epraved and debased of mankind as we
find him elsewhere. He is incapable of these sins; he does not fall into
these errors.

What we have to remember is apparently this. The earliest mention of the
dog in Scripture is in connection with the sojourn of the Israelites in
Egypt. The dog was declared by the Jewish law to be unclean; and it is
not improbable that the Jews were so taught to regard him in opposition
to those taskmasters who, they were well aware, held him sacred. Thus the
term dogs appears often as the reflection of a passionate and deep-seated
hatred, apart altogether from the animal's uncleanness, and also from the
animal itself. The word came in this way to be a useful one to hurl at
the head of an enemy at all times, or by which to classify those who
lived outside the pale of common, human decency. For such as these last
there could be no hope, and the term as applied to them was judged to
carry with it the bitterest stigma, just as it continues to do in the
East to the present day. To be a Christian is to be a dog; to be a Jew is
to be a dog; an infidel is a dog; and to be known as "a Jew's dog," or "a
dead dog," is to have sunk to the lowest depths of depravity in the eyes
of all men.

But the way in which dogs were regarded did not stop with Jewish edicts
and Jewish opinion. When the ancient Egyptians made way for another type,
and Moslems took their place, the dog, honoured before as has been shown,
fell at once into an inferior position. The Moslem law took its colour
largely from Jewish practice, and the dog was generally looked upon by
the Mahomedan as unclean. He continues, as all the world knows, to be
still so regarded. The dog, in the East, is at once tolerated and
neglected: he may be slightly better than the pig, but, like that wholly
unclean animal, he is a scavenger, living largely on offal and what he is
able to pick up.

He is thus, for the most part, a poor creature, leading a poor life, and
being often much to be pitied. That he should have any future prospects
before him, seeing him as he is, might well be doubted. But this must
also be remembered, that if he is in various stages of development in
these far-off lands, and with little chance of betterment, he does not
differ greatly in these respects from vast multitudes of men among whom
he moves, whether they be white, yellow, brown, or black. The conditions
of his life are little by which to condemn him, just as they would be
insuf