SOME CATS OF FRANCE 191 



one of his name be reasonably expected to love 

 them ! " They are," he says, " deceitful and treach- 

 erous by instinct, depraved and cruel by habit." 

 The best that can be offered in their behalf is that 

 their perversity is less criminal than that of men, 

 being a natural trait instead of a premeditated ill- 

 doing. Buffon's traducing cynicisms are quoted 

 lengthily to prove that even the youngest kittens 

 are little monsters of iniquity, filled with inborn 

 malice, and with that propensity to evil which the 

 catechism teaches us is the dark shadow cast by 

 original sin. " Determined thieves, education only 

 makes them more supple and alert. They know 

 well how to conceal their purpose, to seize their 

 opportunity, to cover their flight, and to escape re- 

 tribution. They easily acquire the manners, but 

 never the morals of society." 



How far the morals of society are in advance of 

 the morals of cats, it would be hard to determine. 



" J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet un fripon ; " 



says Boileau, who plainly found little to choose 

 between them. 



The really curious thing about M. Raton's treatise 

 is that it is embodied in a series of letters addressed 

 to Madame la Superieure du Couvent des Visitan- 

 dines ; and one cannot help wondering why the 

 good nun should have desired so much information 



