At a certain point in the history of modernity idle chatter gained a certain heft in people's consciousness.The settings and ramifications of this fact are something I cannot specify, but you could certainly make a case that one early symptom was the journal keeping of James Boswell (October 29, 1740 to May 19, 1795). That Scotsman jotted down detailed conversations, and had a perhaps naive faith in their significance. One person whose dialogue he noted was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We have in Boswell's journals, edited by John Wain, this conversation, which I reformatted slightly for clarity:
......
Rousseau: Do you like cats?
Boswell: No
R: ...[D]espotic... men ...do not like cats because the cat is free and will never consent to become a slave. He will do nothing to your order as other animals do.
B. Nor a hen, either
R: A hen would obey your orders if you could make her understand them. But a cat will understand them perfectly and not obey them.
B: But a cat is ungrateful and treacherous
R: No, that is all untrue. A cat is an animal that can be very much attached to you. He will do anything you please out of friendship....
Thus Boswell and Rousseau, December, 1764. Thus an incident in the life of the man who would inadvertently invent modern biography.
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