the room, for the boy was playing with
him when he was taken sick. The child remained ill three or four
days, and then died; and during the whole time the dog never
left his bed-side; he watched by the corpse until it was buried,
and then took possession of the little boy's chair, which he
would allow no one to touch, not even the child's mother. Every
day he absented himself for three or four hours; and the father
one day going to look at his child's grave, found that the dog
had almost scratched his way down to the coffin. He was after
this kept within doors; but he refused to eat, and in a short
time died in the chair of his little master. If I had time, I
could tell you a story almost as touching, in relation to a pig,
an animal that phrenologically speaking has generally been
looked upon as somewhat deficient in the region of the
sentiments.'

NOW that our attention has been awakened to the subject, we find in our
casual reading the testimony in favor of 'mind in animals' greatly to
increase and multiply. OLEUS MAGNUS, Bishop of Norway, in a work written
in Latin some two centuries ago, tells us of a fox that, in order to get
rid of the fleas which infested his skin, was accustomed to swim out into
a lake with a straw band held high and dry in his mouth. When the
water-hating vermin had all escaped from his submerged body to the dry
straw, down dived Reynard, leaving his tormentors 'at sea,' and rising
again beyond the scope of safe jumping. 'Curious, isn't it?' A
correspondent at Rochester, 'who experienced much satisfaction in the
perusal of the article' above alluded to, was yet 'a little dissatisfied
with the closing portion of it.' The proposition of the writer to 'abstain
entirely from animal food,' on the score of humanity, he considers
'especially ridiculous.' He has 'the gravest authority for stating, that
every drop of water that quenches our thirst or laves our bodies, contains
innumerable insects, which are sacrificed to our necessities or comforts;
each ingredient in the simplest vegetable fare conveys to inevitable
destruction thousands of the most beautiful and harmless of created
beings. From the first to the last gasp of our lives, we never inhale the
air of heaven without butchering myriads of sentient and innocent
creatures. Can we upbraid ourselves then for supporting our lives by the
death of a few animals, many of whom are themselves carn