Nay withal, stupid as he is, our dear John,--ever, after infinite tumblings, and spoken platitudes innumerable from barrelheads and parliament-benches, he does settle down somewhere about the just conclusion; you are certain that his jumblings and tumblings will end, after years or centuries, in the stable equilibrium. Stable equilibrium, I say; centre-of-gravity lowest;--not the unstable, with centre-of-gravity highest, as I have known it done by quicker people! For indeed, do but jumble and tumble sufficiently, you avoid that worst fault, of settling with your centre-of-gravity highest; your centre-of-gravity is certain to come lowest, and to stay there. If slowness, what we in our impatience call 'stupidity,' be the price of stable equilibrium over unstable, shall we grudge a little slowness? Not the least admirable quality of Bull is, after all, that of remaining insensible to logic; holding out for considerable periods, ten years or more, as in this of the Corn-Laws, after all arguments and shadow of arguments have faded away from him, till the very urchins on the street titter at the arguments he brings. Logic, --[Greek] the 'Art of Speech,'--does indeed speak so and so; clear enough: nevertheless Bull still shakes his head; will see whether nothing else _illogical,_ not yet 'spoken,' not yet able to be 'spoken,' do not lie in the business, as there so often does!--My firm belief is, that, finding himself now enchanted, hand-shackled, foot-shackled, in Poor-Law Bastilles and elsewhere, he will retire three days to his bed, and _arrive_ at a conclusion or two! His three-years total stagnation of trade, alas, is not that a painful enough 'lying in bed to consider himself?' Poor Bull!