, _the right use of reason_) is not a practical art. No one
regards it in actual life; observe, therefore, folks on all hands
constantly acting like Tittlebat Titmouse in the case before us. His
_conclusion_ was--that he had become the certain master of ten thousand
a-year; his _premises_ were--what the reader has seen. I do not,
however, mean to say, that if the reader be a youth hot from Oxford, he
may not be able to prove, by a very refined and ingenious argument, that
Titmouse was, in what he did above, a fine natural logician; for I
recollect that some great philosopher hath demonstrated, by a famous
argument, that there is NOTHING ANYWHERE: and no one that I have heard
of, hath ever been able to prove the contrary.

By six o'clock the next morning, Titmouse had, with his own hand,
dropped his answer into the letter-box upon the door of Mr. Gammon's
chambers in Thavies' Inn; in which answer he had, with numerous
expressions of profound respect and gratitude, accepted Mr. Gammon's
polite invitation. A very happy man felt Titmouse as he returned to
Oxford Street; entering Messrs. Tag-rag's premises with alacrity, just
as they were being opened, and volunteering his assistance in numerous
things beyond his usual province, with singular briskness and energy; as
if conscious that by doing so he was greatly gratifying Messrs. Quirk,
Gammon, and Snap, whose wishes upon the subject he knew. He displayed
such unwonted cheerfulness and patient good-nature throughout the day,
that one of his companions, a serious youth, in a white neckerchief,
black clothes, and with a blessed countenance--the only professing pious
person in the establishment--took an occasion to ask him, in a
mysterious whisper, "whether he had not got _converted_:" and whether he
would, at six o'clock in the morning, accompany the speaker to a room in
the neighborhood, where he (the youth aforesaid) was going to conduct an
exhortation and prayer meeting! Titmouse refused--but not without a few
qualms; for luck certainly seemed to be smiling on him, and he felt that
he ought to be grateful for it; but then, he at length reflected, the
proper place for that sort of thing would be a regular _church_--to
which he accordingly resolved to go. This change of manners Tag-rag,
however, looked upon as assumed only to affront _him_; seeing nothing
but impertinence and defiance in all that Titmouse did--as if the nearer
Titmouse got to the end of his bondage--_i. e._ th