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Peacock, Thomas Love, 1785-1866

"Nightmare Abbey"



MARIONETTA
I will take it for granted that it is so, Mr Flosky; I am not
conversant with metaphysical subtleties, but--

MR FLOSKY
Subtleties! my dear Miss O'Carroll. I am sorry to find you
participating in the vulgar error of the _reading public,_ to whom
an unusual collocation of words, involving a juxtaposition of
antiperistatical ideas, immediately suggests the notion of
hyperoxysophistical paradoxology.

MARIONETTA
Indeed, Mr Flosky, it suggests no such notion to me. I have sought you
for the purpose of obtaining information.

MR FLOSKY _(shaking his head)_
No one ever sought me for such a purpose before.

MARIONETTA
I think, Mr Flosky--that is, I believe--that is, I fancy--that is, I
imagine--

MR FLOSKY
The [Greek: toytesti], the _id est_, the _cioe_, the _c'est a dire_,
the _that is_, my dear Miss O'Carroll, is not applicable in this
case--if you will permit me to take the liberty of saying so. Think
is not synonymous with believe--for belief, in many most important
particulars, results from the total absence, the absolute negation of
thought, and is thereby the sane and orthodox condition of mind; and
thought and belief are both essentially different from fancy, and
fancy, again, is distinct from imagination.


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