and not seeing his way clearly, puts you off
with circumstantial phrases, and tries to gain time for fear of making a
false step. This gentleman has heard some one admired for precision and
copiousness of language; and goes away, congratulating himself that he
has not made a blunder in grammar or in rhetoric the whole evening.
He is a theoretical _Quidnunc_--is tenacious in argument, though wary;
carries his point thus and thus, bandies objections and answers with
uneasy pleasantry, and when he has the worst of the dispute, puns very
emphatically on his adversary's name, if it admits of that kind of
misconstruction.' George Kirkpatrick is admired by the waiter, who is
a sleek hand,(2) for his temper in managing an argument. Any one
else would perceive that the latent cause is not patience with his
antagonist, but satisfaction with himself. I think this unmoved
self-complacency, this cavalier, smooth, simpering indifference is more
annoying than the extremest violence or irritability. The one shows that
your opponent does care something about you, and may be put out of his
way by your remarks; the other seems to announce that nothing you say
can shake his opinion a jot, that he has considered the whole of what
you have to offer beforehand, and that he is in all respects much wiser
and more accomplished than you. Such persons talk to grown people with
the same air of patronage and condescension that they do to children.
'They will explain'--is a familiar expression with them, thinking you
can only differ from them in consequence of misconceiving what they say.
Or if you detect them in any error in point of fact (as to acknowledged
deficiency in wit or argument, they would smile at the idea), they add
some correction to your correction, and thus have the whip-hand of you
again, being more correct than you who corrected them. If you hint some
obvious oversight, they know what you are going to say, and were aware
of the objection before you uttered it:--'So shall their
anticipation prevent your discovery.' By being in the right you gain
no advantage: by being in the wrong you are entitled to the benefit of
their pity or scorn. It is sometimes curious to see a select group of
our little Gotham getting about a knotty point that will bear a wager,
as whether Dr. Johnson's Dictionary was originally published in quarto
or folio. The confident assertions, the cautious overtures, the length
of time demanded to ascertain the fact, th