30 TJie Book of Cats. 



well enough, for instance, to fill up the odd corners 

 of a weekly newspaper in the dull season, and are a 

 pleasant relief to the ' enormous gooseberry' ; but I 

 have my doubts whether they should be given as 

 facts for the instruction of youth, though I am not 

 much surprised that the editor should have ad- 

 mitted them into his pages, when he speaks of them 

 in another part of the magazine as " delightful 

 papers." When children's minds are thus filled 

 with absurd falsehoods, it is not to be wondered at 

 if, when the child grows up into a man, the man 

 should express himself somewhat in the words of 

 this instructor of youth, who says, " I must confess, 

 on my own part, an aversion- to the feline race, 

 which, with the best intentions, I am unable entirely 

 to conquer. I have occasionally become rather 

 fond of an individual Cat, but never encounter one, 

 unexpectedly, without a feeling of repugnance ; and, 

 as I like, or feel an interest in, every other animal, 

 I regard this peculiarity as hereditary." 



I suppose, however, that there are few of my 

 fair readers who have not a feeling somewhat akin 

 to repugnance towards snakes, black-beetles, earvvigs, 

 spiders, rats, and even poor little, harmless mice ; 

 yet ladies have been known to keep white mice, and 

 make pets of them after a time, when the first 



