St. Isidore: On Dogs

“NO creature is more sagacious than dogs, for they have more understanding than other animals. For they alone recognize their names, love their masters, guard their houses, risk their lives for them, do not abandon even their dead master’s body. . . In dogs, two things are to be regarded, courage and speed.”

~St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636): Etymologies, 12, 2.

Two Greyhounds and a Mastiff, by Sawrey Gilpin. 

Oil on canvas, 1780; private collection.