Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—F

Froude's Cat

This cat wanted to know what was good for life, and everyone gave her queer answers. The owl said, “Meditate, O cat;” and so she tried to think which could have come first, the fowl or the egg. (Short Studies on Great Subjects.)

“If I were to ask, like Froude's cat, `What is my duty?' you would answer, I suppose, like the sagacious animal in the parable, `Get your own dinner ... that is my duty, I suppose.”' —Edna Lyall: Donovan, chap. ix.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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