_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ He must have lived in odd times. In our days he would not have gone far without falling in with a teetotaller, or a decimal coinage man, or a school-for-all man, or a competitive examination man, who would not allow a drayman to lower a barrel into a cellar unless he could expound the mathematical principles by which he performed the operation. _Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Nay, that is all pragmatical fooling. The fooling Jack looked for was jovial fooling, fooling to the top of his bent, excellent fooling, which, under the semblance of folly, was both merry and wise. He did not look for mere unmixed folly, of which there never was a deficiency. The fool he looked for was one which it takes a wise man to make--a Shakespearian fool.{1} 1 OEuvre, ma foi, où n'est facile atteindre: Pourtant qu'il faut parfaitement sage être, Pour le vrai fol bien naïvement feindre. EUTRAPEL, p. 28. _The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ In that sense he might travel far, and return, as he did in his own day, without having found the fool he looked for. _Mr. MacBorrowdale_. A teetotaller! Well! He is the true Heautontimorumenos, the self-punisher, with a jug of toast-and-water for his Christmas wassail. So far his folly is merely pitiable, but his intolerance makes it offensive. He cannot enjoy his own tipple unless he can deprive me of mine. A fox that has lost his tail. There is no tyrant like a thoroughpaced reformer. I drink to his own reformation. _Mr. Gryll._ He is like Bababec's faquir, who sat in a chair full of nails, _pour avoir de la considération._ But the faquir did not want others to do the same. He wanted all the consideration for himself, and kept all the nails for himself. If these meddlers would do the like by their toast-and-water, nobody would begrudge it them. _The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Now, sir, if the man who has fooled the greatest number of persons to the top of their bent were to be adjudged the fittest companion for Jack of Dover, you would find him in a distinguished meddler with everything who has been for half-a-century the merry-andrew of a vast arena, which he calls moral and political science, but which has in it a dash of everything that has ever occupied human thought. _Lord Curryfin._ I know whom you mean; but he is a great man in his way, and has done much good. _The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ He has helped to introduce much change; whether for good or for ill remains to be seen. I forgot he was your lordship's friend. I apologise, and drink to his health. _Lord Curryfin_. Oh! pray, do not apologise to me. I would not have my friendships, tastes, pursuits, and predilections interfere in the slightest degree with the fullest liberty of speech on all persons and things. There are many who think with you that he is a moral and political Jack of Dover. So be it. Time will bring him to his level.