does, but the sentiment seems to imply a proper spirit on your part,
and generally touches her feelings to such an extent that if you are
of good manners and passable appearance she will stick her back up and
rub her nose against you. Matters having reached this stage, you may
venture to chuck her under the chin and tickle the side of her head,
and the intelligent creature will then stick her claws into your legs;
and all is friendship and affection, as so sweetly expressed in the
beautiful lines--

"I love little pussy, her coat is so warm,
And if I don't tease her she'll do me no harm;
So I'll stroke her, and pat her, and feed her with food,
And pussy will love me because I am good."

The last two lines of the stanza give us a pretty true insight into
pussy's notions of human goodness. It is evident that in her opinion
goodness consists of stroking her, and patting her, and feeding her
with food. I fear this narrow-minded view of virtue, though, is not
confined to pussies. We are all inclined to adopt a similar standard
of merit in our estimate of other people. A good man is a man who is
good to us, and a bad man is a man who doesn't do what we want him to.
The truth is, we each of us have an inborn conviction that the whole
world, with everybody and everything in it, was created as a sort of
necessary appendage to ourselves. Our fellow men and women were made
to admire us and to minister to our various requirements. You and I,
dear reader, are each the center of the universe in our respective
opinions. You, as I understand it, were brought into being by a
considerate Providence in order that you might read and pay me for
what I write; while I, in your opinion, am an article sent into the
world to write something for you to read. The stars--as we term the