es of the premises were such
that I followed for once the paternal example, in giving them a wide
berth.

My social footsteps have always been guided by a knowledge of the
kennel, as well as of the house. Even as the pastor of a human flock, I
confess that I have many a time stood at men's gates balancing the
question of duty or safety before I girded up a martyr spirit and
resolved to enter. Not that I loved the sheep and lambs less, but that I
hated their growling, leaping, four-footed favorites more.

It is not a mere question of wisdom or of taste, this prevalence and
idolatry of dogs. If it were only an amiable weakness, and a matter
affecting the person indulging it, some such form of image-worship as
the rage for bric-a-brac and old china, I should not take the trouble to
enter my protest. But hath not a dog teeth? Hath not a dog great, dirty
paws, a venomous and fiery tongue, and a throat which is the organ of
all discords? Hath he not feet which can carry his unpleasantnesses
into other people's presence, perhaps deposit them on your lap, or cause
you to stumble and be offended and made weak by standing in your way? An
ideal dog, a china dog, a dog behind a picture-frame, the dog of
literature, are not without their aesthetic side,--are certainly things
to be let alone. But the realistic, vigorously vital, intrusively
affectionate, or faithfully suspicious dog can no more be "let alone"
than could Mr. Jefferson Davis and his rebellious States once upon a
time, for the simple reason that he will not let us alone. It is as
curious an exhibition of human nature to note the surprise which always
seizes the owner when one of these "faithful" creatures bites any of his
friends and neighbors as is the proverbial incapacity of the householder
to admit the existence of malaria on his premises. A little friend of
mine who can hardly toddle, while visiting with his parents, was
recently sprung upon by a great house-dog and bitten seriously in the
cheek. And the philosophical explanation, which ought to have been
highly satisfactory, was, "The dog dislikes children, but has never been
known to hurt grown people"!

I have alluded to the testimony of Scripture concerning dogs. Herein, at
least, Science is in accord with Revelation. It tells us that there is
nothing in the osteology of this family (_Canidae_) to distinguish the
domestic dog from the wolf or fox or jackal. His "brain-cavity is
small," his strong point being