human
You seem in a pensive mood, Mr Bertram, said the fur trader on coming up,
gpt
Thank you, I do not smoke, said Bertram, declining the proffered luxury.
human
Tobacco may be good--though I know it not from experience. Yet, methinks, the man is wiser who does not create an unnatural taste, than he who does so for the purpose of gratifying it.
gpt
Ah! you are a philosopher.
human
If judging of things and questions simply on their own merit, and with the single object of ascertaining what is truth in regard to them, constitutes a philosopher, I am.
gpt
Don't you find that men who philosophise in that way are usually deemed an obstinate generation by their fellow-men?
human
I do,
gpt
And don't you think the charge is just?
human
I do not, replied the artist.
gpt
I think those who call them obstinate are often much more truly deserving of the epithet. Philosophers, in the popular sense of the word, are men who not only acquire knowledge and make themselves acquainted with the opinions of others, but who make independent use of acquired knowledge, and thus originate new ideas and frequently arrive at new conclusions. They thus often come to differ from the rest of mankind on many points, and, having good reasons for this difference of opinion, they are ever ready to explain and expound their opinions and to prove their correctness, or to receive proof of their incorrectness, if that can be given--hence they are called argumentative. Being unwilling to give up what appears to them to be truth, unless it can be shown to be falsehood, their opinions are not easily overturned--hence they are called obstinate. Thinking out a subject in a calm, dispassionate, logical manner, from its first proposition to its legitimate conclusion, is laborious to all. A very large class of men and women have no patience for such a process of investigation--hence argumentation, that most noble of all mental exercises, is deemed a nuisance. Certainly argumentation with unphilosophical persons _is_ a nuisance; but I know of few earthly enjoyments more gratifying than an argument with a true philosopher.
human
That's wot I says, so I do, out-an'-out, observed Bounce, who had come up unperceived, and had overheard the greater part of the above remarks.
gpt
Jist wot I thinks myself, Mr Bertram, only I couldn't 'xactly put it in the same way, d'ye see? That's wot I calls out-an'-out feelosophy.
human
Glad to hear you're such a wise fellow, said McLeod patronisingly.
gpt
So you agree, of course, with Mr Bertram in condemning the use of the pipe.
human
Condemn the pipe? said Bounce, pulling out his own special favourite and beginning to fill it--
gpt
Well, in regard to that, said Bertram,
human
I firmly believe that men and women are all alike equally obstinate.
gpt
Ha!