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Confucianism 3rd Edition Dorothy Hoobler Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Dorothy Hoobler, Thomas Hoobler
ISBN(s): 9781604131079, 1438117760
Edition: 3
File Details: PDF, 7.34 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
 WORLD RELIGIONS

CONFUCIANISM
THIRD EDITION
WORLD RELIGIONS
African Traditional Religion
Baha’i Faith
Buddhism
Catholicism & Orthodox Christianity
Confucianism
Daoism
Hinduism
Islam
Judaism
Native American Religions
Protestantism
Shinto
Sikhism
Zoroastrianism
 WORLD RELIGIONS

CONFUCIANISM
THIRD EDITION

by
Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
Series Editors: Joanne O’Brien and Martin Palmer
Confucianism, Third Edition

Copyright © 2009, 2004, 1993 by Infobase Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact:

Chelsea House
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New York NY 10001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoobler, Thomas.
Confucianism / by Thomas and Dorothy Hoobler. – 3rd ed.
p. cm. — (World religions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60413-107-9
ISBN-10: 1-60413-107-1
1. Confucianism—Juvenile literature. I. Hoobler, Dorothy. II. Title.

BL1853.H66 2009
299.5’12—dc22

2008029656

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 CONTENTS
Preface 6
CHAPTER 1 Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 8
CHAPTER 2 Confucius and His Time 20
CHAPTER 3 The Development of Confucianism 38
CHAPTER 4 The Influence of Confucianism Spreads 60
CHAPTER 5 Confucian Literature 78
CHAPTER 6 Rituals and Standards of Conduct 94
CHAPTER 7 A Crisis for Confucianism 108
CHAPTER 8 Confucianism into the Twenty-First Century 126
Fact File and Bibliography 138
Further Reading and Web Sites 139
Glossary 140
Index 142
About the Authors and Series Editors 144
Picture Credits 144
 Preface
Almost from the start of civilization, more
than 10,000 years ago, religion has shaped
human history. Today more than half the
world’s population practice a major reli-
gion or indigenous spiritual tradition. In
many 21st-century societies, including
the United States, religion still shapes peo-
ple’s lives and plays a key role in politics
and culture. And in societies throughout
the world increasing ethnic and cultural
diversity has led to a variety of religions
being practiced side by side. This makes
it vital that we understand as much as we
can about the world’s religions.
The World Religions series, of which
this book is a part, sets out to achieve this
aim. It is written and designed to appeal
to both students and general readers. The
books offer clear, accessible overviews of
the major religious traditions and insti-
tutions of our time. Each volume in the
series describes where a particular religion
is practiced, its origins and history, its cen-
tral beliefs and important rituals, and its
contributions to world civilization. Care-
fully chosen photographs complement
the text, and sidebars, a map, fact file, glos-
sary, bibliography, and index are included
to help readers gain a more complete
understanding of the subject at hand.
These books will help clarify what
religion is all about and reveal both the
Area where Confucianism
similarities and differences in the great is a major influence
spiritual traditions practiced around the
world today.

6 CONFUCIANISM
© Infobase Publishing

Preface 7
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION:
THE MODERN
CONFUCIAN
WORLD

W orldwide there are about 6 million people who today call

themselves Confucians. The majority live in Asia, more
particularly east Asia, because the birthplace of Confucianism
was China. Still, in Europe, in North and South America, and on
other continents there are small numbers of people who identify
themselves as Confucians. Most are of Asian descent. However
Confucianism has an influence far greater than the number of its
active followers would indicate. For more than 2,000 years Con-
fucianism was the dominant philosophical system of China. As a
result, it infused all phases of Chinese life. It is reflected in China’s
poetry and history, its government and social life, and the ethics
that shaped society. Because Chinese civilization spread to Viet-
nam, Korea, and Japan, elements of Confucianism can also be
found in the cultures of those countries. Although few Japanese
would call themselves Confucians, the values of Confucianism
still exist in modern Japan. The same is true of Vietnam, North
and South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Even the

A street scene in Suzhou, China. Confucian principles are still

influential in the relationships between family members,
citizens and government, and in the underlying principles
that shape and maintain good relations within communities.

8 CONFUCIANISM
Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 9
 People’s Republic of China, whose Communist government repu-
diated the nation’s Confucian past, cannot escape its influence.

WhaT is ConfuCianism?
Confucianism is a system of thought based on the teachings of
Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479 b.c.e. If only one word
were to be used to summarize the Chinese way of life for the last
2,000 years, that word would be Confucian. No other person has
had as great an effect on the life and thought of China as Con-
fucius. He is the most revered person in Chinese history and is
accorded such titles as Sage of All Time and First Teacher. Though
he is called Confucius throughout most of the world, that name
is actually the Latinized form of his Chinese name, Kong Fuzi, or
Master Kung.

WisDom of THE PAsT

For himself Confucius claimed no great originality. Instead he
looked to a past era that he saw as a golden age. He told a disciple,
“I transmit but I do not create. I am sincerely fond of the ancient.
I would compare myself to our Old Peng who was fond of talking
about the good old days.” Confucius served as a creative trans-
mitter of the wisdom of the past. From
his study of Chinese tradition, he gleaned
The Golden Rule the teachings that would influence China
Confucius taught a moral code based throughout time to the present.
on ethics, humanity, and love. One
day a disciple asked Confucius, “Is oRDER AnD HARmony
there one word that should cover Despite the fact that Confucius lived during
the whole duty of man?” To this
the troubled times leading up to the War-
question Confucius replied: “Fellow-
ring States Period (476–221 b.c.e.), a time
feeling, perhaps, is that word. Do
not do to others what you would not of turmoil when feudal states were con-
wish them to do to you.” Thus, from tending with each other for dominance,
very early times, this “golden rule” his philosophy emphasized the ideals of
became an important part of Chinese order and harmony. Central to Confucian-
thought. ism is the idea that people should live in
harmony, both with each other and with

10 CONFUCIANISM
No portraits of Confucius exist from his lifetime.
However, this 19th-century Korean manuscript
shows Confucius in the robes that he wore according
to ancient tradition. A similar style of folded robes is
still worn for Confucian rituals and ceremonies.

Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 11

 nature. To attain those goals Confucius
Five Virtues
advocated a system of interpersonal rela-
Confucius taught his disciples to tionships and good government. The sys-
be gentlemen. In his philosophy a tem had a hierarchy, with age favored over
gentleman was a person who had
youth and the only equals were friends.
developed the five virtues of courtesy,
To Confucius government service was
magnanimity, good faith, diligence,
and kindness; and a man with those the highest calling of all, because good
qualities should employ them in government would bring happiness to
governing the state. all people. “The gentleman first practices
what he preaches and then preaches what
he practices,” he said. Furthermore Con-
fucius believed that through education anyone could reach the
high standard of a gentleman.

THE fAmily uniT

In China the basic unit of society was the family. The family served
as an economic, social, and political unit, since family members
participated as a group in those areas of life. The family was the
natural environment for moral training and the bridge between
the individual and society. Confucius taught that it was within
the family that the individual fully achieved his or her human
potential.
Confucius stressed the duties and obligations of each family
member and believed that each should act according to his or
her particular role. Of the five human relationships, according
to Confucius three were within the family: father/son, husband/
wife, and older brother/younger brother. (Note that Confucius
viewed the family as a patriarchal institution. He did not include
mother/daughter or older sister/younger sister in his basic human
relationships.) The other two relationships were friend/friend
and ruler/subject.
The strongest of those relationships was that of father and
son. The son owed respect and obedience to his father to a much
greater degree than was required in European civilization. As an
adult the son was required to pay the utmost honor to his father,
even after the father’s death. Then the son was responsible for

12 CONFUCIANISM
offering sacrifices to his father’s spirit. Known as filial piety, this
duty to father became deeply ingrained in Chinese civilization.
In return the father was expected to provide for his family. Simi-
larly, children were also expected to show filial respect to their
mother. The strength of the parents’ authority was demonstrated
when they arranged marriages for their children—a decision in
which the children themselves had no say.
Confucius stressed the hierarchical nature of human relation-
ships. Of the five relationships, only one was between equals—
that between friend and friend. Age was favored over youth; thus
Relationships within the
younger brothers were subservient to elder brothers. family unit were central
to Confucian teachings.
PosiTion of WomEn Respect for the elderly was
A wife was subservient to a husband. In childhood a young girl part of this structure and
is a Confucian value that
was duty bound to obey her father. When she married she entered still remains important in
into the family of her husband. She was expected to obey and the cultures of east Asian
serve both her husband and his parents. It was only when her own nations.

Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 13

 sons married that she would have power
Kinship
over someone else: her daughters-in-law.
Francis L. K. Hsu, a Chinese-
American scholar, wrote: RulER AnD suBJECT RElATionsHiPs
The Chinese way in kinship gave the The teachings of Confucius were directed
individual a great sense of security and particularly toward government. The last
the wherewithal to deal with the problems of the five relationships was that between
he faced in the world. Women who were ruler and subject. Just as the son owed loy-
not beautiful did not need to frequent alty and obedience to his father, so did the
lonely-hearts clubs. Their marital
subject owe the same respect to the ruler.
destinies were assured by their parents.
Men who just hoped to get through life Indeed the state, the nation, was seen as an
with minimum effort did not have to seek expanded family. The emperor was regard-
their own identity and make a world of ed as the “father and mother” of his peo-
their own. If their parents were not poor, ple. He offered sacrifices to heaven for the
all they had to do was to take advantage good of the people, the land, and all crea-
of the shadow of their ancestors. tures under heaven. Aptly, the emperor’s
(In Francis L. K. Hsu, The Challenge of official title was Son of Heaven. Centuries
the American Dream.) after his death in 479 b.c.e. Confucius’s
philosophy became the official doctrine of
the Chinese government. One of the many
duties an emperor had toward his people was that of carrying out
the rites that had been codified by Confucius.

founDATions of EDuCATion
After Confucianism became a state religion in 136 b.c.e. it formed
the basis of the Chinese education system for 2,000 years. Confu-
cius had said: “Study as if you were never to master it, as if in fear
of losing it.” No people were ever given greater incentive to study,
for the one way to attain power and influence was through gov-
ernment service. And it was through state-run examinations that
a young man could win appointment to a government post. So
important was this that any child who showed promise was set
aside by the family for intensive teaching and training. Families
even built special “scholar towers” where the student was locked
in day after day, year after year. The family and village invested in
the possibility of his success, for from that fortune flowed.

14 CONFUCIANISM
 Over the years a system of examinations was developed that
emphasized the student’s knowledge of Confucian thought.
There was no greater prize than to pass those examinations.
Great scholars were honored as the superheroes of sports are
revered in the United States. Not only the student but also his
family and village shared in the honor. A successful candidate
was allowed to raise a flagpole in his courtyard and display a ban-
ner describing his triumph. Even more important, wealth, honor
and status followed, not just for the successful candidate but also
for the family and village. The examinations were open to most
males regardless of class, although the years of study required to
pass them meant that most candidates came from the wealthier
families. Still, China offered a career for the academically talent-
ed, which meant that the brightest individuals were in fact the
officials of the government. These scholar-officials, or mandarins
as they were known, commanded greater respect and prestige
than any other group in China.
Confucianism was a force for unity and stability in China. Over
China’s long history its ruling dynasties rose and fell, but Confu-
cianism remained the social and governmental ideal. Through-
out the vast territory of the Chinese empire scholars studied the
same books and shared a common legacy. Although Confucian-
ism developed and changed, certain core ideals remained and
became a stabilizing force for Chinese civilization.

THE THREE REligions

Throughout much of their history the
Chinese have practiced and been influ-
In Essence
enced by Daoism and Buddhism as well
as Confucianism—faiths that they often The Dao pours out everything into life
combine in different ways. It is a cornucopia that never runs dry
It is the deep source of everything
DAoism It is nothing and yet in everything
Other than Confucianism Daoism is the (In Man-Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer,
most important native philosophy of Chi- and Jay Ramsay, Tao Te Ching.)
na. Its legendary founder was Laozi, who,

Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 15

 according to tradition, was an older con-
temporary of Confucius. A well-known
Chinese legend describes the two men
meeting. In many ways the two beliefs
complement each other, fulfilling the
opposite sides of the Chinese char-
acter. In contrast to the official and
public nature of Confucianism, Dao-
ism stresses mysticism and the world
of the spirit. Daoism appeals to the
carefree side of life, the importance of
unconventionality, and a desire for long
life or even immortality. Daoism teaches
that it is better to “go with the flow” of
Carving of Laozi, Buddha, and Confucius tasting sake, events than to be consumed by worldly
a Japanese fermented drink. There is no evidence of a
meeting between these three great religious figures but
ambition; most human effort was to no
they are drawn together to show the inter-mingling of these avail anyway.
traditions within China. Many a Chinese scholar was Confucian
in his public career, but in private life or in
ThE ThrEE TraDiTions retirement he might explore the truths of
Daoism.
O f the three faiths Confucianism has
perhaps had the greatest influence
on everyday life during the long span of
BuDDHism
Chinese civilization. Because it became The other major religion of China is Bud-
the state philosophy its values became dhism. It came to China from India in the
deeply rooted in the ruling class. The man- first century of the common era. China
darin, or government scholar-official, had and India were very different in terms of
to learn Confucianism to pursue his career, their history and culture, yet Buddhism
no matter what other religious beliefs he found fertile ground in China. Its teach-
practiced in private. Confucian learning
ings of mercy and salvation for all beings
was also diffused at a popular level by
struck a responsive chord. By the time it
local government. Thus, although both
Buddhism and Daoism were very popular
became established Buddhism had taken
and influential during certain periods of on Chinese customs and beliefs and its
Chinese history, Confucianism remained character became distinctively Chinese.
the most important of the three. Over the years it would, in turn, influence
Confucianism and Daoism.

16 CONFUCIANISM
 is ConfuCianism a rELigion?
Language
Some historians have claimed that Confu-
cianism is not a religion at all. They char- In the Chinese language one word,
acterize its system of ethics and values as jiao, is used for the two words religion
and education. To a Confucian,
a form of Chinese humanism. Confucius
religion’s main purpose is to instill
himself said little on strictly religious top-
moral values in the person.
ics. On being asked about the spirits Con-
fucius responded: “When still unable to
do your duty to men, how can you do your duty to the spirits?”
Some of the controversy over the nature of Confucianism is due
to the fact that the Chinese view of religion is different from that
of the West. The Confucian sees religion as a form of education.
This does not mean that Confucianism is completely uncon-
cerned with the life of the spirit. Although Confucius believed
that men should strive to direct their own destiny rather than
allowing spirits to do so, he accepted many features of ancient
Chinese religion. He advocated that when sacrificing to the spir-
its one should assume that “they were there.” Confucius prayed
to heaven and promoted the ancient Chinese religious rites. He
accepted the Chinese cosmic order that regarded heaven as a
force in the affairs of humans. In addition,
he endorsed ancestor worship, another sagE To aLL gEnEraTions
important part of Chinese religious belief.
Further religious features were linked to
Confucianism when it became the official
O ver time temples devoted to Confu-
cius arose throughout the country.
Sacrifices were offered to statues of the
doctrine of the state. sage or to tablets with his name inscribed
Confucianism in China thus had a on them, more a form of showing respect
unique aspect. It was both more than and than adoration. It would not be correct to
less than a religion in the Western sense. say that Confucius was worshipped as a
On one hand Confucianism so deeply divine being or a god. As part of the tra-
penetrated Chinese life in all its aspects ditional Chinese veneration of ancestors,
Confucius was honored as the ancestor
that it became an integral part of being
of the teachings of Confucianism. He was
Chinese. On the other hand it lacked the
revered for his role as Sage to All Genera-
formal structure and the personal, emo- tions, though at a popular level this often
tional, and spiritual intensity of other reli- became outright worship.
gious institutions.

Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 17

 Chinese students studying Yet Confucianism had other aspects very like those of a reli-
at Tsinghua University. gion. In a real sense the emperor acted as the priest for the nation.
Confucianism placed
As Son of Heaven, he performed rituals and rites directed to heav-
great emphasis on study
and learning and these en for the good of the nation. So too the father in each home was
Confucian values still remain the priest for his family. His role in the rites for the ancestors was
strong in China. essential. Moreover the Five Classics—five books of Confucian
thought—although not necessarily considered divinely inspired,
were consulted for their wisdom and studied with unequaled zeal
and dedication.

ConfuCian VaLuEs
Because Confucianism was so tied to the imperial system, it lost
its exclusive role in the 20th century. After the last emperor was
overthrown, in 1911, China sought to modernize. The Son of

18 CONFUCIANISM
Heaven was gone but Confucianism was so ingrained in Chi-
nese life that it could not be so easily discarded. Modern Chinese
thinkers and political leaders wrestled with the problem of how
to adapt Confucianism to a modern state. Mao Zedong, the lead-
er of the Chinese Communists, identified Confucianism with the
system he sought to stamp out. After the Communist victory in
1949 Mao sought to uproot Confucianism entirely. Today, main-
land China again respects the values and ethics of Confucius.
Outside China, Chinese peoples and the civilizations influ-
enced by China still revere Confucius in various ways. In modern
Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, with their primarily Chinese
populations, Confucius is held in high regard. And in Vietnam,
Korea, and Japan Confucian ethics and ideals remain part of the
cultural values.

Introduction: The Modern Confucian World 19

Other documents randomly have
different content
 Méry.

Public sentiment is not so unanimously in favour of cats, yet they

have had their warm admirers, while in Egypt they were adored as
divine—worshipped as an emblem of the moon. When a cat died, the
owners gave the body a showy funeral, went into mourning, and
shaved off their eyebrows. Diodorus tells of a Roman soldier who was
condemned to death for killing a cat. It is said that Cambyses, King of
Persia, when he went to fight the Egyptians, fastened before every
soldier’s breast a live cat. Their enemies dared not run the risk of
hurting their sacred pets, and so were conquered.
Artists, monarchs, poets, diplomatists, religious leaders, authors,
have all condescended to care for cats. A mere list of their names
would make a big book. For instance, Godefroi Mind, a German
artist, was called the Raphael of Cats. People would hunt him up in
his attic, and pay large prices for his pictures. In the long winter
evenings he amused himself carving tiny cats out of chestnuts, and
could not make them fast enough for those who wanted to buy.
Mohammed was so fond of his cat Muezza that once, when she was
sleeping on his sleeve, he cut off the sleeve rather than disturb her.
Andrew Doria, one of the rulers of Venice, not only had a portrait
painted of his pet cat, but after her death had her skeleton preserved
as a treasure. Richelieu’s special favourite was a splendid Angora, his
resting place being the table covered with state papers. Montaigne
used to rest himself by a frolic with his cat. Fontenelle liked to place
his “Tom” in an armchair and deliver an oration before him. The cat
of Cardinal Wolsey sat by his side when he received princes. Petrarch
had his pet feline embalmed and placed in his apartment.
You see, the idea of the cat being the pet of old maids alone is far
from true. Edward Lear, of Nonsense Verses fame, wrote of himself:
 He has many friends, laymen and clerical;
Old Foss is the name of his cat;
His body is perfectly spherical;
He weareth a runcible hat.

Wordsworth wrote about a Kitten and the Falling Leaves. A volume

of two hundred and eighty-five pages of poems in all languages,
consecrated to the memory of a single cat, was published at Milan in
1741. Shelley wrote verses to a cat.
It seems unjust to assert that the cat is incapable of personal
attachment, when she has won the affection of so many of earth’s
great ones. The skull of Morosini’s cat is preserved among the relics
of that Venetian worthy. Andrea Doria’s cat was painted with him.
Sir Henry Wyat’s gratitude to the cat who saved him from starvation
in the Tower of London by bringing him pigeons to eat, caused this
remark: “You shall not find his picture anywhere but with a cat
beside him.” Cowper often wrote about his cats and kittens. Horace
Walpole wrote to Gray, mourning the loss of his handsomest cat, and
Gray replied: “I know Zara and Zerlina, or rather I knew them both
together, for I can not justly say which was which. Then, as to your
handsomest cat, I am no less at a loss; as well as knowing one’s
handsomest cat is always the cat one likes best, or, if one be alive and
the other dead, it is usually the latter that is handsomest. Besides, if
the point were so clear, I hope you do not think me so ill bred as to
forget my interest in the survivor—oh, no! I would rather seem to
mistake, and imagine, to be sure, that it must be the tabby one.” It
was the tabby; her death being sudden and pitiful, tumbling from a
“lofty vase’s side” while trying to secure a goldfish for her dinner.
Gray sent Walpole an ode inspired by the misfortune, in which he
said:
What woman’s heart can gold despise?
What cat’s averse to fish?

and thus describes the final scene:

 Eight times emerging from the flood,
She mewed to every watery god
Some speedy aid to send.
No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred,
Nor cruel Tom nor Susan heard.
A favourite has no friend.

Upon Gray’s death, Walpole placed Zerlina’s vase upon a pedestal

marked with the first stanza.
Jeremy Bentham at first christened his cat Langbourne; afterward,
Sir John Langbourne; and when very wise and dignified, the Rev. Sir
John Langbourne, D. D. Pius IX allowed his cat to sit with him at
table, waiting his turn to be fed in a most decorous manner.
Théophile Gautier tells us how beautifully his cats behaved at the
dinner table. A friend visiting Bishop Thirlwall in his retirement,
thought he looked weary, and asked him to take the big easy-chair.
“Don’t you see who is already there?” said the great churchman,
pointing to a cat asleep on the cushion. “She must not be disturbed.”
Helen Hunt Jackson devoted a large book to the praise of cats and
kittens. We know that Isaac Newton was fond of cats, for did he not
make two holes in his barn door—a big one for old pussy to go in and
out, and a little one for the kitty?
Among French authors we recall Rousseau, who has much to say
in favour of felines. Colbert reared half a dozen cats in his study, and
taught them many interesting tricks. The cat supplied Perrault with
one of the most attractive subjects of his stories, and under the
magical pen of this admirable story-teller, Puss in Boots has become
an example of the power of work, industry, and savoir-faire. Gautier
scoffs at storms raging without, as long as he has
Sur mes genoux un chat qui se joue et folâtre,
Un livre pour veiller, un fauteil pour devenir.

Béranger, in his idyl The Cat, makes an intelligent cat a go-between

of lovers. Baudelaire returned from his wanderings in the East a
devotee of cats, and addressed to them several fine bits of verse; they
are seen in his poetry, as dogs in the paintings of Paul Veronese.
Here is a sample:
Come, beauty, rest upon my loving heart,
But cease thy paws’ sharp-nailèd play,
And let me peer into those eyes that dart
Mixed agate and metallic ray.

Again:
Grave scholars and mad lovers all admire
And love, and each alike, at his full tide
Those suave and puissant cats, the fireside’s pride,
Who like the sedentary life and glow of fire.

How he enjoys, nay, revels in the musical purr!—

Those tones which purl and percolate
Deep down into my shadowy soul,
Exalt me like a fine tune’s roll,
And yield the joy love philters make.

