In her absence, his dog has acquired that ascendant. His
affection for that creature is beyond all expression or
conception."--_Private Correspondence._ See an instance which he gives
of this dog's influence over the philosopher, p. 143.
In Burns's elegy on the death of his favourite Mailie, we find the
friendship even of a sheep set on a level with that of man:--
"Wi' kindly bleat, when she did spy him,
She ran wi' speed:
A friend mair faithful ne'er came nigh him,
Than Mailie dead."
In speaking of the favourite dogs of great poets, we must not forget
Cowper's little spaniel "Beau;" nor will posterity fail to add to the
list the name of Sir Walter Scott's "Maida."]
[Footnote 98: In the epitaph, as first printed in his friend's
Miscellany, this line runs thus:--
"I knew but one unchanged--and here he lies."
]
[Footnote 99: We are told that Wieland used to have his works printed
thus for the purpose of correction, and said that he found great
advantage in it. The practice is, it appears, not unusual in Germany.]
[Footnote 100: See his lines on Major Howard, the son of Lord
Carlisle, who was killed at Waterloo:--
"Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine;
Yet one I would select from that proud throng,
Partly because they blend me with his line,
And _partly that I did his sire some wrong_."
CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO III.
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