“Reasonable! Oh, the first thing that a man of spirit should think of is, what is honourable.”
“But how will he find out what is honourable, unless he can reason?” replied De Grey.
“Oh,” said Archer, “his own feelings always tell him what is honourable.”
“Have not your feelings,” asked De Grey, “changed within these few hours?”
“Yes, with circumstances,” replied Archer; “but right or wrong, as long as I think it honourable to do so and so, I’m satisfied.”
“But you cannot think anything honourable, or the contrary,” observed De Grey, “without reasoning; and as to what you call feeling, it’s only a quick sort of reasoning.”
“The quicker, the better,” said Archer.
“Perhaps not,” said De Grey. “We are apt to reason best when we are not in quite so great a hurry.”
“But,” said Archer, “we have not always time enough to reason at first.”
“You must, however, acknowledge,” replied De Grey, smiling, “that no man but a fool thinks it honourable to be in the wrong at last. Is it not, therefore, best to begin by reasoning to find out the right at first?”