who say they do not see it are telling wilful falsehood,
is the nature of man. Many of all sects find much comfort in it, when they
think of the others; many unbelievers solace themselves with it against
believers; priests of old time founded the right of persecution upon it,
and of our time, in some cases, the right of slander: many of the
paradoxers make it an argument against students of science. But I must say
for men of science, for the whole body, that they are fully persuaded of
the honesty of the paradoxers. The simple truth is, that all those I have
mentioned, believers, unbelievers, priests, paradoxers, are not so sure
they are right in their points of difference that they can safely allow
themselves to be persuaded of the honesty of opponents. Those who know
demonstration are differently situated. I suspect a train might be laid for
the formation of a better habit in this way. We know that Suvaroff[176]
taught his Russians at Ismail not to fear the Turks by accustoming them to
charge bundles of faggots dressed in turbans, etc.

At which your wise men sneered in phrases witty,
He made no answer--but he took the city!

Would it not be a good thing to exercise boys, in pairs, in the following
dialogue:--Sir, you are quite wrong!--Sir, {86} I am sure you honestly
think so! This was suggested by what used to take place at Cambridge in my
day. By statute, every B.A. was obliged to perform a certain number of
disputations, and the _father_ of the college had to affirm that it had
been done. Some were performed in earnest: the rest were huddled over as
follows. Two candidates occupied the places of the respondent and the
opponent: _Recte statuit Newtonus_, said the respondent: _Recte non statuit
Newtonus_,[177] said the opponent. This was repeated the requisite number
of times, and counted for as many _acts_ and _opponencies_. The parties
then changed places, and each unsaid what he had said on the other side of
the house: I remember thinking that it was capital drill for the House of
Commons, if any of us should ever get there. The process was repeated with
every pair of candidates.

The real disputations were very severe exercises. I was badgered for two
hours with arguments given and answered in Latin,--or what we called
Latin--against Newton's first section, Lagrange's[178] derived functions,
and Locke[179] on innate principles. And though I _took off_ everything,
and was pronounced by the moderator to have