o stand before him in contradiction. Your logic is
weak; or you beg the question; or you see only one side; or you want
order of thought, breadth of view, clearness of perception; or you have
not studied philosophy, or psychology, or history, sufficiently to judge
of the question; or you are wrong altogether: you _must_ be so.

Thus his denunciations come down without mercy upon your poor soul; and
alas for you if you have not enough of mental stamina, independence, and
fortitude to stand up against them. If you are a lamb, you are torn to
pieces as in the jaws of a lion; if you are trembling and diffident, you
are overwhelmed as a dove in the claws of an eagle. He scathes with his
lightning and awes with his thunder. He sweeps everything before him,
and stands in the field as sole possessor. He is "Sir Ruler" of all
opinion. He is "Lord Guide" of all thought; and to have a thought or an
opinion of your own, contrary to his, is a presumption frowned upon with
sternest ire.

Another trait in this talker is, he has nothing good to say of any one,
or of anything that is of any one. He deals with others in the third
person as he deals with you in the second person. "What do you think of
so and so?" you ask: it may be of the highest personage in State or
Church, in literature or politics.

"O, he is narrow, or he is selfish; or he is mean; or he is vain; or he
is jealous; or he is little; or he is limited in his reading; or he is
something else, which unfits him to be where he is or what he is."

No one pleases him; nothing pleases him. Everybody is wrong; everything
is wrong. If there is a dark spot in the bright sky, he is sure to see
it; if a thorn on the rose, he is bound to run his hand in it; if a hole
in the garment, his finger will instinctively find its way there, and
make it larger.

I have met this talker in company more than once or twice; and I must
say that my conversation with him has been anything but pleasant or
satisfactory. I have thought every time that he has increased in his
idiosyncracy, that he has become more and more dogged, self-willed, and
obstinate. I have wished that he might see himself as others see him.
But to this he has been as blind as an owl in mid-day. Where is the
salve that would give him this power of vision? He see himself as others
see him! Can the blind be made to see, or the deaf to hear? Then may
this miracle be wrought. He sees no one in his mirror but himself, and
himself