"Why?"
"I can break the pencil, I can not break the poker; had these materials not different strengths there could be no distinction; had I no strength I could not have broken either."
"Are you ready to listen?" he replied.
"Yes; but do not exasperate me."
"I did not say that the combination you call a poker had no strength, neither did I assert that you could not break a pencil."
"A distinction without a difference; you play upon words."
"I said that matter, the ponderous side of material substances, has no strength."
"And I say differently."
He thrust the end of the poker into the fire, and soon drew it forth red-hot.
"Is it as strong as before?"