it to the dogs." The sanguinary temper of this animal, is established by many incontrovertible proofs; he licks the blood and devours the carcases of the slain. The dogs licked the innocent blood of Naboth; and still following their natural instincts, according to the prediction of Elijah, they licked the blood of a royal murderer, and eat the flesh of his partner in guilt. So fierce is their nature, so cruel their devastations, that in the wrath of Heaven, they are joined with the sword, the ravenous bird, and the savage beast, in executing the sentence of Divine justice upon guilty and unrepenting nations: " And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord; the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy." The complete deliverance of God's ancient people from the power of their enemies, was in ancient prophecy marked by the same phenomenon: "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea; that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same."r

But this voracious animal easily accommodates himself to other kinds of food; the sacred writer accordingly observes, that "the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." In a simple and unrefined state of society, they are not excluded from the apartment and the table of their master, but share in his comforts, as in his toils and privations. Persons of the highest rank among

• Exod. xxii, 31.

P 1 Kings xxii, 19.

* Psa. Ixviii, 22, 23.

a Jer. xv, 3. $ Mat. xv, 27.

the primitive Greeks, allowed their faithful dogs to wait around their festive boards, and gather up the fragments of their meals. Not fewer than nine of these animals attended at the table of Patroclus.

Εννεα τῶ γε ανακι τραπεζης κυνες ησαν. N. lib. xxiii, 1. 173., In the seventeenth book of the Odyssey, he celebrates the attention of Ulysses to his dog Argus, and puts the following words into the mouth of his hero, when, on his return to Ithaca, he found him lying neglected before the doors of his palace :

J

οἷοι σε τραπεζης κυνες ανδρών Γίγνοντ, αγλαίης δε ενεκεν κομέεσιν ανακτές. Odyss. lib. xvii, 1. 308. Such are the dogs which are fed at the table of heroes, which kings rear for their own pleasure. The princes of those days, were not ashamed to carry home to their dogs, the crumbs which fell from the table of their entertainer, or the fragments which remained after the feast. This ancient custom, so contrary to all our ideas of propriety, is mentioned by Homer in these lines:

Odyss. lib. x, 1. 216.

Ως δε όταν αμφι ανακτα κυνες δαιτηθεν ιοντα Σαινωσ' αιει γαρ τε φερι μειλίγματα θυμε. The dogs watched their master when he returned from a feast, and fawned around him; for he always brought them some fragments grateful to their taste. So poor and miserable was the afflicted Lazarus at the rich man's gate, that, like the dogs which came and licked his sores, as they waited the return of their master from the feast, he desired to eat of the crumbs which had been reserved for them, and to receive his share with them at the gate, from the hand of their owner, as he passed into his house. The ancients, like some modern nations, unacquainted with the useful contrivances of these times, conveyed their