THE INTELLIGENCE OF CATS
[To the Editor of THE, SPECTATOR.] heartily agree with Mr. Joseph's defence of the cat's intelligence. I am a victim to the eat, but though fascinated I am not blinded. She is a bad lot, but of her intelligence there can be no question.
I have long heard a theory that the proverb as to her nine lives is misunderstood, and that her "nine lives" are her nine ways of getting a living. Maybe she has more, but nine are easily tabulated. She can (1) lie in wait, (2) stalk, (3) pounce, (4) sprint, (5) climb, (6) fish, (7) fight, (8) cajole, (9) steal. The dog can but run in a straight line, with loud outcry, with he, or his prey, can run no more.
If intelligence be to know your own interest and follow it exclusively, by force, fraud, or flattery, using the strong hand or the velvet glove, killing without mercy, thieving without shame, and accepting favours so prettily that you seem to confer a favour, why then it seems to me that the poor silly dog has but his virtue to keep him warm.
It is on the dog's virtues that his friends must concen- trate. He has the elements of Religion in him, as Anatole France has pointed out. He knows reverence and he knows shame—the cat knows neither. The dog is not clever. No. But he is good. The cat is not good. But she does belong to the intelligentsia.—! am, Sir, you= obediently,
Previous page
