"Murphy" : a Message to Dog - Lovers. By Major Gambier - Parry.. (Smith,
Elder and Co. 8s. Od. net.)—This " message " will touch many hearts in that " vast host," as our author puts it, " in the human family that loves dogs." Wo have read many books about dogs, have hoard and told many stories about them, but we have never come across anything quite like this, anything that goes so much to the root of the matter in the relation between man and dog. A reader may do well to begin with the last chapter ; when ho has mastered that he will appreciate better the story of what this par- ticular animal was to himself, and what he was to his master. Major Gambier-Parry believes, we see, not, perhaps, in the "equal sky," but in a "sky" of some kind and somewhere, quoting, to good effect, Bishop Butler, who says : " Nor can we find anything throughout the whole analogy of nature to afford us even the slightest presumption that animals ever lose their living powers." " This close relationship "—how close it is cannot be fully sot forth or oven understood—" cannot ho brought to a sudden and a final end. The sparrows cannot be cared for and the dogs cast out." As for " Murphy," wo must leave our readers to find out for themselves what he was. To quote this or that anecdote about his intelligence and loyalty would not do him justice. The whole story should be read. He was an exceptional animal and he has found a biographer such as he deserved. Ono curious little trait of his disposition we may give. Ho had a passion for the chase, but he had no desire to hurt. He first distinguished himself by catching a hare, the snow, it should be said by the way, helping him. The hare was not hurt. Later on in life when he happened to be in a seaside place he delighted in chasing the herring gulls, and here "he Hang himself into the air " and got one of them. " He brought him along, with the great wings beating the air about him, so that the dog was scarcely visible for the bird." But the gull, too, was not hurt. A few minutes later it "flow out to sea with the cry 'pew-il,' pee-ole' flung back from the waves as he went."
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