Preview
Circa Date
1887
Transcription
15
Stick 15
# some dogs can almost tell a story with eyes & gestures Never in a human being old or young have I seen a look of more delicate touching affectionate pleading tenderness than in those of a little brown rough haired terrier one of my Cal dogs when he lay dying in my arms & [as] when we buried him few people men or women have had more tears, & on few graves have more tears fallen
Who that has looked into the eyes of an intelligent merry or dignified dog has not felt there was much in them that is dammed back & can’t be got out for want of speech
A wild howling hysterical uncontrollable jumble of joy.
Howled & cried in pitiful eloquence of distress a perfect passion of misery & a corresponding outburst of joy
The blast of the tempest aids our oars, the hurricane is our servant & drives us whither we wish to go
Like me dogs have minds of infinite complexity – even their bodies are so.
# A small dim dull sluggish unromantic nobody
If dogs could write books, could we get the autobiography of only one dog or one bird fish or any creature whatever what a notable addition to human knowledge that book would be. How strangely apart all animals are from us, etc.
16
Bent to the persuasion of the tyrant necessity
The self command with which he hushed & held down the tempest of his fears showed [the] wonderful strength of mind
Before I myself escaped
His companionship helped me to still my own fears & when he looked over my shoulder when I was on my knees reaching down cutting the first steps He said as plainly as with words Surely you are not going to try to cross here, I said yes I am Stick I know it looks bad but it’s the only way I can find. It’s just necessity my boy & necessity is a tyrant but will win our way after all never fear
He should endure storms patient as a glacier
# His little round feet made no sound on the moss-carpet of the woods, turf & moss nor on the glacier that never before felt the foot of man or dog.
A character more uniformly colorless no dog could show, he piqued curiosity only with his eyes, & the unshakable steadfastness of his dullness. Suggested the doctrine of [metapsychology] as if might be King prince in disguise
It was a grand gloomy gray morning
A ray of relationship passes from man to every creature to [man] but how seldom is it distantly felt & acknowledged
The great commanding moment of his life arrived
Resource Identifier
MuirReel33 Notebook01 Img010.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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