This article originally appeared in _The English Illustrated Magazine_
for May 1883, Vol. I, pp. 300-305. It was accompanied with
illustrations by Randolph Caldecott. The essay was later included in
the volume _Memories and Portraits_ (1887).
The astonishing fidelity and devotion of the dog to his master have
certainly been in part repaid by men of letters in all times. A
valuable essay might be written on the Dog's Place in Literature; in
the poetry of the East, hundreds of years before Christ, the dog's
faithfulness was more than once celebrated. One of the most marvellous
passages in Homer's _Odyssey_ is the recognition of the ragged Ulysses
by the noble old dog, who dies of joy. In recent years, since the
publication of Dr. John Brown's _Rab and his Friends_ (1858), the dog
has approached an apotheosis. Among innumerable sketches and stories
with canine heroes may be mentioned Bret Harte's extraordinary
portrait of _Boonder_: M. Maeterlinck's essay on dogs: Richard Harding
Davis's _The Bar Sinister_: Jack London's _The Call of the Wild_: and
best of all, Alfred Ollivant's splendid story _Bob, Son of Battle_
(1898) which has every indication of becoming an English classic. It
is a pity that dogs cannot read.
[Note 1: _The morals of dog-kind_. Stevenson discusses this subject
again in his essay _Pulvis et Umbra_ (1888).]
[Note 2: _Who whet the knife of the vivisectionist or heat his oven_.
Stevenson was so sympathetic by nature that once, seeing a man beating
a dog, he interfered, crying, "It's not your dog, it's God's dog." On
the subject of vivisection, however his biographer says: "It must be
laid to the credit of his reason and the firm balance of his judgment
that although vivisection was a subject he could not endure even to
have mentioned, yet, with all his imagination and sensibility, he
never ranged himself among the opponents of this method of inquiry,
provided, of course, it was limited, as in England, with the utmost
rigour possible."--Balfour's _Life_, II, 217. The two most powerful
opponents of vivisection among Stevenson's contemporaries were Ruskin
and Browning. The former resigned the Professorship of Poetry at
Oxford because vivisection was permitted at the University: and the
latter in two poems _Tray_ and _Arcades Ambo_ treated the
vivisectionists with contempt, implying that they were cowards. In
Bernard Shaw's clever novel _Cashel Byron's Profession_, The
prize-fighter maintains that his profession is more honorable than
that of a man who bakes dogs in an oven. This novel, by the way, which
he read in the winter of 1887-88, made an extraordinary impression on
Stevenson; he recognised its author's originality and cleverness
immediately, and was filled with curiosity as to what kind of person
this Shaw might be. "Tell me more of the inimitable author," he cried.
It is a pity that Stevenson did not live to see the vogue of Shaw as a
dramatist, for the latter's early novels produced practically no
impression on the public. See Stevenson's highly entertaining letter
to William Archer, _Letters_, II, 107.]
[Note 3: "_Trailing clouds of glory_." _Trailing with him clouds of
glory._ This passage, from Wordsworth's _Ode on the Intimations of
Immortality_ (1807), was a favorite one with Stevenson, and he quotes
it several times in various essays.]
[Note 4: _The leading distinction_. Those who know dogs will fully
agree with Stevenson here.]
[Note 5: _The faults of the dog_. All lovers of dogs will by no means
agree with Stevenson in his enumeration of canine sins.]
[Note 6: _Montaigne's "je ne sais quoi de généreux_." A bit of
generosity. Montaigne's _Essays_ (1580) had an enormous influence on
Stevenson, as they have had on nearly all literary men for three
hundred years. See his article in this volume, _Books Which Save
Influenced Me_, and the discussion of the "personal essay" in our
general Introduction.]
[Note 7: _Sir Willoughby Patterne_. Again a character in Meredith's
_Egoist_. See our Note 47 of Chapter IV above.]
[Note 8: _Hans Christian Andersen_. A Danish writer of prodigious
popularity: born 1805, died 1875. His books were translated into many
languages. The "memoirs" Stevenson refers to, were called _The Story
of My Life_, in which the author brought the narrative only so far as
1847: it was, however, finished by another hand. He is well known to
juvenile readers by his _Stories for Children_.]
