MDMD2: The Learned English Dog

[Dave Monroe]

"All at once, out of the Murk, a dozen mirror'd Lanthorns have leapt
alight together, as into their Glare now strolls a somewhat dishevel'd
Norfolk Terrier, with a raffish Gleam in its eye,-- whilst from some
where less illuminated comes a sprightly Overture upon Horn, Clarinet,
and Cello, in time to which the Dog steps back and forth in his bright
Ambit." (M&D, Ch. 3, p. 18)

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60179

Source:

Opera Omnia volume II
Ludovic Dutens (ed)
p 180

Date: 1706

Note: This text is a summary of a letter which Leibniz submitted to
the Academy of Sciences in Paris. The summary was published in
l'Histoire de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris (1706), and written by
its editors.

Translated from the French

ACCOUNT OF A LETTER FROM MR LEIBNIZ TO THE ABBÉ DE ST. PIERRE, ON A TALKING DOG

[D II, p180]

     Without a guarantor like Mr Leibniz, who is an eyewitness, we
would not have the audacity to report that near Zeitz, in Misnie,
there is a dog that speaks. It is a countryman's dog of normal shape
and size. A young child heard it emit some sounds that he thought
resembled German words, whereupon he got it into his head to teach it
to speak. The master, who had nothing better to do, spared no time or
trouble with this, and happily the disciple had an aptitude that was
hard to find in another dog. Finally, after a number of years, the dog
was able to pronounce around 30 words or so, among them Thé, Caffé,
Chocolat and Assemblée, French words which have passed into German, as
they do. It is notable that the dog was at least 3 years old when it
was put in school. It only speaks by echoing, that is, after its
master has pronounced a word, and it seems that it only repeats when
forced, and despite itself, although it has not been maltreated. Once
again, Mr Leibniz has seen it and heard it.

http://www.leibniz-translations.com/dog.htm
http://www.leibniz-translations.com/pdf/dog.pdf