And he was gifted
with that peculiar power which enables a man to have the last word
in every encounter,--a power which we are apt to call repartee,
with is in truth the readiness which come from continual practice.
You shall meet two men of whom you shall know the one to be
endowed with the brilliancy of true genius, and the other to be
possessed of but moderate parts, and shall find the former never
able to hold his awn against the latter. In a debate, the man of
moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius. But
this skill of tongue, this glibness of speech is hardly an affair
of intellect at all. It is--as is style to the writer,--not the
wares which he has to take to market, but the vehicle in which
they may be carried. Of what avail to you is it to have filled
granaries with corn if you cannot get your corn to the consumer?
Now Sir Timothy was a great vehicle, but he had not in truth much
corn to send. He could turn a laugh against an adversary;--no man
better. He could seize, at the moment, every advantage which the
opportunity might give him.
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