“If it is not clear to you,” said the vicar with acid dignity, “it shall not be my part to explain it. I am not here to bandy words. Nor do I intend to chop logic. You consider yourself vastly clever, no doubt. But I have to warn you that the path you follow is full of peril.”
“Yes, the path we are following is full of peril.”
“Whom do you mean by ‘we’?” said the vicar sternly.
“Mankind. All of us.”
“That does not affect the question. Let us leave the general alone, let us keep to the particular.”
“But how can we leave the general alone, how can we keep to the particular, when we are all members of one another?”
The vicar checked him with an imperious hand.
“Blasphemer.” he said with growing passion, “how dare you parody the words of the Master?”
“No one can parody the words of the Master. Either they are or they are not.”
“I am not here to argue with you. Understand, John Smith, that in all circumstances I decline to chop logic with—with a person of your sort.”