Jt KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE 373 



thus missed a point which might have been set up in support of 

 his accusation against our Lord. (P. 273.) 



Unhappily for my comfort, I have been much 

 exercised in controversy during the past thirty 

 years ; and the only compensation for the loss of 

 time and the trials of temper which it has inflicted 

 upon me, is that I have come to regard it as a 

 branch of the fine arts, and to take an impartial and 

 aesthetic interest in the way in which it is conducted, 

 even by those whose efforts are directed against 

 myself. Now, from the purely artistic point of 

 view (which, as we are all being told, has nothing to 

 do with morals), I consider it an axiom, that one 

 should never appear to doubt that the other side 

 has performed the elementary duty of acquiring 

 proper elementary information, unless there is 

 demonstrative evidence to the contrary. And I 

 think, though I admit that this may be a purely 

 subjective appreciation, that (unless you are quite 

 certain) there is a "want of finish/ 7 as a great 

 master of disputation once put it, about the sug- 

 gestion that your opponent has missed a point on 

 his own side. Because it may happen that he 

 has not missed it at all, but only thought it un- 

 worthy of serious notice. And if he proves that, 

 the suggestion looks foolish. 



Merely noting the careful repetition of a charge, 

 the absurdity of which has been sufficiently ex- 

 posed above, I now ask my readers to accompany 

 me on a little voyage of discovery in search of the 



