With a trustful hope that this statement may be
accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently
inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my
memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface.
I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not
prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of
man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more
voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow,
Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of
others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from
the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of
him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as
tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious
things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be
necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man.
Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark,
so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more
indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally
referred to above.
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