The Dog and the Vial

"My pretty dog, my good dog, my doggy dear, come and smell this
excellent perfume bought at the best scent-shop in the city."

And the dog, wagging its tail, which is, I think, the poor creature's
substitute for a laugh or a smile, approached and curiously placed its
damp nose to the opened vial; then, recoiling with sudden fright, it
growled at me in reproach.

"Ah! wretched dog, if I had offered you a mass of excrement, you would
have smelled it with delight, and probably have devoured it. So even
you, unworthy companion of my unhappy life, resemble the public, to
whom one must never offer delicate perfumes, which exasperate, but
carefully raked-up mire."