314 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



But none of the species are beasts of prey, as the cat in its wild 

 state is. And she, we may fairty say, has intellectually learned 

 absolutely nothing from man. She is a far keener and more 

 acute being when out on the trail of a bird than when most do- 

 mestic in her mood. She changes her whole mental attitude, 

 when on an expedition, to one of superior alertness, as much as 

 the wild Indian, who was sunk in plethoric sleep for days pre- 

 vious, does when he puts on his war-paint and stealthily returns 

 to the trail of his enemy. The cat which you see with ears erect, 

 stealing through the shrubbery, is quite a different being from the 

 one attaining " Nigban" in her mistress's lap, or on the hearth- 

 rug before the fire. And yet civilization does graft something 

 upon her which is worth more than her savage acuteness, though 

 it is not new knowledge. It is the need of a higher companion- 

 ship of some sort, though she spends most of her time no more 

 aware of that companionship than she can be in a dreamless sleep ; 

 for the cat never dreams as the dog does. However indigestible 



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she may find her food, you never hear her growl, or start, or cry 

 in her sleep, as the dog does when his dreams present imaginary 

 enemies. And yet she is sensible of the pleasure of companion- 

 ship even in sleep, and a civilized cat will usually prefer to slum- 

 ber in the room with her personal friends to slumbering in loneli- 

 ness. We know a cat which, confined for " functional " purposes 

 to the stable and the loft over it, always comes to sleep on the 

 back of the pon} T , which the pony evidently approves of, as giv- 

 ing him also a sense of the sublime feeling of protection ; indeed, 

 as directly inverting the feeling which he has with a rider on his 

 back, and substituting for it one of positive patronage. There is 

 no doubt that what civilizes the cat is not in the least any intellec- 

 tual influence exercised over her by man, for, on the contrary, his 

 presence half extinguishes the little intellect she has, but is, on 

 the contrary, a dumb, pleasurable sense of companionship with a 

 creature who is her superior. The place of her half-extinguished 

 instincts as a beast of prey is supplied by a graft of an almost 

 equally instinctive and entirely torpid pleasure in the protection 

 of superiors. And yet it is not to the species man, but to the in- 

 dividuals, that she feels thus. There is no creature which less 

 likes strangers than the cat. She objects, perhaps, to the disturb- 

 ing magnetic influences they introduce with them. While the dog 

 first barks at and then welcomes them, stretching out quite cor- 

 dially the right hand of fellowship, as clearly understanding that 

 his master approves, and while the parrot falls into a silent fit, 

 and studies, in order to reproduce them, the cat simply absents 

 herself. 



The civilization of the cat is purely customary and habitual ; the 

 dog's in many respects one of activity, and even sharpened by 

 competition. At the accustomed meal time she will rush in with 

 a cry almost of nervous agony, lest the proper moment begone by. 

 She is importunate to the last degree till her customary claim has 

 been satisfied, but then she never encroaches. She has claimed 

 her tribute of popular privileges; she never goes on to exaggerate 

 them into democratic rights. The dog, on the other hand, who is 



