2 4 o THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



Only the cat s impartial mind draws no distinc 

 tion between mouse and bird. 



&quot; They call me cruel. Do I know if mouse or song-bird feels ? 

 I only know they make me light and salutary meals.&quot; 



&quot;An ordinary cat,&quot; says Mr. Robinson unkindly, 

 &quot; will devote a whole day to the circumvention of 

 the lodger s canary, rather than spend an hour 

 upon the landlady s rats. A single bullfinch in the 

 drawing-room is worth a wilderness of mice in the 

 pantry.&quot; 



This I believe to be calumnious ; but, as St. 

 George Mivart remarks with a sapiency too obvious 

 to be instructive : &quot; We cannot, without becoming 

 cats, perfectly understand the cat mind.&quot; When an 

 animal withholds its confidence, we have no power 

 to break the barriers of its reserve ; and who shall 

 boast that he enjoys save in rare and fugitive 

 moments the confidence or intimacy of a cat? 

 Men have made this boast, I am aware, and they 

 have themselves believed the truth of their asser 

 tion ; yet even Gautier and Loti wove into their 

 daily intercourse with their cats the brilliant web 

 of their own imaginings. Gifted beyond most mor 

 tals with that delicate and subtle sympathy which 

 enabled them to establish a basis of companionship, 

 they unconsciously assumed a more complete under 

 standing than could ever have existed. For whereas 

 the dog strives to lessen the distance between him- 



