“Don’t you find that men who philosophise in that way are usually deemed an obstinate generation by their fellow-men?” inquired the trader, smiling as he puffed a voluminous cloud from his lips.
“I do,” replied Bertram.
“And don’t you think the charge is just?” continued the other in a jocular tone.
“I do not,” replied the artist. “I think those who call them obstinate are often much more truly deserving of the epithet. Philosophers, in the popular sense of the word, are men who not only acquire knowledge and make themselves acquainted with the opinions of others, but who make independent use of acquired knowledge, and thus originate new ideas and frequently arrive at new conclusions. They thus often come to differ from the rest of mankind on many points, and, having good reasons for this difference of opinion, they are ever ready to explain and expound their opinions and to prove their correctness, or to receive proof of their incorrectness, if that can be given—hence they are called argumentative. Being unwilling to give up what appears to them to be truth, unless it can be shown to be falsehood, their opinions are not easily overturned—hence they are called obstinate. Thinking out a subject in a calm, dispassionate, logical manner, from its first proposition to its legitimate conclusion, is laborious to all. A very large class of men and women have no patience for such a process of investigation—hence argumentation, that most noble of all mental exercises, is deemed a nuisance. Certainly argumentation with unphilosophical persons is a nuisance; but I know of few earthly enjoyments more gratifying than an argument with a true philosopher.”
“That’s wot I says, so I do, out-an’-out,” observed Bounce, who had come up unperceived, and had overheard the greater part of the above remarks. “Jist wot I thinks myself, Mr Bertram, only I couldn’t ’xactly put it in the same way, d’ye see? That’s wot I calls out-an’-out feelosophy.”
“Glad to hear you’re such a wise fellow,” said McLeod patronisingly. “So you agree, of course, with Mr Bertram in condemning the use of the pipe.”
“Condemn the pipe?” said Bounce, pulling out his own special favourite and beginning to fill it—“wot, condemn smokin’? No, by no means wotsomdiver. That’s quite another kee-westion, wot we hain’t bin a disputin’ about. I only heer’d Mr Bertram a-talkin’ about obst’nitness an’ argementation.”
“Well, in regard to that,” said Bertram, “I firmly believe that men and women are all alike equally obstinate.”
“Ha!” ejaculated Bounce, with that tone of mingled uncertainty and profound consideration which indicates an unwillingness to commit oneself in reference to a new and startling proposition.
“On what grounds do you think so?” asked McLeod.