Paul sighed. "It is the sort of blunder to which I am prone; I should have been irritated with the creature, if I had been Balaam."
"I know you would; you are always so sure of yourself, and you cannot bear to be thwarted."
"But you shall be my angel, dear, and always stand in the way when you think I am wrong. You could turn me back from anything, Isabel."
"But you like Edgar, don't you?" Isabel asked.
"Like him? I should think I do. I consider he is one of the best fellows under the sun, and I have the greatest respect as well as affection for him. But I cannot help thinking that he uses the microscope too much and the telescope too little, figuratively speaking."
"I know what you mean."
Paul went on: "He so strains his moral eyesight with splitting hairs, that he is incapable of taking in a large general effect; and he is apt to confuse prejudices with principles, and crotchets with creeds. He is not content with conforming to the spirit of the law; he will obey it in the letter as well."
"I do not think you are just to Edgar," said Isabel.
"Possibly not. I am so much impressed by the necessity of attaining what is good, and the impossibility of rising to what is perfect, that it irritates me to see men neglecting an obvious duty for the sake of an impracticable dream."
"Do you think there is any danger of this in theoretical people?"