Memories

The following excerpt was taken from a book entitled, Quality and Other Studies and Essays, written in 1912 by John Galsworthy. John Galsworthy (1867 -1933) won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

“Memories”

If a man does not soon pass beyond the thought “By what shall this dog profit me?” into the large state of simple gladness to be with dog, he shall never know the very essence of that companionship which depends not on the points of dog, but on some strange and subtle mingling of mute spirits. For it is by muteness that a dog becomes for one so utterly beyond value; with him one is at peace, where words play no torturing tricks. When he just sits, loving, and knows that he is being loved, those are the moments that I think are precious to a dog; when, with his adoring soul coming through his eyes, he feels that you are really thinking of him . . . It is on our hearts that his life is engraved.