RENAISSANCE 77 



this pleasant " Histoire des Chats ; " and that, after 

 his election to the French Academy, he had the 

 weakness to withdraw the book from circulation. 

 Solid and serious scholars, who had inaugurated 

 what M. Champfleury calls " the grievous system 

 of professional literature," pretended to believe that 

 cats were unworthy of an Academician's momen- 

 tous regard. Wits made merry at the expense of 

 the " historiogriffe ; " and false friends, like Vol- 

 taire, flattered the poor poet out of his reason, and 

 then laughed sourly at the siniplicity which credited 

 men with truth. Upon the awful and august occa- 

 sion of Moncrif's maiden speech, some wag, thrill- 

 ing with joy at his own brilliant jest, turned a cat 

 loose in the room ; and when the frightened crea- 

 ture began to mew, the Academicians laughed and 

 mewed in chorus, to the painful confusion of the 

 newly elected. — "Rira mieux qui rira derni^re." 

 To-day, when tomes of oppressive erudition lie 

 swathed in shrouds of dust ; when names once 

 honoured are well-nigh forgotten ; when Moncrif's 

 other writings — plays, and poems, and pastorals 

 — have slipped unobtrusively into oblivion; this 

 " gravely frivolous " little book still gains a hear- 

 ing for its author. No one who truly loves cats 

 can afford to neglect so interesting a period in their 

 history, nor so veracious and admirable an histo- 

 rian. 



