Towianski's Muddy Coat


The following is a story which I like very much. It is translated from an Italian manuscript privately published in 1897, and referenced in "Varieties of Religious Experience," by William James. It is about Andre Towianski, and a dirty dog, whose name remains unknown to us, and their encounter on a rainy day in Warsaw about a hundred and fifty years ago.

Towianski was described as a patriot and a mystic.

One rainy day a friend of Towianski's was walking down the street in Warsaw. He carried an umbrella and hurried along the way people do on such days. As he continued down the street, ahead of him he saw a man caressing a very large dog, which was jumping up on him and covering his fine coat with mud. The man was amazed to recognize his friend Towianski, and he called out to him, "Andre! Why do you permit this dog to jump up on your best coat and cover you with mud?"

Towianski continued to play with the dog as he answered his friend. "This dog," he said, "whom I am meeting for the first time today, has shown a great fellow feeling for me, and a great joy in my recognizing and accepting his greetings. If I drove him away because of something so petty as getting mud on my coat, I would hurt his feelings and do him a moral injury.

"In fact, it would not just hurt the spirit of this dog, but it would hurt all the spirits in the other world who are on the same level as he is. The damage he does to my coat is nothing in comparison to the wrong I would do to his spirit to ignore his friendship and happy feelings.

"Whenever we can, my friend, we should lighten the condition of animals and at the same time help create inside ourselves the union of all spirits, which the sacrifice of Christ made possible."

And so saying, he and the dog ran down the street, romping and playing together in the rain.

Posted: Tue - September 7, 2004 at 10:10 PM