Once upon a long time ago I shared the foolish Romantic view that animals are somehow lessened by entering into partnership with man. But if man is greater than animal, why shouldn’t we say that they are enobled by it? The sheepdog or rescue dog which we admire is not a person; it is not rational; it does not understand the reasons for our commands. Yet it gladly enters into a pattern of activity shaped by human reason. This is only a “unity of order,” not a “unity of substance,” but even so it excites a certain wonder.
I do not wish to commit the anthropomorphic fallacy, imagining that animals are persons. Yet to however slight a degree, I wonder whether it might be said that our animal servants and playfellows are taken up into the life of our rational nature, by distant analogy with how our own animal nature is taken up into the rational nature itself. Or am I going too far?