D. Nay, you will prevail by flattery, if not by argument.
A. That is something newer than all the rest.
B. ‘Plain truth,’ dear A——, ‘needs no flowers of speech.’
D. Let me rightly understand you. Do you mean to say that I am not C. D. and that you are not W. B. or that we shall not both of us remain so to the end of the chapter, without a possibility of ever changing places with each other?
B. I am afraid, if you go to that, there is very little chance that
‘I shall be ever mistaken for you.’
But with all this precise individuality and inviolable identity that you speak of, let me ask, Are you not a little changed (less so, it is true, than most people) from what you were twenty years ago? Or do you expect to appear the same that you are now twenty years hence?
D. ‘No more of that if thou lovest me.’ We know what we are, but we know not what we shall be.
B. A truce then; but be assured that whenever you happen to fling up your part, there will be no other person found to attempt it after you.
D. Pray, favour us with your paradox without farther preface.