Besides it he had brilliant talents, unflagging industry, and powers of writing such as have seldom been given to any of the sons of men.

While at Manchester he composed The Cat's Pilgrimage, the earliest of his Short Studies in date.

The moral of this fanciful fable is very like the moral of Candide.
The discontented cat, tired of her monotonously comfortable place on the hearthrug, goes out into the world, and gets nothing more than experience for her pains.

She finds the other animals occupied with their own concerns, and enjoying life because they do not go beyond them.

Not a very elevating paper, perhaps, but better than The Nemesis of Faith, and Froude's last word on the subjects that had tormented his youth.
He recoiled from materialism, finding that it offered no explanation of the universe.