There is no note in the world,

Nor perfect instrument I know,
Can lift my heart to such a glow
And set its vibrant chord in whirl,
As thy rich voice mysterious.

Champfleury, another French writer, has recorded that, visiting

Victor Hugo once, he found, in a room decorated with tapestries and
Gothic furniture, a cat enthroned on a dais, and apparently receiving
the homage of the company. Sainte-Beuve’s cat sat on his desk, and
walked freely over his critical essays. “I value in the cat,” says
Chateaubriand, “that indifferent and almost ungrateful temper which
prevents itself from attaching itself to any one; the indifference with
which it passes from the salon to the housetop.” Marshal Turenne
amused himself for hours in playing with his kittens. The great
general, Lord Heathfield, would often appear on the walls of
Gibraltar at the time of the famous siege, attended by his favourite
cats. Montaigne wrote: “When I play with my cat, who knows
whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me? We
mutually divert each other with our play. If I have my hour to begin
or refuse, so has she.” As George Eliot puts it, “Who can tell what just
criticisms the cat may be passing on us beings of wider speculation?”
Chateaubriand’s cat Micette is well known. He used to stroke her tail,
to notify Madame Récamier that he was tired or bored.
Cats and their friendships are not spoken of in the Bible. But they
are mentioned in Sanskrit writing two thousand years old, and, as
has been said before, they were household pets and almost idols with
the Egyptians, who mummied them in company with kings and
princes. They were also favourites in India and Persia, and can claim
relationship with the royal felines of the tropics. Simonides, in his
Satire on Women, the earliest extant, sets it down that froward
women were made from cats, just as most virtuous, industrious
matrons were developed from beer. In Mills’s History of the
Crusades the cat was an important personage in religious festivals.
At Aix, in Provence, the finest he cat was wrapped like a child in
swaddling clothes and exhibited in a magnificent shrine: every knee
bent, every hand strewed flowers.
Several cats have been immortalized by panegyrics and epitaphs
from famous masters. Joachim de Bellay has left this pretty tribute:
C’est Beland, mon petit chat gris—
Beland, qui fut peraventure
Le plus bel œuvre que nature
Fit onc en matière de chats.

The pensive Selima, owned by Walpole, was mourned by Gray, and

from the Elegy we get the favourite aphorism, “A favourite has no
friends.” Arnold mourned the great Atossa. One of Tasso’s best
sonnets was addressed to his favourite cat. Cats figure in literature
from Gammer Gurton’s Needle to our own day. Shakespeare
mentions the cat forty-four times—“the harmless, necessary cat,” etc.
Goldsmith wrote:
 Around in sympathetic mirth
Its tricks the kitten tries;
The cricket chirrups in the hearth,
The crackling fagot flies.

Joanna Baillie wrote in the same strain.

In one of Gay’s fables about animals the cat is asked what she can
do to benefit the proposed confederation. She answers scornfully:
... These teeth, these claws,
With vigilance shall serve the cause.
The mouse destroyed by my pursuit
No longer shall your feasts pollute,
Nor eat, from nightly ambuscade
With watchful teeth your stores invade.

The story of Dick Whittington and his cat is doubtless true. All the
pictorial and architectural relics of Whittington represent him with
the cat—a black and white cat—at his left hand, or his hand resting
on a cat. One of the figures that adorned the gate at Newgate
represented Liberty with the figure of a cat lying at her feet.
Whittington was a former founder. In the cellar of his old house at
Gloucester there was found a stone, probably part of a chimney,
showing in basso-rilievo the figure of a boy carrying in his arms a
cat. Cowper has a poem on A Cat retired from Business. Heinrich’s
verses are well known, or should be:
The neighbours’ old cat often
Came to pay us a visit.
We made her a bow and a courtesy,
Each with a compliment in it.

After her health we asked,

Our care and regard to evince;
We have made the very same speeches
To many an old cat since.

This translation was by Mrs. Browning; many others have tried it

with success. Alfred de Musset apostrophized his cats in verse. Paul
de Koch frequently describes a favourite cat in his novels. Hoffman,
the German novelist, introduces cats into his weird and fantastic
tales, and Poe has given us The Black Cat. Keats composed a
 Sonnet to a Cat:

Cat, who has passed thy grand climacteric,

How many mice and rats hast in thy days
Destroyed? How many tidbits stolen? Gaze
With those bright languid segments green, and prick
Those velvet ears, but prythee do not stick
Thy latent talons in me, and tell me all thy frays,
Of fish and mice, and rats and tender chick;
Nay, look not down, nor lick thy dainty wrists,
For all thy wheezy asthma, and for all
Thy tail’s tip is nicked off, and though the fists
Of many a maid have given thee many a maul,
Still is thy fur as when the lists
In youth thou enteredst on glass-bottled wall.

Clinton Scollard writes tenderly of his lost

 Grimalkin:

An Elegy on Peter, aged Twelve.

In vain the kindly call; in vain
The plate for which thou once wast fain
At morn and noon and daylight’s wane,
O king of mousers.
No more I hear thee purr and purr
As in the frolic days that were,
When thou didst rub thy velvet fur
Against my trousers.

How empty are the places where

Thou erst wert frankly debonair,
Nor dreamed a dream of feline care,
A capering kitten.
The sunny haunts where, grown a cat,
You pondered this, considered that,
The cushioned chair, the rug, the mat,
By firelight smitten.

Although of few thou stood’st in dread,

How well thou knew’st a friendly tread,
And what upon thy back or head
The stroking hand meant!
A passing scent could keenly wake
Thy eagerness for chop or steak.
Yet, puss, how rarely didst thou break
The eighth commandment!

Though brief thy life, a little span

Of days compared with that of man,
The time allotted to thee ran
In smoother meter.
Now with the warm earth o’er thy breast,
O wisest of thy kind and best,
Forever mayst thou softly rest,
In pace—Peter.
 Agnes Repplier, in her Essays in Idleness and Dozy Hours, tells us
of Agrippina and her child. Charles Dudley Warner gave to the world
a character sketch of his cat Calvin.
A young girl who was in the house with Mr. Whittier, and of whom
he was very fond, went to him one day with tearful eyes and a rueful
face and said: “My dear little kitty Bathsheba is dead, and I want you
to write a poem to put on her gravestone. I shall bury her under a
rose bush!” Without a moment’s hesitation the poet said:
Bathsheba! to whom none ever said scat!
No worthier cat
Ever sat on a mat
Or caught a rat;
Requiescat!

Cats are made very useful. The English Government keeps cats in
public offices, dockyards, stores, shipping, and so on. In Vienna, four
cats are employed by town magistrates to catch mice on the premises
of the municipality with a regular allowance, voted for their keeping,
during active service, afterward placed on the retired list with
comfortable pension; much better cared for than college professors
or superannuated ministers in our country. There are a certain
number of cats in the United States Post Office to protect mail bags
from rats and mice; also, in the Imperial Printing Office in France, a
feline staff with a keeper. Cats are given charge of empty corn sacks,
so that they shall not be nibbled and devoured. Cats are invaluable to
farmers in barns and outhouses, stables, and newly mown fields.
There are many proverbs about the cat. Shakespeare says,
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i’ the adage,

meaning, expressed in another proverb,

 The cat loves fish, but does not like
To wet her paws.

Good liquor will make a cat speak.

Not room to swing a cat.

They used to swing a cat to the branch of a tree as a mark to shoot at.
Honest as the cat when the meal is out of reach.

Let the cat out of the bag.

A cat was sometimes substituted for a sucking pig, and carried in a

bag to market. If a greenhorn chose to buy without examination, very
well; but if he opened the bag the trick was discovered, and he “let
the cat out of the bag.”
Sick as a cat.

Touch not a cat without a glove.

What can you have of a cat but her skin?

To be made a cat’s paw of,

referring to the fable of the monkey who took the paw of a cat to get
some roasted chestnuts from the hot ashes.
Who is to bell the cat?

alluding to the cunning old mouse who suggested that they should
hang a bell on the cat’s neck to let all mice know of her approach.
“Excellent,” said a wise young mouse, “but who will undertake the
job?”
Madame Henriette Ronner has given up half of her long artistic
career to the study of cats, producing a cat world as impressive as the
cattle world of Potter or the stag and dog world of Landseer.
Harrison Weirs is one of Pussy’s most devoted adherents. He
originated cat shows at Crystal Palace, London. He says that dogs,
large or small, are generally useless; while a cat, whether petted or
not, is of service. Without her, rats and mice would overrun the
house. If there were not millions of cats there would be billions of
vermin. He believes that cats are more critical in noticing than dogs,
as he has seen a cat open latched doors and push back bolt or bar;
they will wait for the butcher, hoping for bits of meat, looking for
him only on his stated days, and know the time for the luncheon bell
to ring. Dogs often bite when angry; cats seldom. They will travel a
long distance to regain home; form devoted attachments to other
animals, as horses, cocks, collies, cows, hens, rabbits, squirrels, and
even rats, and can be taught to respect the life of birds.
Exactly opposite opinions are held by others, equally good and fair
judges, and with these the cat is considered selfish, spiteful, crafty,
treacherous, and, like a low style of politician, subservient only to the
power that feeds them, and provides a warm berth to snuggle down
in. And we find many anecdotes, well authenticated, proving them to
be docile, affectionate, good-tempered, tractable, and even possessed
of something very like intellect. In the life of Sir David Brewster, by
his daughter, we find that a cat in the house entered his room one
day and made friendship in the most affectionate manner; “looked
straight at him, jumped on my father’s knee, placed a paw on each
shoulder, and kissed him as distinctly as a cat could. From that time
the philosopher himself provided her breakfast every morning from
his own plate, till one day she disappeared, to the unbounded sorrow
of her master. Nothing was heard of her for nearly two years, when
Pussy walked into the house, neither thirsty nor footsore, made her
way without hesitation to the study, jumped on my father’s knee,
placed a paw on each shoulder and kissed him, exactly as on the first
day.”
Cats can be trained to shake hands, jump over a stick, sit up on
hind legs, come at a whistle, beg like a dog, but we seldom take the
trouble to find out how easily they can be taught. Madame Piozzi
(Mrs. Thrale) tells us of Dr. Johnson’s kindness to his cat, named
Hodge. When the creature had grown old and fastidious from illness,
and could eat nothing but oysters, the gruff old lexicographer always
went out himself to buy Hodge’s dinner. Boswell adds: “I recollect
Hodge one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson’s breast apparently with
much satisfaction, while my friend, smiling and half whistling,
rubbed down his back and pulled him by the tail, and when I
observed he had a fine cat, saying, ‘Why yes, sir, but I have had cats
whom I liked better than this,’ and then, as if perceiving Hodge to be
out of countenance, adding, ‘But he is a fine cat, a very fine cat
indeed.’ He once gave a ludicrous account of the despicable state of a
young gentleman of good family. ‘Sir, when I heard of him last he
was running about town shooting cats.’ And then, in a sort of friendly
reverie, he added, ‘But Hodge sha’n’t be shot; no, Hodge sha’n’t be
shot.’” And this from the gruff, dogmatic thunderer who snubbed or
silenced every antagonist. Even the selfish, courtly Lord Chesterfield
left a permanent pension for his cats and their descendants. Robert
Southey has written a Memoir of the Cats of Greta Hall. He liked to
see his cats look plump and healthy, and tried to make them
comfortable and happy. When they were ill he had them carefully
nursed by the “ladies of the kitchen,” and doctored by the Keswick
apothecary. Indeed, cats and kittens were so petted and fondled at
Greta Hall by old and young that Southey sometimes called the place
“Cats’ Eden.” In a letter to one of his cat-loving friends he says that
“a house is never perfectly furnished for enjoyment unless there is a
child in it rising three years old, and a kitten rising three weeks.”
This memorial gives such truthful and impartial biographies of his
rat-catching friends that he deserves to be known and admired as the
Plutarch of Cats. The history was compiled for his daughter. He
begins in this way: “Forasmuch, most excellent Edith May, as you
must always feel a natural and becoming concern in whatever relates
to the house wherein you were born, and in which the first part of
your life has thus far so happily been spent, I have for your
instruction and delight composed these memoirs, to the end that the
memory of such worthy animals may not perish, but be held in
deserved honour by my children and those who shall come after
them.” The sketch is too long to be given, but it is sparkling with fun
and at times tragic with sad adventures. Their names were as
remarkable as their characters: Madame Bianchi; Pulcheria Ovid, so
called because he might be presumed to be a master in the art of
love; Virgil, because something like Ma-ro might be detected in his
notes of courtship; Othello, black and jealous; Prester John, who
turned out not to be of John’s gender, and therefore had the name
altered to Pope Joan; Rumpelstilchen, a name borrowed from
Grimm’s Tales, and Hurlyburlybuss. Rumpelstilchen lived nine
years. After describing various cats, their adventures and
misadventures, Madame Bianchi disappeared, and Pulcheria soon
after died of a disease epidemic at that time among cats. “For a
considerable time afterward an evil fortune attended all our attempts
at re-establishing a cattery. Ovid disappeared and Virgil died of some
miserable distemper. The Pope, I am afraid, came to a death of which
other popes have died. I suspect that some poison which the rats had
turned out of their holes proved fatal to their enemy. For some time I
feared we were at the end of our cat-a-logue, but at last Fortune, as if
to make amends for her late severity, sent us two at once, the never-
to-be-enough-praised Rumpelstilchen, and the equally-to-be-
admired Hurlyburlybuss. And ‘first for the first of these,’ as my huge
favourite and almost namesake Robert South says in his sermons.”
He then explains at length a German tale in Grimm’s collection (a
most charming tale it is, too), which gave the former cat his strange
and magi-sonant appellation. “Whence came Hurlyburlybuss was
long a mystery. He appeared here as Manco Capac did in Peru and
Quetzalcohuatl among the Aztecs—no one knew whence. He made
himself acquainted with all the philofelists of the family, attaching
himself more particularly to Mrs. Lorell; but he never attempted to
enter the house, frequently disappeared for days, and once since my
return for so long a time that he was actually believed to be dead and
veritably lamented as such. The wonder was, whither did he retire at
such times, and to whom did he belong; for neither I in my daily
walks, nor the children, nor any of the servants, ever by chance saw
him anywhere except in our own domain. There was something so
mysterious in this that in old times it might have excited strong
suspicion, and he would have been in danger of passing for a witch in
disguise, or a familiar. The mystery, however, was solved about four
weeks ago, when, as we were returning home from a walk up the
Greta, Isabel saw him on his transit across the road and the wall
from Shulicson in a direction toward the hill. But to this day we are
ignorant who has the honour to be his owner in the eye of the law,
and the owner is equally ignorant of the high favour in which
Hurlyburlybuss is held, of the heroic name he has obtained, and that
his fame has extended far and wide; yea, that with Rumpelstilchen he
has been celebrated in song, and that his glory will go down to future
generations. A strong enmity existed between these two cats of
remarkable nomenclature, and many were their altercations. Some
weeks ago Hurlyburlybuss was manifestly emaciated and enfeebled
by ill health, and Rumpelstilchen with great magnanimity made
overtures of peace. The whole progress of the treaty was seen from
the parlour window. The caution with which Rumpel made his
advances, the sullen dignity with which they were received, their
mutual uneasiness when Rumpel, after a slow and wary approach
seated himself whisker to whisker with his rival, the mutual fear
which restrained not only teeth and claws but even all tones of
defiance, the mutual agitation of their tails, which, though they did
not expand with anger could not be kept still for suspense, and lastly
the manner in which Hurly retreated, like Ajax, still keeping his face
toward his old antagonist, were worthy to have been represented by
that painter who was called the Raphael of Cats. The overture, I fear,
was not accepted as generously as it was made, for no sooner had
Hurlyburlybuss recovered strength than hostilities were
recommenced with greater violence than before. Dreadful were the
combats which ensued.... All means of reconciling them and making
them understand how goodly a thing it is for cats to dwell together in
peace, and what fools they are to quarrel and tear each other, are
vain. The proceedings of the Society for the Abolition of War are not
more utterly ineffectual and hopeless. All we can do is to act more
impartially than the gods did between Achilles and Hector, and
continue to treat both with equal regard.” I will only add the closing
words: “And thus having brought down these Memoirs of the Cats of
Greta Hall to the present day, I commit the precious memorial to
your keeping. Most dissipated and light-heeled daughter, your most
diligent and light-hearted father, Keswick, 18 June, 1824.” Rumpel
lived nine years, surrounded by loving attentions, and when he died,
May 18, 1833, Southey wrote to an old friend, Grosvenor Bedford:
“Alas! Grosvenor, this day poor old Rumpel was found dead, after as
long and happy a life as cat could wish for, if cats form wishes on that
subject. There should be a court mourning in cat land, and if the
Dragon (a cat of Mr. Bedford’s) wear a black ribbon around his neck,
or a band of crepe, à la militaire, round one of the forepaws, it will
be but a becoming mark of respect. As we have no catacombs here,
he is to be decently interred in the orchard, and catnip planted on his
grave.”
Among modern celebrities who are fond of cats are the actress,
Ellen Terry, who loves to play with kittens on the floor; Mr. Edmund
Yates, the late novelist and journalist, whose cat used to sit down to
dinner beside her master; and Julian Hawthorne, who has a faithful
friend in his noble Tom, who invariably sits on his shoulder while he
is writing. And when Tom thinks enough work has been done for one
sitting, he gets down to the table and pulls away the manuscript. A
cat denoted liberty, and was carved at the feet of the Roman Goddess
of Liberty. Cats are seldom given credit for either intelligence or
affection, but many trustworthy anecdotes prove that they possess
both, and also that they seem to understand what is said, not only to
them but about them. They are more unsophisticated than the dog;
civilization to them has not yet become second nature.
 A Cat Story.

