well. And I find that it explains everything that comes near it. You
know that no engineer would be satisfied with his engine on paper,
nor with any proof whatever except seeing how it will go."

He made no reply.

It is a principle of mine never to push anything over the edge. When
I am successful, in any argument, my one dread is of humiliating my
opponent. Indeed I cannot bear it. It humiliates me. And if you want
him to think about anything, you must leave him room, and not give
him such associations with the question that the very idea of it
will be painful and irritating to him. Let him have a hand in the
convincing of himself. I have been surprised sometimes to see my own
arguments come up fresh and green, when I thought the fowls of the
air had devoured them up. When a man reasons for victory and not for
the truth in the other soul, he is sure of just one ally, the same
that Faust had in fighting Gretchen's brother--that is, the Devil.
But God and good men are against him. So I never follow up a victory
of that kind, for, as I said, the defeat of the intellect is not the
object in fighting with the sword of the Spirit, but the acceptance
of the heart. In this case, therefore, I drew back.

"May I ask for whom you are making that coffin?"

"For a sister of my own, sir."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"There's no occasion. I can't say I'm sorry, though she was one of
the best women I ever knew."