You flatter the master who caresses you, you lick the hand that feeds you, you fly from a larger animal than yourself, whilst you unsparingly prey on the smaller ones.  My dear Cat, you are a profound politician!

You live peaceably with the dog, who is your messmate; in gratitude to me, you regulate your reception, good or bad, of all the animals under my roof; thus, you raise your claw against such as you imagine mine enemies, while you prick up your tail at the sight of my friends.  My dear Cat, you are a profound moralist!

When you promenade your graceful limbs upon a roof, on the edge of a casement, or in some situation equally perilous, you show your dexterity in opposing the bulk of your body to the danger.  Your muscles extend or relax themselves with judgment, and you enjoy security where other animals would be petrified with fear.  My dear Cat, you perfectly understand the laws of gravity!

If through inadvertence, blundering, or haste, you lose your support or hold, then you are admirable; you bend yourself in raising your back, and carry the centre of gravity towards the umbilical region, by which means you fall on your feet.  My dear Cat, you are an excellent natural philosopher!

If you travel in darkness, you expand the pupil of your eye, which, in forming a perfect circle, describes a larger surface, and collects the greater part of the luminous rays which are scattered in the atmosphere.  When you appear in daylight, your pupil takes an elliptic form, diminishes, and receives only a portion of these rays, an excess of which would injure your retina.  My dear Cat, you are a perfect optician!

When you wish to descend a precipice, you calculate the distance of the solid points with astonishing accuracy.  In the first place, you dangle your legs as if to measure the space, which you divide in your judgment, by the motions of your feet; then you throw yourself exactly upon the wished-for spot, the distance to which you have compared with the effect on your muscles.  My dear Cat, you are a skilful geometrician!

When you wander in the country, you examine plants with judicious nicety; you soon select that kind which pleases you, when you roll yourself on it, and testify your joy by a thousand other gambols; you know also the several grasses, and their medicinal effects on your frame.  My dear Cat, you are an excellent botanist!

Your voice merits no less eulogium; for few animals have one so modulated.  The rhyming pur of satisfaction, the fawning accents of appeal, the vigorous bursts of passion, and innumerable diatonic varieties, proceed from your larynx, according to the order of nature.  My dear Cat, you are a dramatic musician!

In your amusements, you prefer pantomime to dialogue; and you neglect the pen to study the picture.  But then what agility! what dancing! what cross-capers!  The difficulty never impairs the grace of the feat.  Oh, my dear Cat! you are a delightful dancer!