File:The fireside sphinx (1901) (14596049108).jpg

Identifier: firesidesphinx00repp (find matches)
Title: The fireside sphinx
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Repplier, Agnes, 1855-1950
Subjects: Cats
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and co.
Contributing Library: Boston College Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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lay at her soft feet forentrance fee. May Hodge and Hinse championher cause with the Immortals for the sake of theunfaltering love I have ever borne their masters,and may her grace and beauty win for her what mypoor pen is powerless to attain ! Dear little ghost,whose memory has never faded from my heart,accept this book, dedicated to thee, and to all thy FOREWORD xi cherished race. Sleep sweetly m the fields ofasphodel, and waken, as of old, to stretch thylanguid length, and purr thy soft contentment tothe skies. I only beg, as one before me begged ofher dead darling, that, midst the joys of Elysium, Imay not be wholly forgotten. • Nor, though Persephone s own Puss you be,Let Orcus breed oblivion of me. A. R. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Cat of Antiquity . . . . i II. The Dark Ages ..... 20 III. Persecution 52 IV. Renaissance d^ V. The Cat of Albion 82 VI. The Cat in Art 104 VII. The Cat Triumphant 126 VIII., Some Cats of France . . . . 179 IX. The Cat To-day .228 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX
Text Appearing After Image:
Thine is the lore of Ra and Rameses. THERE was — if we may trust the Arabicchronicles as set down by that devoutscholar, Damirei — no cat in the Gardenof Paradise. Lion cubs and tiger cubs, little leo-pards and little panthers. Eve had in numbers with-out doubt; but no pussy to grace and decorate herdomestic hearth. How far this loss was responsiblefor the lamentable ennui which, Charles Lamb says,forced our first parents to sin themselves out ofEden, it would be difficult to determine ; but inthat desolate world of toil which lay beyond thegleaming gates and sacred rivers of Paradise, no catwas found to comfort the sad exiles on their way.She sprang into existence at the Deluge; for dur-ing the long weeks in which the Ark floated overthe waste of waters, the rats and the mice increased 2 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX so alarmingly that the comfort — if there was anycomfort — of the inmates was threatened with de-struction. Then Noah, equal to the emergency,passed his hand three times o

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