CHAP. I. On the sagacity of Cats, superiour to that of any other animal.

It has been ever a sage remark of the wisest philosophers, that all creatures bear about them the criterion of their peculiar nature: Such as the ferocity of the Lyon, the grimness of the Tyger, the cunning of the Fox: Among the animals who boast of gravity, none can pretend to that sedateness which the Cat, on first view, arrogates to itself above all others. The Owl, indeed, has time immemorial, dared to enter the lists, and therefore was by the ignorant ancients, dedicated to Minerva, the goddess of Wisdom, but whether the Owl’s letters patent were ever made out for that title, is a question, which must be decided by the more learned,

The Ass too has had the assurance, to throw down his gauntlet in this tournament, tho’ with no better a face than his competitor, the bird of Minerva. But what person, tho’ ever so little inclined, to the talents of observation, could possibly avoid taking notice of the uncommon prudery of the Cat. He, or she, male, or female, shall take their post close by a fire side, with all the conformity, with all that respectable quality, which should entitle him or her to a notable attention. Nay the old ladies, vulgarly called old women, have been so hardy as to say, that Cats are witches, that they can prognosticate, foretell, predict, and what not? and it is affirmed by some of those venerable matrons, that a cat has made an Almanack. I have heard indeed, and with some aspect of credibility, that a Cat is something barometrical, or in plainer terms bears a resemblance to a weather glass; that when she washes her face, it is a sign of good weather, and when she is in her frolicks, it will blow hard, but how to attest these diagnostic symptoms is above our capacity, and even Pliny himself the natural historian would be puzzled to decide a matter of such consequence.

To possess two qualities eminently distinct, is the inheritance of no creature upon earth. The Dog is faithful, vigilant, docile, and of an excellent scent. The Horse boasts of many virtues, and amiable endowments; his speed, his strength and other illustrious talents recommend him to man: So of other animals; but none of these enumerates good qualities diametrically opposite each other. Now in the Cat, there appears the utmost austerity, with the greatest levity. A rake and a senator are most wonderfully compounded. Who can analize these differing ingredients, so demure a puritan on a sudden, converted into the most absolute debauchè? One time sitting for four or five hours in the attitude of solemnity, and then on sudden break out into the most dissolute festivity. These qualities, so dissonant, so very opposite to each other, must indicate something superior in the animal, whose history we are at present writing, and we think we have proved this superiority of the Cat above all other animals so incontestibly, that all historians, ancient and modern, must submit to our sublime decree, or else confute our at present irrefragable argument in some future treatise.