For I will consider my Cat Jeoffrey,
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.

These lines open the famous “Jeoffry” section of Christopher Smart’s long devotional poem *Jubilate Agno*, written during the 1750s while Smart was confined for mental illness (commonly associated with his religious “enthusiasm”)—much of it composed in or around his confinement at St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in London. The poem is structured in parallel “For” and “Let” verses, cataloguing creation in praise of God. Smart’s cat Jeoffry, a real companion animal, becomes an emblem of natural, instinctive worship: the poet frames the cat’s daily habits as a form of liturgy and faithful service.

Smart elevates an ordinary household cat into a theological witness. By calling Jeoffry “the servant of the Living God,” he suggests that praise is not limited to human speech or formal church ritual; it is enacted through creaturely being and daily action. The repeated “For” has the force of a litany, turning observation into devotion. The passage also quietly defends Smart himself: if a cat’s seemingly eccentric motions can be read as “duly and daily” service, then the poet’s own intense, unconventional piety may likewise be understood as sincere worship rather than mere disorder. The lines celebrate a universe where every creature participates in praise.