you keep your eyes shut."

"But if a man happens to open his eyes, Dinny?"

"He has no right to open them, Phadrick, if he wants to prove the truth
of a thing. I should have said probe--but it does not significate."

"The heavens mark you to grace, Dinny. You did that in brave style.
Phadrick, ahagur, he'll make the darlin' of an arguer whin he gets the
robes an him."

"I don't deny that; he'll be aquil to the best o' thim: still, Denis,
I'd rather, whin I want to pronounce upon colors, that he'd let me keep
my eyes open."

"Ay, but he did it out o' the books, man alive; an' there's no goin'
beyant thim. Sure he could prove it out of the Divinity, if you went
to that. An' what is still more, he could, by shuttin' your eyes, in the
same way prove black to be white, an' white black, jist as asy."

"Surely myself doesn't doubt it. I suppose, by shuttin' my eyes, the
same lad could prove anything to me."

"But, Dinny, avourneen, you didn't prove Phadrick to be an ass yit.
Will you do that by histhory, too, Dinny, or by the norrations of
Illocution?"

"Father, I'm surprised at your gross imperception. Why, man, if you
were not a _rara avis_ of somnolency, a man of most frolicsome
determinations, you'd be able to see that I've proved Phadrick to be an