Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-04-25
FELINE PsYcHoL,,eY.
The secret of the Cats Pcpularity-It's
Egotlsm and sellishsaess.


EeotIsm and sallishaaess.
London StandarLs
What then. is the secret of the cats
nonularityg The brute is not grateful,
nor Is it. like the dog, self-sacrificing.
No cat would wet its feet To save its
master. were this possible, or its masters
child which has played with it, a service
which Is oftencr within its power. A
doc will risk blows and its life to de-
fend those whom it loves. Nc sat on
record ever turned its tail to protect
any one from i'll usage, or, unlike the
dog, which has been known to die OF
hunger rather than leave its masters
grave, displays anything akin to sorrow
for these who fed it and cared for it
while they were alive. All Of our do
nestle animals, as NJ. Flourens long ago
pointed out, are sociable. The OK, the
pig, the dog and the rabbit exist
naturally in association and in numbers.
But the cat is solitary. 1t lives with
rs. but it does not associate with us.
IL receives our bounty, but it does
not give in exchange submission,
docilitv, and the service of those species
which are truly domestic. in brief, the
cat proyes-we speak of the rule, not of
the exceptions-thatu unless an animal
is primarily sociable, time, care and
custom avail nothing. The very tamest
of cats has never yet been reduced to
subsection. Some show a certain anna
tory attachment; but if interfered with,
the tiger, to which they are so closely
akin, instantly appears. The cat may
caress, but it must be in the humor and
in the best of circumstances; the love of
the most attached of the species is hard
to win and easy to forfeit, in this re-
spect it and the dog differing widely.
The cat, moreover, Is an egotist. It
rubs itself up against its mistress, but
in reality, so the psychologist who has
studied its mental organization declares,
it is not caresSing her, but itself; and
when it purrs in seeming satisfaction
with the world, it is simply expressing
its own self-suficiency. The cat has,
nevertheless its friends, who will hear
no wrong of it. 1t is natural" M.
Champheury tells us, and therefore it is
illuminated. Playing its little part in
the world unaffected, when it is hungry
it says so. If it wants to sleep, it lies down
and stretches itself. When it wants to
go out it asks to be let out. 1t may be,
as Button described it, an ''unfaithful
SeTFdnly DuJ IL -, Ou ludb very dCcOul1t,
a type of the higher race to whom it
attaches itself
The cat, the moralist cries, is the per-
sonification of selfishness. Why should
it be otherwisel Man has desired the
society of the cat. The cat has not
sought the so iety of man. If left to
itself in the country, it can find its own
food and shelter, and in a week will
have resumed the natural independ-
ence which is the characteristics that
has procured it so many invidious crit
les.
The kitten is playful but the cat,
even the elo1uence of N. Champfeury
has not yet demonstrated to be the ami
able quadruped which the dog usually
is. 1t is a tiger on a small scale, AID as
long as it has associated with man, it
seems to have imbibed few moral quail
tiles, and still less has it been able to
transmit them to its posterity. The
truth is that men-and women still
more-must have some pet. The dog
has been chosen, and has proved one
of the best and most useful. But the
cat is more manageable on account of
its smaller size, and its housing pro-
pensities have led to its other vices be-
ing forgotten.