als than in those of wild
ones. Of all these, however, the dog is the one most closely attached to
man, living like man the least regular manner of life; he is also the
one whose feelings so master him as to make him docile, obedient,
susceptible of every kind of impression, and even of every kind of
constraint; it is not surprising, then, that he should of all animals
present us with the greatest variety in shape, stature, colour, and all
physical and mental qualities."

Here again the direct cause of modification is given as being the inner
feelings of the animal modified, change of conditions being the indirect
cause as with Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck.

"Other circumstances, however, concur to produce these results. The dog
is short-lived: he breeds often and freely: he is perpetually under the
eye of man; hence when--by some chance common enough with Nature--a
variation or special feature has made its appearance, man has tried to
perpetuate it by uniting together the individuals in which it has
appeared, as people do now who wish to form new breeds of dogs and other
animals. Moreover, though species were all formed at the same time, yet
the number of generations since the creation has been much greater in
the short-lived than in the long-lived species: hence variations,
alterations, and departure from the original type, may be expected to
have become more perceptible in the case of animals which are so much
farther removed from their original stock.

"Man is now eight times nearer Adam than the dog is to the first
dog--for man lives eighty years, while the dog lives but ten. If, then,
these species have an equal tendency to depart from their original type,
the departure should be eight times more apparent with the dog than with
man."[86]

Here follow remarks upon the great variability of ephemeral insects and
of animal plants, on the impossibility of discovering the parent-stock
of our wheat and of others of our domesticated plants,[87] and on the
tendency of both plants and animals to resume feral characteristics on
becoming wild again after domestication.[88]

_The Hare--Geometrical Ratio of Increase._

We have already seen that it was Buffon's pleasure to consider the hare
a rabbit for the time being, and to make it the text for a discourse
upon fecundity. I have no doubt he enjoyed doing this, and would have
found comparatively little pleasure in preaching the same discourse upon
the rabbit. Speakin