[Note 9: _Once he ceased hunting and became man's plate-licker, the
Rubicon was crossed_. For a reversion to type, where the plate-licker
goes back to hunting, see Mr. London's powerful story, _The Call of
the Wild_. ... The "Rubicon" was a small stream separating Cisalpine
Gaul from Italy. Caesar crossed it in 49 B. C, thus taking a decisive
step in deliberately advancing into Italy. "Plutarch, in his life of
Caesar, makes quite a dramatic scene out of the crossing of the
Rubicon. Caesar does not even mention it."--B. Perrin's ed. of
_Caesar's Civil War_, p. 142.]
[Note 10: _The law in their members. Romans_, VII, 23. "But I see
another law in my members."]
[Note 11: _Sir Philip Sidney_. The stainless Knight of Elizabeth's
Court, born 1554, died 1586. The pages of history afford no better
illustration of the "gentleman and the scholar." Poet, romancer,
critic, courtier, soldier, his beautiful life was crowned by a noble
death.]
[Note 12: _The ideal of the dog is feudal and religious_. Maeterlinck
says the dog is the only being who has found and is absolutely sure of
his God.]
[Note 13: _Damnable and parlous than Corin's in the eyes of
Touchstone_. See _As You Like It_, Act III, Sc. 2. "Sin is damnation:
Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd."]
[Note 14: _Cairn-gorms_. Brown or yellow quartz, found in the mountain
of Cairngorm, Scotland, over 4000 feet high. Stevenson's own dog,
"Woggs" or "Bogue," was a black Skye terrier, whom the author seems
here to have in mind. See Note 20 of this Chapter, below, "Woggs."]
[Note 15: _A Soul's Tragedy_. The title of a tragedy by Browning,
published in 1846.]
[Note 16: _Troilus and Cressida_. One of the most bitter and cynical
plays ever written; practically never seen on the English stage, it
was successfully revived at Berlin, in September 1904.]
[Note 17: "_While the lamp holds on to burn ... the greatest sinner
may return_." From a hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), beginning
"Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to insure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return."
Although this stanza has no remarkable merit, many of Watts's hymns
are genuine poetry.]
[Note 18: _Sturm und Drang_. This German expression has been well
translated "Storm and Stress." It was applied to the literature in
Germany (and in Europe) the latter part of the XVIIIth century, which
was characterised by emotional excess of all kinds. A typical book of
the period was Goethe's _Sorrows of Werther_ (_Die Leiden des jungen
Werthers_, 1774). The expression is also often applied to the period
of adolescence in the life of the individual.]
[Note 19: _Jesuit confessors_. The Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, one
of the most famous religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church, was
founded in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola and a few others.]
[Note 20: _Modified by Cheeryble_. The Cheeryble Brothers are
characters in Dickens's _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838-9). Dickens said in
his Preface, "Those who take an interest in this tale, will be glad to
learn that the BROTHERS CHEERYBLE live: that their liberal charity,
their singleness of heart, their noble nature ... are no creations of
the Author's brain."]
[Note 21: "_Rake the backets_." The "backet" is a small, square,
wooden trough generally used for ashes and waste.]
[Note 22: _Woggs_ (_and Note: Walter, Watty, Woggy, Woggs, Wog, and
lastly Bogue; under which last name he fell in battle some twelve
months ago. Glory was his aim and he attained it; for his icon, by the
hand of Caldecott, now lies among the treasures of the nation.)
Stevenson's well-beloved black Skye terrier. See Balfour's _Life_, I,
212, 223. Stevenson was so deeply affected by Woggs's death that he
could not bear ever to own another dog. A Latin inscription was placed
on his tombstone.... This Note was added in 1887, when the essay
appeared in _Memories and Portraits_. "Icon" means image (cf.
_iconoclast_); the word has lately become familiar through the
religious use of icons by the Russians in the war with Japan. Randolph
Caldecott (1846-1886) was a well-known artist and prominent
contributor of sketches to illustrated magazines.]
[Note 23: "_Stammering Professors_." A "professor" here means simply a
professing Christian. Stevenson alludes to the fact that dogs howl
fearfully if some one in the house is dying.]
[Note 24: "_Carneying_." This means coaxing, wheedling.]
[Note 25: _Louis Quatorze_. Louis XIV of France, who died in 1715,
after a reign of 72 years, the longest reign of any monarch in
history. His absolutism and complete disregard of the people
unconsciously prepared the way for the French Revolution in 1789.]