SOME CATS OF FRANCE 185 



man fancied — more Gallic vivacity than falls to the 

 lot of most Saxon cats. For it was one of Chateau- 

 briand's favourite theories that domestic animals 

 share in an extraordinary degree the national traits 

 of the people among whom their lives are spent. 

 He delighted, when travelling, to observe their 

 expressions and demeanour, declaring that he saw 

 reflected in them the expressions and demeanour 

 of their masters; — the gayety, the sadness, the 

 intelligence, the stupidity which they daily encoun- 

 tered in man. Thus the German beasts had, he 

 felt, " the temperate character of their reasonable 

 owners ; " while the serious silence, the subdued 

 reserve of English animals oppressed his cheerful 

 soul. "The London sparrow," he wrote in 1798, 

 "all blackened with smoke, hops drearily about the 

 streets. One seldom hears a dog bark, or a horse 

 neigh, and even the free and independent cat ceases 

 to mew upon the housetop." 



The supreme egotism of Chateaubriand could 

 hardly fail to find expression in his most generous 

 utterances, and it is amusing to hear him proclaim 

 himself to M. de Marcellus the champion and advo- 

 cate of the cat, because she was "one of the works 

 of God which is most despised by man." — " Buf- 

 fon," he added, " has belied this animal. I am 

 labouring at her rehabilitation, and hope to make 

 her appear a tolerably good sort of beast." 



