Samuel Johnson (September 18, 1709 to December 13, 1784), is famous for his lexicography but he is even better known for the fame resultant from his status as an intellectual. And for that we can thank James Boswell. Johnson was a kind man. Few remember that Hodge was not the favorite cat Johnson had ever had. And it might be hard to tell from his entry for cat in his dictionary, that he was so fond of that species.
Cat. n.s. [katz, Teuton. chat, Fr.] A domestick animal that catches mice, commonly reckoned by naturalists the lowest order of the leonine species.
'Twas you incens'd the rabble:
Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth,
As I can of those mysteries, which heav'n
Will not have earth to know. Shakesp. Coriolanus.
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. Shakesp. Macbeth.
A cat, as she beholds the light, draws the ball of her eye small and long, being covered over with a green skin, and dilates it at pleasure. Peacham on Drawing.
That dictionary is now online: http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/
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