414 PECULIAR CONTROVERSIAL METHODS XI 



together cleverly ambiguous phrases, and even the 

 great art of offensive misrepresentation, are un- 

 speakably wearisome. And, if that weariness 

 finds its expression in sarcasm, the offender really 

 has no right to cry out. Assuredly, ridicule is no 

 test of truth, but it is the righteous meed of some 

 kinds of error. Nor ought the attempt to con- 

 found the expression of a revolted sense of fair 

 dealing with arrogant impatience of contradiction, 

 to restrain those to whom " the extreme weapons 

 of controversy " come handy from using them. 

 The function of police in the intellectual, if not in 

 the civil, economy may sometimes be legitimately 

 discharged by volunteers. 



Some time ago, in one of the many criticisms 

 with which I am favoured, I met with the remark 

 that, at our time of life, Mr. Gladstone and I might 

 be better occupied than in fighting over the 

 Gadarene pigs. And, if these too famous swine 

 were the only parties to the suit, I, for my part, 

 should fully admit the justice of the rebuke. But, 

 under the beneficent rule of the Court of 

 Chancery, in former times, it was not uncommon, 

 that a quarrel about a few perches of worthless 

 land, ended in the ruin of ancient families and the 

 engulfing of great estates ; and I think that our 

 admonisher failed to observe the analogy to 

 note the momentous consequences of the judgment 



