240 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



Only the cat's impartial mind draws no distinc- 

 tion between mouse and bird. 



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

 I only know they make me light and salutary meals." 



" An ordinary cat," says Mr. Robinson unkindly, 

 " 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." 



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

 George Mivart remarks with a sapiency too obvious 

 to be instructive : " We cannot, without becoming 

 cats, perfectly understand the cat mind." 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- 



