Studies in the Art of Rat-Catching

C. Barkley's little manual on rat catching (and rabbit catching) is from a past era when life was much simpler and our propensity to call a pest a pest was not diminished by the selective fads and niceties of modernity. Most important of all, it was an era when the Aristotelian idea of ends - the proper conduct of a life towards a desired conclusion - was of importance not just for humans, but for all living things. It was proper and ordained for rats to live rat-centred lives, doing the things rats do, just as it was proper for ferrets to do the things that come natural to them. And, as Barkley himself indicates in his Introduction, it was ordained in the great scheme of things that dogs should come to their human masters and not the other way round, for this, too, represents a natural order in the hierarchy of being. It was proper also, that each human occupation should be regarded as having an intrinsic worth and the value of the trade of rat-catching should be seen in no less a light than that of any other profession. Indeed, as Barkley hints in the book, the value of a rat-catcher might well be regarded in a higher light than that of your average politician who, as Barkley reminds us, is prone to giving speeches when Parliament is not sitting or, indeed, at every possible opportunity! And this, as Barkley tells us, is why he decided on a school text book for prospective rat catchers.