Page:A happy half-century and other essays.djvu/87

 Rh thoughtful analysis of man's loyal servitor, the dog:—

"That a dog is a noble, grateful, faithful animal we must all be conscious, and deserves a portion of man's tenderness and care;—yet, from its utter incapacity of more than glimpses of rationality, there is a degree of insanity, as well as of impoliteness to his acquaintance, and of unkindness to his friends, in lavishing so much more of his attention in the first instance, and of affection in the latter, upon it than upon them."

It sounds like a parody on a great living master of complex prose. By its side, Cowper's description of Beau is certainly open to the reproach of plainness.

"My dog is a spaniel. Till Miss Gunning begged him, he was the property of a farmer, and had been accustomed to lie in the chimney corner among the embers till the hair was singed from his back, and nothing was left of his tail but the gristle. Allowing for these disadvantages, he is really handsome; and when nature shall have furnished him with a new coat, a gift which, in consideration of