Concerning Still Other People's Cats 



And again: "When I am told that Agrippina is 

 disobedient, ungrateful, cold-hearted, perverse, stupid, 

 treacherous, and cruel, I no longer strive to check 

 the torrent of abuse. I know that Buffon said all 

 this, and much more, about cats, and that people 

 have gone on repeating it ever since, principally 

 because these spirited little beasts have remained just 

 what it pleased Providence to make them, have pre- 

 served their primitive freedom through centuries of 

 effete and demoralizing civilization. Why, I wonder, 

 should a great many good men and women cherish 

 an unreasonable grudge against one animal because 

 it does not chance to possess the precise qualities of 

 another .' ' My dog fetches my slippers for me every 

 night,' said a friend, triumphantly, not long ago. 

 ' He puts them first to warm by the fire, and then 

 brings them over to my chair, wagging his tail, and 

 as proud as Punch. Would your cat do as much for 

 you, I'd like to know.' ' Assuredly not. If I waited 

 for Agrippina to fetch me shoes or slippers, I should 

 have no other resource save to join as speedily as 

 possible one of the barefooted religious orders of 

 Italy. But after all, fetching slippers is not the whole 

 duty of domestic pets. 



" As for curiosity, that vice which the Abbd Galiani 

 held to be unknown to animals, but which the more 

 astute Voltaire detected in every little dog that he 

 saw peering out of the window of its master's coach, 

 it is the ruling passion of the feline breast. A 



73 



