Now, in this indifference¹ and this total want of comprehension in which everything that surrounds us lives; in this incommunicable world, where everything has its object hermetically contained within itself, where every destiny is self-circumscribed, where there exist among the creatures no other relations than those of executioners and victims, eaters and eaten, where nothing is able to[Pg 49] leave its steel-bound sphere, where death alone establishes cruel relations of cause and effect between neighbouring lives, where not the smallest sympathy has ever made a conscious leap from one species to another, one animal alone, among all that breathes upon the earth, has succeeded in breaking through the prophetic circle, in escaping from itself to come bounding toward us, definitely to cross the enormous zone of darkness, ice and silence that isolates[Pg 50] each category of existence in nature's unintelligible³ plan. This animal, our good familiar dog, simple and unsurprising as may to-day appear to us what he has done, in thus perceptibly drawing nearer to a world in which he was not born and for which he was not destined⁴, has nevertheless performed one of the most unusual and improbable acts that we can find in the general history of life. When was this recognition of man by beast, this extraordinary[Pg 51] passage from darkness to light, effected? Did we seek out the poodle, the collie, or the mastiff from among the wolves and the jackals, or did he come spontaneously to us? We cannot tell. So far as our human annals stretch, he is at our side, as at present; but what are human annals in comparison with the times of which we have no witness? The fact remains⁵ that he is there in our houses, as ancient, as rightly placed, as perfectly⁶ adapted to our [Pg 52]habits as though he had appeared on this earth, such as he now is, at the same time as ourselves. We have not to gain his confidence or his friendship: he is born our friend; while his eyes are still closed, already he believes in us: even before his birth, he has given himself to man. But the word "friend" does not exactly depict⁷ his affectionate worship. He loves us and reveres⁸ us as though we had drawn⁹ him out of nothing. He is, before all, our creature full[Pg 53] of gratitude¹⁰ and more devoted¹¹ than the apple of our eye. He is our intimate and impassioned slave, whom nothing discourages, whom nothing repels¹², whose ardent¹³ trust and love nothing can impair¹⁴. He has solved, in an admirable and touching¹⁵ manner, the terrifying problem which human wisdom would have to solve if a divine race came to occupy our globe. He has loyally, religiously, irrevocably recognized man's superiority and has surrendered himself[Pg 54] to him body and soul, without after-thought, without any intention to go back, reserving of his independence, his instinct and his character only the small part indispensable to the continuation of the life prescribed by nature. With an unquestioning certainty, an unconstraint and a simplicity¹⁶ that surprise us a little, deeming us better and more powerful than all that exists, he betrays, for our benefit, the whole of the animal kingdom to which he belongs[Pg 55] and, without scruple¹⁷, denies his race, his kin², his mother and his young.  
But he loves us not only in his consciousness and his intelligence: the very instinct of his race, the entire unconsciousness of his species, it appears, think only of us, dream only of being useful to us. To serve us better, to adapt himself better to our different needs, he has adopted every shape and been able infinitely¹⁸ to vary the faculties¹⁹, the aptitudes²⁰ which he places at[Pg 56] our disposal. Is he to aid us in the pursuit of game in the plains? His legs lengthen²¹ inordinately²², his muzzle²³ tapers²⁴............