You may be interested in hearing of the crafty trick of a black

Persian. Prin is a magnificent animal, but withal a most dainty one,
showing distinct disapproval of any meat not cooked in the especial
way he likes, viz., roast. The cook, of whom he is very fond,
determined to break this bad habit. Stewed or boiled meat was
accordingly put ready for him, but, as he had often done before, he
turned from it in disgust. However, this time no fish or roast was
substituted. For three days the saucer of meat was untouched, and
no other food given. But on the fourth morning the cook was much
rejoiced at finding the saucer empty. Prin ran to meet her, and the
good woman told her mistress how extra affectionate that repentant
cat was that morning. He did enjoy his dinner of roast that day (no
doubt served with a double amount of gravy). It was not till the pot-
board under the dresser was cleaned on Saturday that his artfulness
was brought to light. There, in one of the stewpans back of the
others, was the contents of the saucer of stewed meat. There was no
other animal about the place, and the other two servants were as
much astonished as the cook at the clever trick played on them by
this terribly spoiled pet of the house. But the cook was mortified at
the thought of that saucer of roast beef. I know this story to be true,
and I have known the cat for the last nine or ten years. It lives at
Clapham.

I will close this catalogue of feline attractions with two

conundrums: Why does a cat cross the road? Because it wants to get
to the other side. What is that which never was and never will be? A
mouse’s nest in a cat’s ear.
 ALL SORTS.
God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,
To give sign, we and they are his children, one family here.
Browning’s Saul.
 ALL SORTS.

If thy heart be right, then will every creature be to thee a mirror of life, and a
book of holy doctrine.—Thomas À Kempis.

It would be pleasant to believe it was a proof of a good and tender

nature to delight in pets, but men and women, notorious for cruelty
and bad lives, have been devoted to them, lavishing tenderness,
elsewhere denied. Catullus, the famous Roman poet, wrote a lament
for Lesbia’s Sparrow; Lesbia, the shameless, false-hearted beauty
who could weep for a dead bird, but poison her husband! You often
see pretty plaster heads of Lesbia with the bird perched upon her
finger, her face bent toward it with a look that is a caress. And the
poem has not lost its grace or charm through all the centuries.
 On the Death of Lesbia’s Sparrow.

Mourn, all ye Loves and Graces! mourn,

Ye wits, ye gallants, and ye gay!
Death from my fair her bird has torn—
Her much-loved sparrows snatched away.

Her very eyes she prized not so,

For he was fond, and knew my fair
Well as young girls their mothers know,
And sought her breast and nestled there.

Once, fluttering round from place to place,

He gaily chirped to her alone;
But now that gloomy path must trace
Whence Fate permits none to return.

Accursèd shades o’er hell that lower,

Oh, be my curses on you heard!
Ye, that all pretty things devour,
Have torn from me my pretty bird.

Oh, evil deed! Oh, sparrow dead!

Oh, what a wretch, if thou canst see
My fair one’s eyes with weeping red,
And know how much she grieves for thee.

James I, of England, whom Dickens designates as “His Sowship,”

