r to you as the sun is superior to
rushlight you honorable, brave-hearted, unselfish brute? They are MEN,
you know, and MEN are the greatest, and noblest, and wisest, and best
beings in the whole vast eternal universe. Any man will tell you that.

Yes, poor doggie, you are very stupid, very stupid indeed, compared with
us clever men, who understand all about politics and philosophy, and who
know everything, in short, except what we are and where we came from and
whither we are going, and what everything outside this tiny world and
most things in it are.

Never mind, though, pussy and doggie, we like you both all the better
for your being stupid. We all like stupid things. Men can't bear clever
women, and a woman's ideal man is some one she can call a "dear old
stupid." It is so pleasant to come across people more stupid than
ourselves. We love them at once for being so. The world must be rather
a rough place for clever people. Ordinary folk dislike them, and as for
themselves, they hate each other most cordially.

But there, the clever people are such a very insignificant minority
that it really doesn't much matter if they are unhappy. So long as the
foolish people can be made comfortable the world, as a whole, will get
on tolerably well.

Cats have the credit of being more worldly wise than dogs--of looking
more after their own interests and being less blindly devoted to those
of their friends. And we men and women are naturally shocked at such
selfishness. Cats certainly do love a family that has a carpet in the
kitchen more than a family that has not; and if there are many children
about, they prefer to spend their leisure time next door. But, taken
altogether, cats are libeled. Make a friend of one, and she will stick
to you through thick and thin. All the cats that I have had have been
most firm comrades. I had a cat once that used to follow me about
everywhere, until it even got quite embarrassing, and I had to beg
her, as a personal favor, not to accompany me any further down the High
Street. She used to sit up for me when I was late home and meet me in
the passage. It made me feel quite like a married man, except that she
never asked where I had been and then didn't believe me when I told her.

Another cat I had used to get drunk regularly every day. She would hang
about for hours outside the cellar door for the purpose of sneaking
in on the first opportunity and lapping up the drippings from the
beer-cask.