Mr Darnley was not much in the habit of changing his opinion on matters of fact any more than on matters of speculation; and having once felt himself persuaded that Miss Primrose had acted improperly, it was no easy matter for Mr Pringle to bring him to change the view which he had entertained of the young lady's character. Reasoning may be a very fine thing, and logic may be a very fine thing, and facts may be very stubborn things; but neither reasoning nor logic can make a man change his opinion, if he does not like to do so; and there are no facts in the world so stubborn as a conceited man's own stubborn will. Mr Darnley took it for granted that whatever he took for granted must be most incontestably true; and Mr Darnley had taken it for granted that Miss Primrose had not demeaned herself aright, and nothing could convince him to the contrary. He adhered to the general thought, though beaten out of all its particulars. We would not recommend any one who has exalted notions of the power of reasoning and the force of evidence, to endeavour to convince another of any fact or speculation, till that other has shewn symptoms of an inclination to believe such fact or to adopt such theory. It was all in vain that Zephaniah Pringle contended that Miss Primrose could not possibly be living dishonorably with Lord Spoonbill in London, while she was living quietly and reputably with her father at Smatterton. Mr Darnley had made up his mind, and nothing could shake his conclusions. Of some heads it is observed, that you can get nothing into them; of others it may with as much truth be said, that you can get nothing out of them. In this latter predicament was placed the head of the rector of Neverden. When therefore Zephaniah found that no impression was to be made on Mr Darnley, he gave up the discussion, not a little regretting that he himself had, for the sake of gratifying a little vanity in talking about his own intimacy with Lord Spoonbill, done an injury which he could not undo. He began also to fear lest he should be detected and exposed; and under that apprehension he found himself uneasy at Smatterton, and wished that his visit was finished. This served him perfectly right. He had made public talk of what had been told to him in confidence, and as a secret, and he had circulated a calumnious report, careless whether it were true or false, and heedless what injury it might inflict upon innocence, or what misery it might occasion to those concerned. Yet this prodigiously conceited puppy could and did in his critical lucubrations write himself down as being most zealously devoted to the service of religion, and he would make a mighty noise about those most execrable and abominable caitiffs, who presume to question one iota of the faith according to Queen Elizabeth.