to express his detestation of his character, had a variety of dumb
favourites. Although a remorseless destroyer of animals in the chase,
he had an intense pleasure in seeing them around him happy and
well cared for in a state of domesticity. In 1623 John Bannat
obtained a grant of the king’s interest in the leases of two gardens
and a tenement in the Nuriones, on the condition of building and
maintaining a house wherein to keep and rear his Majesty’s newly
imported silkworms. Sir Thomas Dale, one of the settlers of the then
newly formed colony of Virginia, returning to Europe on leave,
brought with him many living specimens of American zoölogy,
among them some flying squirrels. This coming to his Majesty’s ears,
he was seized with a boyish impatience to add them to the private
menageries in St. James’s Park. At the council table and in the circle
of his courtiers he recurs again and again to the subject, wondering
why Sir Thomas had not given him “the first pick” of his cargo of
curiosities. He reminded them how the recently arrived Muscovite
ambassador had brought him live sables, and, what he loved even
better, splendid white gyrfalcons of Iceland; and when Buckingham
suggested that in the whole of her reign Queen Elizabeth had never
received live sables from the Czar, James made special inquiries if
such were really the case. Some one of his loving subjects, desirous of
ministering to his favourite hobby, had presented him with a cream-
coloured fawn. A nurse was immediately hired for it, and the Earl of
Shrewsbury commissioned to write as follows to Miles Whytakers,
signifying the royal pleasure as to future procedure: “The king’s
Majesty hath commissioned me to send this rare beast, a white hind
calf, unto you, together with a woman, his nurse, that hath kept it
and bred it up. His Majesty would have you see it be kept in every
respect as this good woman doth desire, and that the woman be
lodged and boarded by you until his Majesty come to Theobald’s on
Monday next, and then you shall know further of his pleasure. What
account his Majesty maketh of this fine beast you may guess, and no
man can suppose it to be more rare than it is; therefore I know that
your care of it will be accordingly. So in haste I bid you my hearty
farewell. At Whitehall, this 6th of November, 1611.”
About 1629 the King of Spain effected an important diversion in
his own favour by sending the king—priceless gift—an elephant and
five camels. Going through London after midnight, says a state
paper, they could not pass unseen, and the clamour and outcry
raised by some street loiterers at sight of their ponderous bulk and
ungainly step, roused the sleepers from their beds in every street
through which they passed. News of this unlooked-for addition to the
Zoölogical Garden is conveyed to Theobald’s as speedily as
horseflesh, whip and spur, could do their work. Then arose an
interchange of missives to and fro betwixt the king, my lord
treasurer, and Mr. Secretary Connay, grave, earnest, deliberate, as
though involving the settlement or refusal of some treaty of peace. In
muttered sentences, not loud but deep, the thrifty lord treasurer
shows “how little he is in love with royal presents, which cost his
master as much to maintain as could a garrison.” No matter.
Warrants are issued to the officers of the Mews and to Buckingham,
master of the horse, that the elephant is to be daily well dressed and
fed, but that he should not be led forth to water, nor any admitted to
see him without directions from his keeper. The camels are to be
daily grazed in the park, but brought back at night with all possible
precautions to secure them from the vulgar gaze. The elephant had
two Spaniards and two Englishmen to take care of him, and the royal
quadruped had royal fare. His keepers affirm that from the month of
September till April he must drink not water but wyne; and from
April to September “he must have a gallon of wyne the day.” His
winter allowance was six bottles per diem, but perhaps his keepers
relieved him occasionally of a portion of the tempting beverage
which they probably thought too good to waste on an animal even if
it be a royal elephant.
When Voltaire was living near Geneva he owned a large monkey
which used to attack and even bite both friends and enemies. This
repulsive pet one day gave his master three wounds in the leg,
obliging him for some time to hobble on crutches. He had named the
creature Luc, and in conversation with intimate friends he also gave
the King of Prussia the same name, because, said he, “Frederick is
like my monkey, who bites those who caress him.” As a contrast,
remember how the hermit, Thoreau, used to cultivate the
acquaintance of a little mouse until it became really tame and would
play a game of bopeep with his eccentric friend.
Nothing seems too odd or disagreeable to be regarded with
affection. Lord Erskine, who always expressed a great interest in
animals, had at one time two leeches for favourites. Taken
dangerously ill at Portsmouth, he fancied that they had saved his life.
Every day he gave them fresh water and formed a friendship with
them. He said he was sure that both knew him, and were grateful for
his attentions. He named them Home and Cline, for two celebrated
surgeons, and he affirmed that their dispositions were quite
different; in fact, he thought he distinguished individuality in these
black squirmers from the mire.
Even pigs have had the good fortune to interest persons of genius.
Robert Herrick had a pet pig which he fed daily with milk from a
silver tankard, and Miss Martineau had the same odd fancy. She, too,
had a pet pig which she had washed and scrubbed daily. When too ill
to superintend the operation she would listen at her window for
piggie’s squeal, advertising that the operation had commenced.
John Wilson, better known as Christopher North, loved many pets,
and was as unique in his methods with them as in all other things.
His intense fondness for animals and birds was often a trial to the
rest of the family, as when his daughter found he had made a nest for
some young gamecocks in her trunk of party dresses which was
stored in the attic. On his library table, where “fishing rods found
company with Ben Jonson and Jeremy Taylor reposed near a box of
barley-sugar,” a tame sparrow he had befriended hopped blithely
about, master of the situation. This tiny pet imagined itself the most
important occupant of the room. It would nestle in his waistcoat, hop
upon his shoulder, and seemed influenced by constant association
with a giant, for it grew in stature until it was alleged that the
sparrow was gradually becoming an eagle.
The Rev. Gilbert White, who wrote the Natural History of
Selborne, speaks of a tortoise which he petted, saying, “I was much
taken with its sagacity in discerning those that show it kind offices,
for as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on it
for more than thirty years, it hobbles toward its benefactress with
awkward alacrity, but remains inattentive to strangers.” Thus not
only “the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib,” but
the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the hand
that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of gratitude. Think of
Jeremy Bentham growing a sort of vetch in his garden to cram his
pockets with to feed the deer in Kensington Gardens! “I remember,”
says his friend who tells the story, “his pointing it out to me and
telling me the virtuous deer were fond of it, and ate it out of his
hand.” Like Byron, he once kept a pet bear, but he was in Russia at
the time, and the wolves got into the poor creature’s box on a terrible
night and carried off a part of his face, a depredation which the
philosopher never forgot nor forgave to his dying day. He always
kept a supply of stale bread in a drawer of his dining table for the
“mousies.”
The Brownings had many pets, among them an owl, which after
death was stuffed and given an honoured position in the poet’s
library. Sydney Smith professed not to care for pets, especially
disliking dogs; but he named his four oxen Tug and Lug, Haul and
Crawl, and dosed them when he fancied they needed medicine. Miss
Martineau relates that a phrenologist examining Sydney’s head
announced, “This gentleman is a naturalist, always happy among his
collections of birds and fishes.” “Sir,” said Sydney, turning upon him
solemnly with wide-open eyes—“sir, I don’t know a fish from a bird.”
But this ignorance and indifference were all assumed. His daughter,
writing of his daily home life, says: “Dinner was scarcely over ere he
called for his hat and stick and sallied forth for his evening stroll.
Each cow and calf and horse and pig were in turn visited and fed and
patted, and all seemed to welcome him; he cared for their comforts
as he cared for the comforts of every living being around him.” He
used to say: “I am for all cheap luxuries, even for animals; now, all
animals have a passion for scratching their back bones; they break
down your gates and palings to effect this. Look, this is my Universal
Scratcher, a sharp-edged pole resting on a high and low post,
adapted to every height, from a horse to a lamb. Even the Edinburgh
Reviewer can take his turn; you have no idea how popular it is.” Who
could resist repeating just here the wit’s impromptu epigram upon
the sarcastic, diminutive Jeffrey when the caustic critic was surprised
riding on the children’s pet donkey? “I still remember the joy-
inspiring laughter that burst from my father at this unexpected sight,
as, advancing toward his old friend, with a face beaming with delight,
he exclaimed:
 Witty as Horatius Flaccus,
As great a Jacobin as Gracchus,
Short, though not as fat as Bacchus,
Riding on a little jackass.”

Before saying good-bye to the donkey I must give the appeal of Mr.
Evarts’s little daughter at their summer home in Windsor, Vermont,
to her learned and judicial father; so naïve and irresistible:

“Dear Papa: Do come home soon. The donkey is so lonesome without you!”

