r more tender. Look at
the care which a respectable married Puss bestows upon her numerous
offspring! Can any mamma more carefully wash or tend her darlings? Will
any show greater willingness to forego her own occupations, in order to
fondle and descend to be the playmate of her little ones? Does any
display a firmer courage to defend them? And if she should give way to
a little expression of feeling when her tail is trodden upon or pulled,
or be betrayed into an angry growl when her territory is invaded, what
then? You would not have her show so little spirit as to receive every
insult unnoticed, or return a quiet "thank you" for the pain, physical
or moral, which has been inflicted on her. How would _you_, dear reader,
act if _your_ tail were wantonly pulled, or if _your_ house were to be
entered by an ugly stranger without invitation?

We most of us laugh at our good friends the Sheep, and indulge in many
a sly joke at their stupidity. "What can be more absurd," we say,
"than that habit of theirs of constantly playing at 'follow my leader,'
and putting themselves into all sorts of disagreeable situations in
consequence?" But are we any better ourselves? Are not _we_ always
following some leader?--always imitating somebody, and running in crowds
hither and thither because so-and-so are running there too? And thus
it is that _opinions_, once uttered by some great animal in authority,
are taken up and repeated by his imitators, and are looked on as the
very essence of wisdom, while they are often, in fact, no other, when
examined, than untrue or mischievously unjust. Such are the pet
sentences I have alluded to, wherein Cats are described: a whole race is
sometimes condemned because a few members of it have proved unworthy;
and a tribe gets a bad name because some animal of influence, a Jackass
perhaps, brays out that "they are _all_ worthless."

It has been often observed, and I therefore do not profess to utter
an original idea by remarking it again, that when our prejudices are
enlisted in favour of or against any object, every circumstance is
turned to its advantage or the reverse. If we have done an animal a
kindness, we are ready to do him another; if we have inflicted on him
any injury, we are not at all indisposed to add a fresh one to it. And
so it has happened that our numerous family, having been by many ill
treated, are constantly exposed to kicks and insult from those same
parties, for no other reason than