But is it, in candour, true that brutes have no moral sense?
Obviously, since moral sense is a growing thing, and ascending in the scale of being, and since man is its chief receptacle on earth, we ought to be able to take the best instances of animal morals from those creatures which have come most within the influence of human example; as pets of every kind, but mainly dogs.

Does not a puppy, that has stolen a sweet morsel from some butcher's stall, fly, though none pursue him?
Is a fox-hound not conscience-stricken for his harry of the sheep-fold?
and who will deny some sense of duty, and no little strength of affection, in a shepherd's dog?
Have not Cowper's now historic hares displayed an educated and unnatural confidence; and many a gray parrot, though limited in speech, said many a witty thing ?--Again, read some common collection of canine anecdotes: What essential difference is there between the affectionate watch kept by man over his brother's bed of sickness, and that which has been known of more than one poor cur, whose solicitude has extended even to dying on his master's grave?
The soldier's faithful poodle licks his wounds upon the stormy battle-field; and Landseer's colley-dog tears up the turf, and howls the shepherd's requiem.

What real distinction can we make between a high sense of duty in the captain who is the last to leave his sinking ship, and that in the watchful terrier, whom neither tempting morsels nor menaced blows can induce to desert the ploughman's smock committed to his care?
Once more: Who does not recognise individuality of character in animals?
A dog, or a horse, or a tame deer, or, in fact, any domesticated creature, will act throughout life, in a certain course of disposition, at least as consistently as most masters: it will also have its whims and ways, likings and dislikings, habits, fears, joys, and sorrows; and, verily, in patience, courage, gratitude, and obedience, will put its monarch to the blush.
But upon this theme--meagre as the sketch may be, fanciful, illogical--my cursory notions have too long detained you.

I had intended barely to have introduced a black-looking Greek composite, serving for name to an unwritten essay which we will imagine in existence as PSYCHOTHERION, AN INCONCLUSIVE ARGUMENT ON THE SOULS OF BRUTES; And my thoughts have run on thus far so little conclusively (I humbly admit to you), that we will, to save trouble, leave the riddle as unsolved as ever, and gain no better advantage than thus having loosely adverted to another fancy of your author's mind.
* * * * * Not yet is my mind a simple freeman, a private, unincumbered, individual self-possessor: its slaves are not yet all manumitted; I lack not subjects; I am no lord of depopulated regions; albeit my aim is indeed akin to that of old Rufus, and Goldsmith's tyrannical Squire of Auburn; I wish to clear my hunting-grounds, to make a solitude, and call it peace.

Slowly, but still surely, am I working out that will.