Why do some men shrink from a cat?
There is an instance now in John Bremer; a fellow, you know, who would make no more ado about exchanging rifle-shots with his enemy at twenty paces, than at taking dinner; yet a black cat throws him into fits, from which for two days he never perfectly recovers.

Again--there are some persons to whom the perfume of flowers brings sickness, and the song of a bird sadness.

How are we to account for all these things, unless we do so by a reference to the peculiar make of the man?
In this way you may understand why it is that I hate this boy, and would destroy him.

He is my black cat, and his presence for ever throws me into fits." "I have heard of the things of which you speak, and have known some of them myself; but I never could believe that the _nature_ of the person had been the occasion.

I was always inclined to think that circumstances in childhood, of which the recollection is forgotten--such as great and sudden fright to the infant, or a blow which affected the brain, were the operating influences.