I once heard Mr. Evarts lamenting to Chief-Justice Chase that he

had been badly beaten at a game of High Low Jack by Ben, the
learned pig. “I know now,” said he, “why two pipes are called a hog’s
head. It is on account of their great capacity!”
One would fancy that a busy lawyer would have no time to give to
pets, but this is far from true. Burnet, in his life of Sir Matthew Hale,
the most eminent lawyer in the time of Charles I and Cromwell, says
of him, that “his mercifulness extended even to his beasts, for when
the horses that he had kept long grew old, he would not suffer them
to be sold or much wrought, but ordered his man to turn them loose
on his grounds and put them only to easy work, such as going to
market and the like. He used old dogs also with the same care; his
shepherd having one that was blind with age, he intended to have
killed or lost him, but the judge coming to hear of it made one of his
servants bring him home and feed him till he died. And he was scarce
ever seen more angry than with one of his servants for neglecting a
bird that he kept so that it died for want of food.”
Daniel Webster’s fondness for animals is well known. When his
friends visited him at Marshfield the first excursion they must take
would be to his barns and pastures, where he would point out the
beauties of an Alderney, and mention the number of quarts she gave
daily, with all a farmer’s pride, adding, “I know, for I measured it
myself.” Choate used to tell a story à propos of this. Once, when
spending the Sabbath at Marshfield, he went to his room after
breakfast to read. Soon there came an authoritative knock at the
door, and Mr. Webster shouted, “What are you doing, Choate?” He
replied, “I’m reading.” “Oh,” said Webster, “come down and see the
pigs.”
He would often rout up his son Fletcher at a provokingly early
hour to go out and hold a lantern while he fed the oxen with nubs of
corn; and, noticing a decided lack of enthusiasm in Fletcher, would
say: “You do not enjoy this society, my son; it’s better than I find in
the Senate.” It was a touching scene when on the last day, when he
sat in his loved library, he longed to look once more into the kindly
faces of his honest oxen, and had them driven up to the window to
say good-bye. Speaking of Choate recalls a comical story about his
finding in his path, during a summer morning’s walk, a dozen or
more dorbeetles sprawling on their backs in the highway enjoying
the warm sunshine. With great care he tipped them all over into a
normal position, when a friend coming along asked curiously, “What
are you doing, Mr. Choate?” “Why, these poor creatures got
overturned, and I am helping them to take a fresh start.” “But,” said
the other, “they do that on purpose; they are sunning themselves,
and will go right back as they were.” This was a new idea to the
puzzled pleader, but with one of those rare smiles which lit up his
sad, dark face so wonderfully, he said: “Never mind, I’ve put them
right; if they go back, it is at their own risk.” And an interesting
anecdote is told in his biography of his touch of human sympathy for
inanimate objects: “When as a boy he drove his father’s cows, he
says, more than once when he had thrown away his switch, he has
returned to find it, and has carried it back and thrown it under the
tree from which he took it, for he thought, ‘Perhaps there is, after all,
some yearning of Nature between them still.’”
There are enough anecdotes about birds as pets to fill another big
book. One of Dickens’s most delightful characters was ponderous,
impetuous Lawrence Boythorn, with his pet bird lovingly circling
about him. In Washington, in Salmon P. Chase’s home, when he was
Secretary of the Treasury, lived a pet canary, one of the tamest,
which had a special liking for the grave, reserved statesman. It was
allowed to fly about the room freely, and had an invariable habit of
calmly waiting beside the secretary at dinner until he had used his
finger-bowl; then Master Canary would take possession of it for a
bath. In Jean Paul Richter’s study stood a table with a cage of
canaries. Between this and his writing table ran a little ladder, on
which the birds could hop their way to the poet’s shoulder, where
they frequently perched.
Celia Thaxter loved birds. She writes: “I can not express to you my
distress at the destruction of the birds. You know how I love them;
every other poem I have written has some bird for its subject, and I
look at the ghastly horror of women’s headgear with absolute
suffering. I remonstrate with every wearer of birds. No woman
worthy of the name would wish to be instrumental in destroying the
dear, beautiful creatures, and for such idle folly—to deck their heads
like squaws—who are supposed to know no better—when a ribbon or
a flower would serve their purpose just as well, and not involve this
fearful sacrifice.” In a letter she describes a night visit from birds.
“Two or three of the earlier were down in the big bay window, and
between two and three o’clock in the morning it began softly to rain,
and all at once the room filled with birds: song sparrows, flycatchers,
wrens, nuthatches, yellow birds, thrushes, all kinds of lovely
feathered creatures fluttered in and sat on picture frames and gas
fixtures, or whirled, agitated, in mid air, while troops of others beat
their heads against the glass outside, vainly striving to get in. The
light seemed to attract them as it does the moths. We had no peace,
there was such a crowd, such cries and chirps and flutterings. I never
heard of such a thing; did you?
“Oh, the birds! I do believe few people enjoy them as you and I do.
The song sparrows and white-throats follow after me like chickens
when they see me planting. The martins almost light on my head; the
humming birds do, and tangle their little claws in my hair; so do the
sparrows. I wish somebody were here to tell me the different birds,
and recognise these different voices. There are more birds than usual
this year, I am happy to say. The women have not assassinated them
all for the funeral pyres they carry on their heads.... What between
the shrikes and owls and cats and weasels and women—worst of all—
I wonder there’s a bird left on this planet.
“In the yard of the house at Newton, where we used to live, I was in
the habit of fastening bones (from cooked meat) to a cherry tree
which grew close to my sitting-room window; and when the snow lay
thick upon the ground that tree would be alive with blue jays and
chickadees, and woodpeckers, red-headed and others, and sparrows
(not English), and various other delightful creatures. I was never
tired watching them and listening to them. The sweet housekeeping
of the martins in the little boxes on my piazza roof is more
enchanting to me than the most fascinating opera, and I worship
music. I think I must have begun a conscious existence as some kind
of a bird in æons past. I love them so! I am always up at four, and I
hear everything every bird has to say on any subject whatever. Tell
me, have you ever tied mutton and beef bones to the trees
immediately around the house where you live for the birds?”
Matthew Arnold wrote of his canary and cat in a most loving way.
Poor Matthias.
Poor Matthias! Found him lying
Fallen beneath his perch and dying?
Found him stiff, you say, though warm,
All convulsed his little form?
Poor canary, many a year
Well he knew his mistress dear;
Now in vain you call his name,
Vainly raise his rigid frame.

Vainly warm him in your heart,

Vainly kiss his golden crest,
Smooth his ruffled plumage fine,
Touch his trembling beak with wine.
One more gasp, it is the end,
Dead and mute our tiny friend.

Poor Matthias, wouldst thou have

More than pity? Claim’st a stave?
Friends more near us than a bird
We dismissed without a word.
Rover with the good brown head,
Great Attossa, they are dead;
Dead, and neither prose nor rhyme
Tells the praises of their prime.

Thou hast seen Attossa sage

Sit for hours beside thy cage;
Thou wouldst chirp, thou foolish bird,
Flutter, chirp, she never stirred.
What were now these toys to her?
Down she sank amid her fur;
Eyed thee with a soul resigned,
And thou deemedst cats were kind.
Cruel, but composed and bland,
Dumb, inscrutable and grand,
So Tiberius might have sat
Had Tiberius been a cat.

Fare thee well, companion dear,

Fare forever well, nor fear,
Tiny though thou art, to stray
Down the uncompanioned way.
We without thee, little friend,
 We without thee, little friend,
Many years have yet to spend;
What are left will hardly be
Better than we spent with thee.

Maclise was one of the intimate associates, if we may use the

expression, of Dickens’s celebrated Raven. The letter in which the
bereaved owners announced to Maclise the death of this interesting
bird has been published, but the reply of the artist is now printed for
the first time:

“March 13, 1841.

“My dear Dickens: I received the mournful intelligence of our friend’s decease
last night at eleven, and the shock was great indeed. I have just dispatched the
announcement to poor Forster, who will, I am sure, sympathize deeply with our
bereavement.
“I know not what to think is the probable cause of his death—I reject the idea of
the Butcher Boy, for the orders he must have in his (the Raven’s) lifetime received
on acct. of the Raven himself must have been considerable—I rather cling to the
notion of felo de se, but this will no doubt come out upon the post mortem. How
blest we are to have such an intelligent coroner in Mr. Wakely! I think he was just
of those grave, melancholic habits which are the noticeable signs of your intended
suicide—his solitary life—those gloomy tones, when he did speak—which was
always to the purpose, witness his last dying speech—‘Hallo, old girl!’ which
breathes of cheerfulness and triumphant resignation—his solemn suit of raven
black which never grew rusty—altogether his character was the very prototype of a
Byron Hero and even of a Scott—a master of Ravenswood——We ought to be glad
he had his family, I suppose; he seems to have intended it, however, for his
solicitude to deposit in those Banks in the Garden his savings, were always very
touching—I suppose his obsequies will take place immediately—It is beautiful—the
idea of his return soon after death to the scene of his early youth and all his joyful
associations, to lie with kindred dusts amid his own ancestral groves, after having
come out and made such a noise in the world, having clearly booked his place in
that immortality coach driven by Dickens.
“Yes, he committed suicide, he felt he had done it and done with life—the
hundreds of years!! What were they to him? There was nothing near to live for—
and he committed the rash act.
“Sympathizingly yours,
“D. Maclise.”
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