For I will consider my Cat Jeoffrey
For he is the servant of the
Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the
glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by
wreathing his body seven times round with elegant
quickness.
For
then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon
his
prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having
done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For
this he performs in ten degrees . . .
For having consider'd God
and himself he will consider his neighbor.
For if he meets another cat
he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with
it to give it chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying .
. .
For the English cats are the best in Europe.
For he is the
cleanest in the use of his fore-paws of any quadrupede.
For the
dexterity of his defense is an instance of the love of God to him
exceedingly.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For he is tenacious of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and
waggery.
For he knows that God is his Saviour.
For there is
nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For there is nothing
brisker than his life when in motion.
For he is the Lord's poor and so
indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually -- Poor Jeoffrey! poor
Jeoffrey! the rat has bit thy throat.
For I bless the name of the
Lord Jesus that Jeoffrey is better.
For the divine spirit comes about
his body to sustain it in compleat cat.
Christopher Smart, who was tossed in the madhouse for his incessant praying (in the street, for the most part), constantly asks what creativity is, what rationality and irrationality are. His poems let loose a portion of the imagination which the age of reason makes a point of keeping fettered with social norms and conventional religion; in this way his raptures are related to the scenes of redemptive or escapest madness we see in the literature of Sensibility: Clarissa's mad letters after the rape and the lunatic picking flowers in Werther. These issues of madness animate the debate we see throughout the literature of Sensibility that revolves around the tension between an imagination founded on the senses, on one hand, and governing reason and judgement, on the other. Foucault in Madness and Civilization examines the relationship between passion and enthusiasm and madness. Smart's "madness" is actually grounded in his acute sensibilious response to the physical world: the "mad" Smart is very much a part of this world, even as he authorizes himself as a prophetic interpretor of the universe. Interested in this world -- the material, the everyday, his cat -- his own senses lead him on a journey of spiritual discovery. We also see here, as we see in Sentimental Journey and elsewhere, the non-human or animal which sparks benevolence, pity, or joy in the human.
Related terms:
a dictionary of sensibility
term list
source bibliography
critical bibliography