Part 1

“The Incredible Blue.”]

THE SOUL OF A CAT AND OTHER STORIES

BY MARGARET BENSON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HENRIETTA RONNER AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1901

DEDICATION TO THOSE DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK

Once on a time I used to dream Strange spirits moved about my way, And I might catch a vagrant gleam, A glint of pixy or of fay; Their lives were mingled with my own, So far they roamed, so near they drew; And when I from a child had grown, I woke--and found my dream was true.

For one is clad in coat of fur, And one is decked with feathers gay; Another, wiser, will prefer A sober suit of Quaker grey; This one’s your servant from his birth, And that a Princess you must please, And this one loves to wake your mirth, And that one likes to share your ease.

O gracious creatures, tiny souls! You seem so near, so far away, Yet while the cloudland round us rolls We love you better every day.

οὐχὶ πάντες εἰσὶν λειτουργικὰ πνεύματα;

Greek--transliteration: ouchi pantes eisin leitourgika pneumata?

Translation: “Are they not all ministering spirits?” (Hebrews 1:14)--Transcriber.

PREFACE

Prejudice is at first a Guide to Knowledge, but afterwards a Gaoler of Thought.

The average Englishman prefers to have his knowledge well formulated and well classified in what one may call a portable and handy form. To such an one it seems desirable to have certain general propositions about the animal creation which, regardless of small subtleties and differences, he may use as a guide for practical action. As, for instance, “that man is governed by reason but the brutes by instinct”; “that the cat, though eminently domestic, is selfish, egotistic, and luxurious; whereas the dog is generous, affectionate, and faithful”; that “cats care for places and not for people.”

Many more such maxims may be mentioned, some of which imply a certain amount of observation, as, for instance, that the parrot possesses an imitative instinct.

Those who have this guide to knowledge will tell you that they like or do not like “the character of the cat,” and will ask if you like cats or dogs best.

So some one once asked me whether I liked poetry, and when I asked “whose poetry?” instanced that of the Marquis of Lorne.

But in the first case, too, it would seem to be a relevant point to ask which dog and which cat; and to those who profess not to like “the character” of the cat one might put first the counter-question as to whether they like “the character” of the human being.

As it is well from time to time to compare the best established maxims and formulæ with the results of recent experience and observation; so, although the foregoing principles are extensive enough and fundamental enough to satisfy the greediest grasp after truth, it may not be amiss to compare them with observation of individuals; to compare the general propositions concerning the character of the cat with observations on certain individual cats; the common contempt of birds-wits with observation of individual birds; and to find out the essential point which makes us so certain that similar processes in the man and the brute are in one case the work of reason and in the other case of instinct.

Perhaps we might even come to think that man has some share of instinct, and the brute some dawnings of reason.

Let us face this result boldly, even if it leads us to stammer a little over the irrefragable proposition that, since animals have no souls, this present life contains not only all that they must suffer, but all that they may enjoy; even if it should make us doubt the perfectness of our scientific grasp of spiritual things, and should seem to lead back to such old doctrines as Peter’s belief in the restitution of all things, and St. Paul’s hope of the deliverance of the suffering creature into the glorious liberty of children of God.

CONTENTS

Dedication to Those Described in This Book Page v Preface vii Contents xi Illustrations xiii

The Soul of a Cat 1 Joey and Matilda; or, Intellect and Emotion 17 The Torpid and the Ill-Bred Cat 31 Vanity of Vanities 45 Taffy 55 The Adopted Family 81 The Mysterious Ra 91 Mentu 103 The Conscience of the Barn-Door Fowl 119 Confucius 129 A Paradise of Birds 137 Epilogue 149

Transcriber’s Note

ILLUSTRATIONS

Portraits: