After-thoughts
How jfery often it happens in con (atión, hm Berhard Barton remaxks in one jf his letters to Orabbe, that the tUiiiK you might mul would and shonM have Má oecurs to yon just i little too late. Ele draws on his owu experience for the record of mauy a long and auimated dis3iissiun with a friend, after which he jalled to uiind somo pithy argument tliat would have smashed his opponent' case, md which, afflrms the gentle Quaker [oet, "I should have been almost sure to have had at my fingere' eud.s had I been quietly arguing thematterxm paper in my own study." Cowper riomplame that wliei) h3 wróte a letter to my but a [amiliar friend, no soonei had ho ilispatohed it than he was sure to recollect liow much 1 icttcr he eould have made it. Horace Walpole ojiens lus epfetle with the reinark that mere answers tliíil are not made to letters immediately are like good things which poople reoolleot thoy might have said had they hut thoughl. Ot them in time ; that is, very insipid, and the (qiropusyoïy likely forgotten. Vanity, as well as vexation of spirit. Little Henry Esmond, when poiHted out by saucy 'irix to niy Lord is " Baying liis prayers to mamma," eould only look very silly. If he invented a halfdozon of speeches in reply, that w;is months afterward ; "ui it was, he had never a word in answer. " Mr. Thaekeray's writings offer divers illustrationg of tiie ame kind. Thero is Mr. Batchclor, fr instance, when impertinently quizzed tó his f ace ny that súp'ercilious Uaptain .Baker. " ' Hir ! ' lys I ; ' ,sir ' was all I : couldsay. Thefaetis, I eould have replied with soniéfching romarkably neat mul eutting, -vhieh would have trausfixed the languid little jackanapes, bilt, you nee, I oiüy thought of my repu-teo somo eight hóura aflerward, wlicn I was lying iu bed, and I am sorry to own that a great ïmnibor of my best bon iiicfn have been made in that way." Dr. .Molmen snggeHl ively record on the subject of ïnistukcs tnd slips in ■nnfing, tlmt ho never linda tliem out until tliey are toreotyped and then lie thinks they rarely escapo liim. Southey I onoé assigned as a reáson ïor lus not reading for the bar that he was so (usily disconcerted ; that the right answer to au argument never oocurred to liim immediately. "I ahvays liud it at last, but it comes too late ; i blocldieíul who ' speaks boldly can ballle me." A state of mind ligured in a modern poein: " S]i'cc]i, oiüy '{iiick lo 1j1hh]i its own del:iy, Made iuo a fooi, vlien fools had tliPir pwiuway, And awkwartt-silcnt wbon coucoit was loud." Charlotte Broiito relates liow Mr. ïhaokeray met her at tlie door, at the closo of one of his roadings, and frühkly asked her what she thought of it ; and liow, liking his naivete sho was entirely disposcd to praise him, having plenty of praise inherheart, "but, alas ! no words on my lips. Who has words at the right moment? 1 sïammered out some lame expressions " - and doubtless hit on soine neat aud pithy eulogiuni soon af tor his back was turned. The good dame in onc of Mrs. Gaskell's fletions in Bpcaking for thousands when she says of the rector and his wife that they " both talk so mueh as to knock one down, like ; and it's not till they have gonc, and one's a little at peaco, that om; can tliiuk there are things one might have said on one's own side, of the question." And bo again John Sercolaske, introduced by Philip van Arteveldeasour " sagacious friend - than whoin a bettor counsellor nced j notlxí, if only he, liavo fidl j hand to pondrr aud deviso what to say ; i but " ask him on tlio sudden " a simple enough (ucstion, and - " ConCoündod witl be stand Till liveliortoaguBfr(3ÍtteinpticrliQAdflluive spoken; 'l'hi'ti on the miirrow to a tittle know What Bhonld havo been his answr."
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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus