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PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
with this name the license of the courtezan — of the hired priestess 
of Venus. 
Civilized society can no more do without the cat than without 
prostitution ; a hideous vampire, that it feeds on its best flesh and 
blood, and dares not fling off for fear of evils still worse. Fabu- 
lists have long tried to see in this fawning, selfish, and knavish ani- 
mal the edifying emblem of the churchman. Holy cat, they say, 
well furred, large, and fat. I am sorry for the fabulists, but their 
authority does not bear examination. A beast so nice, silken, lus- 
trous and caressing — so supple, gracious and electric — a beast in 
whose existence the cares of dress hold so large a place — which 
makes night out of day, and scandalizes honest people with the 
noise of its amorous orgies, could have but one analogue. All is 
not rose-colored in those shameful loves which the cat symbolizes 
the unfortunate creature confesses it loud enough by the miaulings 
of pain that the brutal caresses of her lovers tear from her, and yet 
she always runs to meet her executioners. If this is not the true 
analogy, find me any other beast to represent better those tarifled 
loves which the police protects and morality tolerates. The house- 
sparrow is the emblem of ardent and faithful loves What 
beast is more hostile to this bird than the cat ? Is not the beau 
cat, who never marries, but divides his life between amorous orgies 
and theft, the most striking personification of the gentleman about 
town — of that parasite industry that is practiced at night — of the 
swindler, not less skillful in shuffling his cards and turning up jack, 
than scratchy about the point of honor. 
The female here stands for the species. The wmrld hardly knows 
the male but as a sort of neuter gender, fanciullo o soprano. 
The world has known little more of the husbands of Ninon de 
TEnclos or of Marion De Lorme. The cat is essentially an- 
tipathic to marriage ; she accepts a lover, two lovers, three lov- 
ers — as many as you will ; but just as soon as civilization opposes 
her free, amorous propensities, she claims her liberty as a savage, 
and returns to the forest. Wherefore the savage state or wild life 
develops the stature and the beauty of the cat. Among us she is 
only encamped. 
The cat is the most graceful and supple of all creatures. The 
